Better surfing starts with better training.Surf, surfskate and surf strength coaching, on the concrete, online, or for a week.
You already put in the work. You just need to know exactly what to work on.
Your coachVasco RodriguesSport scientist and physiologist. Surf, surfskate and surf fitness coach. The only official Carver Skateboards coach in Europe and Surfset Fitness Master Trainer.
You've asked yourself that walking up the beach. Here's the answer nobody gives you: count the waves you actually rode last year. If you don't live next to the ocean it's two weeks, maybe three. Forty decent waves a trip if the swell turns up at all. Nobody learns a movement in forty repetitions a year, so you come home, it fades, and twelve months later you paddle out and start from the same place. That isn't a talent problem. It's an exposure problem, and it's fixable.
A surfer who lives on the coast gets your whole year in a fortnight. You're not worse than them. You've had a fraction of the attempts, and skill is built on attempts.
"Bend your knees. Look where you're going." True, generic, and impossible to act on if it isn't your actual problem. You've never had someone tell you what your mistake is.
A late read puts you in the wrong place on the wave, and then the take-off, the turn and the exit all look broken. So you drill the turn for a year and nothing changes.
A better day and a better surfer feel identical from the inside. Without footage from before and after, you're guessing, and most of the time you're guessing wrong.
Forty-eight weeks a year you're not in the water. That time is either dead or it's where you get better, and there are exactly two things that work on dry land.
Surfskate gives you the movement — the rail, the compression, the timing of a turn — at a volume the ocean will never hand you. Surf strength training gives you the paddle capacity and the legs that decide how many waves you catch once you're there. Do both and the next trip starts where the last one ended, instead of two steps behind it. This is the part almost nobody trains, and it's the part we build everything around.
Improving your surfing doesn't mean trying to fix everything at once. It means understanding where you are, knowing what is limiting your progression, and having a clear next step.
We take you through that process: analyse your surfing, identify the priority, build the right exercises and training around it, then use your next surf to see what changed. Then you do it again.
You don't need to guess what to work on next. You have a method to follow.
Three ways in. The Concrete Surfers Training Method is the roadmap.
Small groups on the concrete, four people maximum, every other week. The same mechanics the retreats and the online work are built on. You don't need to surf, and you don't need a board.
Send us footage of your surfing and we tell you what is holding your progression back. You come away knowing what is happening, what to work on, and where to focus next. Then go further: a full diagnostic, coached surf strength and conditioning, or The Concrete Program, twelve weeks built around your level, your physical ability and the waves you are preparing for.
Eight people maximum, a coach watching every session. The Confident Surfer works on fear and the head alongside the surfing. Sri Lanka is warm water and long rides with real coaching. Surfskate weeks are in development.
Not sure where you fit? Answer the one question below and we'll tell you which of the three we'd point you at, including when the answer is none of them.
Pick the one that sounds most like you. Five seconds.
Most likely holding you back
Most surfers stuck here land with their weight too far back. The board stalls, the nose lifts, and the wave is gone before you're standing. It's one of the quickest things to change, because you can train it on land before you next paddle out.
What I'd point you atA retreatYou need water time and someone watching every wave. A week does more here than a year of guessing.
Take me thereMost likely holding you back
You're paddling for waves that had already passed their moment, or from a spot that never gave you a chance. Learn where the wave will break and when to be there, and the green waves you keep missing start becoming yours.
What I'd point you atA retreatWave reading is learned in the water, repeatedly, with someone calling it with you.
Take me thereMost likely holding you back
Riding straight down the line usually means the board is being pushed rather than leaned. This is the thing surfskate develops fastest — on concrete an unloaded rail tells you immediately, and once your body knows the difference, the turn you've been chasing is there.
What I'd point you atSurfskate classesThis is the one level where concrete beats water for speed of change.
Take me thereMost likely holding you back
You lose speed on the way out and the next section arrives with nothing to work with. Get the exit right and the whole wave links up. This needs your own footage looked at properly, because the fault is a fraction of a second long.
What I'd point you atThe DiagnosticSend footage. This is exactly what the diagnostic is for.
Take me thereMost likely holding you back
At this level the movement is usually there and the timing isn't — you read the section a beat late, so the manoeuvre happens in the flats instead of the pocket. That's trainable, but high performance isn't our focus and you'd be better served by a specialist.
What I'd point you atThe SnapshotSend one wave anyway. If it isn't for us I'll tell you straight and point you somewhere better.
Get your SnapshotThe numbers are real and the retreats sell out.
"The daily video analysis helped me see what I have to change in the water. Learning the movements on the surfskate first and then transferring them really helped me improve in one week."
Nicole, 36 — Switzerland
"His instructions were clear, he demonstrated and feedback was by video analysis. I went away with a lot to work on and exercises to help. Very precise and structured."
Jamie — UK
"Understood where my weight should be, when to compress and extend. Arm positioning. Now I feel better equipped for bowl training."
Sina, 41 — Germany
Eight people maximum and a coach watching every session. Three different weeks, because they are not after the same thing.
English and Portuguese. Most clients come from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands — everything runs fully in English.
Portugal, between Lisbon, Cascais, Costa da Caparica and Lagos. Coaching runs worldwide online, and workshops travel across Europe.
Everything here comes to the same place, and you'll hear back within 24 hours. 48 for a Snapshot, because we watch the clip before replying. If your answer needs footage, the form will ask you for a link, nothing to upload.
We train on Carver. Vasco is the only official Carver Skateboards coach in Europe, and the drills in the method are built around their trucks.
And we got you the best deal on one — CARVERXCSC15! takes 15% off at carver-skateboards.eu
