Trim before anything else
Everyone wants to learn to cross-step to the nose. Almost nobody can hold a trim line first, and without that the walking is pointless — you get to the front of a board that is already stalling.
So the first two hours are about finding and holding the fastest line across the face, using weight rather than turns. It is subtle, it is not photogenic, and it is the whole foundation.
Cross-stepping
Once you can trim, walking is mostly a nerve problem. The technique itself is simple — step across, not along; stay low; keep your eyes down the line. What stops people is that moving forward on a board feels like it should make you fall, and for the first twenty attempts it does.
Why this coast suits it
A lot of California surfing is fast and hollow. Bolinas is neither. The wave here rolls rather than breaks, gives you a long shoulder, and is patient with mistakes. If you learned on shortboards somewhere punchier, the adjustment is real and worth making.
- Long, gentle walls that reward speed generated by weight rather than by turning.
- A sandy bottom, so falling forward off the nose costs you nothing.
- A generally relaxed lineup that is not hostile to people obviously practising.
- Best on a small to medium swell, which is most of the year here.
Bring your own log if you have one
We provide boards, but if you own a longboard you should bring it. Half of longboarding is knowing your particular board.s pivot point, and that is not transferable.
What this clinic is not
It is not a beginner course. You need to be able to paddle out, catch an unbroken wave and ride along it before any of this makes sense. If you are not there yet, do the First Wave course or a couple of private sessions first — you will get far more out of this later.
