What’s your surf level? From your first wave to surfing independently

Ask five surfers what an intermediate surfer is and you might get five different answers. One person will tell you that being able to stand up consistently makes you intermediate, while someone else thinks you should be confidently surfing unbroken waves, making turns and choosing your own position in the line-up. The truth is that surf levels aren't an exact science. There is no official test you pass and no certificate that suddenly changes you from beginner to intermediate. Still, understanding roughly where you are in your surfing journey is useful. It helps you choose the right waves, surf spots, equipment and coaching, and it prevents you from ending up in conditions that are simply too difficult for your current experience.

At Surf With Aldo, we don't determine someone's surf level by asking only whether they can stand up. We look at the complete picture. Can you paddle efficiently and catch a wave without being pushed? Can you recognise which waves are suitable for you? Can you paddle out independently and position yourself in a line-up? Do you understand priority and basic surf etiquette? Can you control your board when other surfers are around you? All of these things matter because standing on a surfboard is only one part of learning to surf.

Level 1: Catching your first waves

Everyone starts here. Maybe you've never touched a surfboard before, or perhaps you tried surfing once on holiday and mostly remember swallowing seawater. Your first sessions are about becoming comfortable with the board and the ocean while learning the basic movements you need to catch and ride a wave. Before entering the water, you'll normally learn how to position yourself on the board, how to paddle, how to pop up and how to fall safely. In the water, you'll usually begin in manageable conditions where you can practise on already broken waves, commonly called whitewater.

At this stage, your instructor is still doing a lot of the decision-making for you. They choose suitable waves, help position your board, tell you when to paddle and may give you a push to help you catch the wave. That allows you to concentrate on your technique without having to understand everything that's happening around you at the same time. Your first goal is simply to connect all those instructions with the feeling of a moving board underneath you. Standing up for the first time is a huge milestone, but it doesn't mean you're suddenly ready to surf independently. You're learning the foundations on which everything else will eventually be built.

Level 2: Learning to catch waves yourself

Once the basic movements start feeling familiar, the next step is becoming less dependent on your instructor. Instead of waiting for someone to position and push your board, you'll start learning how to paddle effectively, feel when a wave is approaching and catch more waves yourself. You'll also begin to understand that not every wave is a good wave to paddle for. Some will break too early, some won't break at all, and some simply aren't right for where you're sitting. Learning to recognise those differences is one of the first steps towards actually reading the ocean rather than just reacting to instructions.

Depending on your progress and the conditions, this is also the stage where you may start moving beyond the whitewater and catching your first unbroken, or green, waves. That transition is bigger than many beginners expect. A broken wave can carry you forward even when your positioning and timing aren't perfect, while an unbroken wave requires you to be much more precise. You need enough paddle speed, you need to be in the right place and you need to start moving at the right moment. Your pop-up might be exactly the same movement you've already practised dozens of times, but suddenly there is much more happening around it.

Level 3: Moving into the line-up

As you progress, surfing becomes much less about whether you can stand up and much more about whether you can make decisions independently. You begin learning how to paddle through the break, where to position yourself and how to recognise the area where the waves are actually forming. A difference of only a few metres can determine whether you catch a wave perfectly, watch it roll underneath you or suddenly find yourself much further inside than you intended. This is also when you start learning to angle your take-off and ride along the open face of the wave rather than simply travelling straight towards the beach.

Being in a line-up also means sharing the ocean with other surfers, so surf etiquette becomes increasingly important. You need to understand who has priority on a wave, why you shouldn't drop in on someone who is already surfing it and where to paddle when another surfer is coming towards you. You also need enough control over your board to avoid becoming a danger to yourself or the people around you. These skills might not look as impressive in a holiday photo as standing on a wave, but they are a major part of becoming a capable surfer. Surfing independently means understanding what is happening around you, not just what is happening underneath your own board.

Level 4: Becoming an intermediate surfer

The word intermediate gets used very easily in surfing, especially when booking lessons or choosing surf spots while travelling. For us, independence is much more useful than a label. An intermediate surfer should be able to paddle out independently in appropriate conditions, position themselves in a line-up, choose and catch unbroken waves and understand the basic rules of priority. They should also be able to ride along the face of a wave and start using turns, positioning and speed intentionally rather than simply trying to remain standing until the wave ends.

At this stage, coaching changes too. You no longer need someone to explain every part of the process, so there is more time to focus on the details that are limiting your progression. That could be your take-off, wave selection, body position, speed generation or turns. It is also completely normal for progress to feel slower than it did during your first few sessions. As a beginner, going from falling off to standing up feels like an enormous improvement. Later, the changes become smaller and more technical. You might spend an entire session working on positioning and catch fewer waves than you did before, yet still come out of the water as a better surfer.

Level 5: Advanced surfing

Advanced surfers are comfortable in a much wider range of waves and conditions and have a strong understanding of both surfing technique and the ocean itself. At this level, coaching becomes highly individual. Instead of learning how to surf, you're refining specific parts of your surfing, such as generating more speed, making stronger turns, improving positioning, choosing better waves or developing particular manoeuvres. Board choice also becomes more specific because you understand how different shapes and volumes affect the way you surf.

One of the most important differences between an experienced surfer and an inexperienced one is not necessarily how impressive they look on a wave. Experience also means understanding your own limits. An advanced surfer can arrive at a surf spot, observe the tide, swell, wind, current and crowd and decide that today isn't the right day to paddle out. Being capable of surfing difficult waves doesn't mean every difficult wave is automatically a good idea. Knowing when not to surf is part of knowing how to surf.

Your surf level can change from one spot to another

A surf level isn't something you can apply blindly to every beach in the world. You might feel completely comfortable at your home break and suddenly feel far less confident somewhere with a stronger current, different bottom, faster waves or a crowded line-up. This is particularly relevant when travelling through Indonesia, where two surf spots relatively close to each other can behave very differently. Experience on small beach-break waves, for example, doesn't automatically prepare you for a faster reef break.

That's why telling your instructor that you're an intermediate surfer is useful, but describing what you can actually do is much more helpful. Tell us whether you can catch green waves independently, whether you can go left and right, what kind of waves you normally surf, what board you usually ride and whether you've surfed reef breaks before. From there, we can choose conditions and coaching that actually match your experience rather than relying on a label.

So, what surf level are you?

Don't worry too much about fitting yourself perfectly into one category. Surf levels are useful as a starting point, not as a badge you need to earn. If you've never surfed before, we start with the basics. If you can catch whitewater independently but unbroken waves still feel mysterious, that's what we'll work on next. If you're already comfortable in a line-up, we can look more closely at your technique and find the areas where you can progress.

At Surf With Aldo, we coach surfers from their very first wave through to advanced surfing in Canggu, Bali and Kuta, Lombok. The important thing isn't what you call your level when you arrive. It's understanding where you are now and what the next step in your surfing should be.