What if the key to unlocking your best surfing isn’t how you ride a wave - but how you read the ocean before you even paddle for it?

Whether you're a seasoned surfer or just stepping up to steeper waves, too many of us overlook the 99% of surfing that happens off the board. In this eye-opening episode, elite surf coach Matt Scorringe shares why ocean knowledge - not tricks or turns - is the hidden edge that separates good surfers from great ones. If you’ve ever felt lost in the lineup, struggled with wave selection, or wondered how top surfers always seem to be in the right spot, this conversation is for you.

Discover the missing piece in most surf coaching: how reading the ocean gives you faster decision-making, greater confidence, and better waves.
Learn how to turn crowded lineups into a game of strategy, not frustration, using Matt’s unique “first line of defense” approach.
Explore how treating the ocean like a playground—not a proving ground - can unlock more joy, progression, and long-term success in your surfing journey.

Hit play now to learn how rethinking your approach to wave reading and lineup dynamics can instantly elevate your surfing experience.

https://www.theartofsurfing.com

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Transcript:

Michael Frampton: yeah, it is. I actually think that most surf courses miss the mark anyway because 99% of your time when you are surfing is not surfing. You are, you're literally paddling around or sitting there reading the ocean, trying to stay focused on the horizon, trying to decipher you look at this little sliver of ocean.

Are you gonna paddle over there to get the wave off the crowd or are you gonna paddle over there? Do you want that wave? What's the wind doing? How many swells are in the water? Like all that stuff that makes you a great surfer. People, people don't focus on it. So I actually, I actually released a course that's all about how to read waves.

There's nothing

Yeah.

To do with basically what happens between when the surfboard is under your arm and under your feet.

Yeah.

Because once you're on to your feet, that's been done to death. And yeah. I wanna segue that into what, in terms of like reading the ocean and reading water, , do you coach people on some of your elites on that sort of stuff?

Do you spend much time on it? What are your thoughts?

Matt Scorringe : Yeah, absolutely. I mean, with regards to like more high performance athletes that I train, you know, there's a clear, difference between those that have, that really do and those that don't. So again, once on feet, both equally fantastic surfers, but one just has a higher level of ocean knowledge and understanding and, and able to read and, you know, you run.

Drill after drill on scenario after scenario and pressure situation after pressure situation and all of that ocean knowledge just, um, you know, means obviously they're gonna read the ocean better, but their confidence is higher and their decision making processes are faster because of the nuances that they're picking up and processing and, and making decisions on to get those waves that go underneath for that wave that didn't look like maybe an opportunity to the other surfer.

Uh, and then if you drop it down to like more of my everyday clientele, uh, and a lot of my online clientele with, you know, the, the academy membership or my remote coaching, um, a massive part of what I try and get them to do is actually film more of them. With, uh, a camera that's like not on wave, just them roaming the ocean and, and looking to catch waves.

So, you know, zoom it out, push record and let it sit there and have your GPS tracker. And it's amazing what learnings come from that, that you can just pick up, um, that you wouldn't otherwise. And yeah, it's a huge, huge pillar that is really overlooked in most coaching scenarios. Uh, and if you've got someone on a one on one lesson for an hour and a half, like there's only so much you can do in that time, right?

Like, hey, this is the day's conditions, this is where the rip is, this is the kind of, you know, the period. And, um, this is kind of where the bank is. , And you can assess what you, you might want to in that moment, but really you're getting such a small snapshot of the, their, their decision making and their, their ocean knowledge.

, So I, I really enjoy having more of a longer. Time with my remote coaching clientele to actually assess that, give them, you know, training drills and strategies and games. I, I call them games to play, and then they can go out and start to do their own assessments of those outcomes. And that's really my ultimate goal is to teach self-assessment.

, And to play with different, different, uh, strategies in the ocean to, to learn, you know, I mean, when we're kids, we learn about the ocean through play. Like we're jumping in the shore break, we're swimming in the rip, we're, you know, boogie boarding along closeouts with the boys and you know, that's where you understand all of those, those things that the ocean, uh, teach you.

Michael Frampton: , Yeah. Most great surfers had that childhood early on where they, yeah, there was no pressure to even stand up on a surfboard. It's just, just messing around in the ocean. Yeah, makes me think of Wingnut. I interviewed Wingnut a few years ago and he didn't start surfing till he was 17, and I thought that that's such a unique case.

Someone's starting surfing so late and becoming so good at it. That didn't make sense to me. I almost didn't believe him. But then he told me he had been body surfing since he was five, and I was like, ah, of course. Yeah, you've got already got the wave, the wave knowledge, the, the way you read water is already there.

That's, that's your fundamental school. You're comfortable in the ocean. 'cause surfing, when you think about it, one, once you're on your feet, it's not actually that hard. I mean, look at, look at someone like OIE who barely even, and John, John too. They barely move their bodies at all, right? Yeah, yeah. Kelly's unique.

He moves his body all over the place. But someone like AKI is just that, that those subtle movements of changes of balance and direction and it's amazing how you technically, you could be really stiff and inflexible. And not move that much and still be a great surfer, but only if you can stand, get to your feet in the right part of the wave on a good wave with, and then have good timing.

And it all essentially comes from reading, reading the ocean and being comfortable in the ocean.

Matt Scorringe : Yeah, no, I, I, I agree. I mean, really when you distill, uh, technical surfing on a wave, and sometimes, you know, I, with the, the profession I'm in and other coaches you are sort of, do people not see how simple this technical piece is that they're missing?

Right. And obvi...

129 Lineup Strategy, Surfing Technique and Reading the Ocean with Surf Coach Matt Scorringe