How to Improve Surfing Faster in 2025.

Whether you’re an advanced surfer ripping the line-up or just taking your first steps, the journey to becoming better at surfing doesn’t have to take years of trial and error. In 2025, a new trend in surf coaching is gaining momentum — and based on the experience of our guests at Tiny Whale Surf Lodge, we can confidently say it works. One of the best parts? Many of its insights can be applied wherever you are, even from your room, miles away from the ocean. Here’s how surfers are unlocking their full potential faster than ever.

1. Small Groups, Big Progress: 

Let’s start with the basics: the coach-to-surfer ratio. If you’re in a group of ten chasing the same peak with one instructor yelling from the inside, you're not learning much. Small group coaching — we’re talking no more than four surfers per coach — changes the game. It creates space for real feedback, in real time, with someone who’s dialed into your specific habits and goals. You get more waves, more coaching, and a whole lot more out of every session.

2. Video Coaching: Your Surfing, Unfiltered

You think you’re compressing on that bottom turn. Then you see the footage and your knees haven’t bent since the paddle-out. Video analysis removes the guesswork. It’s uncomfortable at first (yes, we all flail more than we think), but it’s also one of the fastest ways to improve. When you can actually see what your body is doing on a wave, change happens quicker. Way quicker.

3. Surfskate: Reps You Won’t Get in the Water

Waves don’t give second chances. But a surfskate does. On land, you can repeat your functional stance, pump, cutbacks, bottom turns, and flow transitions as many times as your legs will allow. And it’s not just repetition, it’s about refining movement patterns, locking in timing, and building the kind of muscle memory that translates directly to your surfing. It's the closest thing to a cheat code for progression, and you can do it anywhere.

4. Surf Theory & Workshops: Know What You're Doing (and Why)

Some surfers spend years frustrated, not because they lack talent, but because they don’t fully understand how surfing works. How a wave breaks. How to read the forecast. What board to use for what. Where to sit. When to shift weight. Why your board responds (or doesn’t). A little theory goes a long way. Good coaching now includes land-based workshops that break all this down, in plain English. No fluff, just the info that makes things click.

5. Surf Mobility & Simulations: Move Better, Surf Better

You can’t move like a surfer if your body won’t let you. Mobility work used to be an afterthought, but now it’s front and center. Surf-specific movement sessions focus on dynamic technique (literally as if you were surfing on your carpet). It might look a bit strange, but the muscle memory you build will make you more focused and agile in the water, even overtaking friends who, for now, surf better than you. Think of it as both prehab and rehab — soft, surf-oriented stretching that keeps your body loose, ready, and in the game longer.

Final Thoughts

Surfing is a tough sport to master, we all know that. But following these steps and taking them serious, will make you surf better, faster. No matter your level, this holistic approach is what’s helping surfers make real, lasting progress, not just good sessions here and there.

Because progression shouldn’t depend on perfect conditions or luck. It should come from understanding your body, your board, and the wave — and putting the right systems in place to improve, every time you paddle out.