How to: teach your groms to surf

Surfer and mum to two boys (now in their teens), Jane Seman says the key is to let kids build confidence in the water from a young age.

“I took up surfing in my twenties, but my boys have been at the beach with me since they were born and have always played in the waves and the ocean – they got their first boogie board when they were about five years old, first foamy at four and six, and their first fibreglass board when they turned seven,” Jane says. Now, Jane and her boys go out surfing together all the time and surf the same waves.

“Between the three of us, one always wants to go surfing and we amp each other up.” Jane’s advice is to start with letting kids get comfortable in the water at their own pace, then introduce some sort of board like a boogie board. Also let them get smashed in the waves without boards at Rivermouth and at Gnarabup.

“My boys have always just loved the wipe outs, they come away laughing, they’ve always really enjoyed getting tumbled in the ocean – they think it’s awesome. It’s an early experience of playing in shore dumps, getting smashed, having a ball. Their memories and experience of that are positive which help them learn and understand the ocean. It’s also important not to push them too hard to surf straight away. Let them learn, get confident and have fun in the ocean first and it doesn’t matter if they are surfing or not.”

Jane, who incidentally finished second in the Pro Women’s division in the 2022 International Windsurfing Tour Wave Tour (while her then 15-year-old son Jake, placed third in the Youth section of the tournament), says both of her boys did surf lessons with Josh through their school.

“Sometimes kids will listen to a coach or teacher – someone that isn’t mum or dad,” Josh says. “Gaining confidence and learning about ocean safety is hugely important in a place like Margs where the surf breaks are famous for being big, powerful and raw, one reason why it’s on the World Surf League Championship Tour, the sport’s top tier. And there’s a lot of deep water out there.”

“For beginners and first timers, we go into a beach break situation, the Margaret Rivermouth, Grunters beach, where there’s no rocks. When it’s big everywhere else, Gnarabup Beach has waist high waves which is perfect for beginners. Intermediate surfers go to the same beaches, as well as reef breaks like Huzzas, inside Grunters on the reef, and the advanced surfers, well, they can do anywhere,” Josh says.

Jane says that once the kids have some ocean confidence, start slowly and start surfing small waves. “When they are really little, Joey’s Nose at Kilcarnup (accessed via 4WD track) is great, it has a sandy bottom and is really shallow,” says Jane. “Inside Grunters is awesome, it’s almost so small that most adults don’t go there, it peels really well, perfect little reef break, one of the best.”

• Rivermouth
• Redgate
• Grunters
• Huzza’s

• Slowly build up confidence by letting them play
• Teach them about ocean safety
• Enrol them into a few lessons with the professionals