Is Watching Surfing the Key to Getting Better?

Why Watching Surfing Makes You a Better Surfer

Most surfers think improvement only happens in the water. The logic makes sense: paddle out more, catch more waves, and your surfing will improve. However, there is another beneficial practice that many surfers overlook. That is: watching surfing.

Watching skilled surfers, whether it’s a contest, a surf clip, or someone surfing well at your local break, can improve your surfing in ways people don’t always realize. It helps with inspiration, visualization, and learning to notice the small details that actually make a difference.

Inspiration Keeps You Experimenting

Surfing improvement rarely happens in a straight line. Some sessions feel great and everything clicks, while other days nothing seems to work. Watching good surfing can reset your mindset during those bleak moments. Seeing someone surf a wave well reminds you what’s possible and often makes you want to paddle out and try new things. You might push harder on a turn, plan a trip to a new wave, surf a different board, or go for a section you’d normally avoid.

This kind of inspiration matters because it keeps you experimenting. Without it, it’s easy to fall into the same habits every session and feel discouraged. Watching great surfing expands what you think is possible on a wave. You don’t need to copy everything you see, but the exposure keeps you curious, excited, and open to trying new approaches.

Visualization Helps Your Brain Prepare

Visualization, or ‘mental imagery’ is a practice widely used in sports. It is a method that improves technique by replicating the sensory experience of a desired outcome. Professional athletes often use this technique to rehearse maneuvers, build confidence, and manage anxiety. 

It works the same way for surfing. When you watch a surfer execute a clean bottom turn or a smooth cutback, your brain begins building a mental map of that movement. You start to see the timing, the body position, and the line they draw on the wave. Later, you process what you saw, and maybe even imagine yourself executing those moves. Then, the next time you paddle into a wave, those images have primed you for what you want to do. Instead of guessing your next movements, you will have something to reference.

Over time, you build a mental library of movements and timing so that when the right section appears on a wave, your brain already recognizes the opportunity and knows what your body has to do. 

Watching Reveals the Missed Details 

When you watch surfing carefully, you can begin to notice details that are easy to miss during your own sessions. While you’re surfing, most of your attention is focused on catching the wave and staying on the wave. 

So when you watch others surf, you might notice how foot positioning impacts speed generation, maybe you’ll spot a style you would like to embody, or maybe you’ll pick up a trick or two for paddling and wave positioning. Watching other surfers, especially good surfers, can give you the perspective and time to notice the things that you may be too occupied to notice when you’re the one surfing the wave. 

Learn Without Comparing Yourself

But beware: watching professional surfers can sometimes lead to the wrong mindset if you start comparing yourself directly to them. That is why it is vital to remember that the goal isn’t to surf like a world tour competitor, but instead use the example as inspiration, motivation, and a reference for your own surf style and progress. 

The Value of Watching Surfing

Improvement in surfing will always depend mostly on time in the water. But watching surfing can support that process in a powerful way. It keeps you inspired to try new things, it helps your brain visualize better technique, and it trains your eye to recognize the patterns that lead to good waves and better performance.

Sometimes the ideas that lead to your best waves start before you paddle out. Sometimes they start by watching surfing more carefully.

Enter the Basis Paddle Trainer.

I've gone months without surfing and rolled up to pumping swell and surfed 3 hr sessions, multiple times a day, day after day after day, by using the Basis Paddle Trainer.

Train anytime, anywhere, so you can catch more waves and have more fun.

Unlike elastic resistance bands, swimming in the pool, or funky gym workouts these things actually work.

Shipping globally now! www.surfbasis.com

For a deep dive customer testimonial from one of our early beta testers check out: