Winning a Heat Is a Psychology Problem
We've watched it happen from the beach more times than we can count. A surfer takes off on the first wave of a heat, blows the bottom turn, kicks out embarrassed, and paddles back out rattled. Two minutes later they blow the next wave too, even though it was actually a better wave than the first one. The horn goes and they finish outside the results, wondering what went wrong.
Ask them afterwards and they'll usually blame the waves, nerves, or the judges, or reckon the other surfer in their heat was just on form that day. New research says they're looking in the wrong place.
A 2023 study out of the University of Groningen looked at more than 6,500 individual waves ridden across 445 heats on the world tour. The researchers wanted to know if pressure, the kind everyone assumes causes a "choke," was really what made surfers perform worse in big moments. It turned out pressure on its own barely made a difference. Whether it was an early round or a final, the pressure of the situation wasn't what caused a bad wave.
What caused a bad wave was something much simpler: making a mistake on the wave before it. A blown take-off, a fall, a wave that fizzled out, it didn't matter what the mistake was. Once it happened, it carried into the next wave. And that was true for the best surfers in the world just as much as it was for the surfers ranked at the bottom of the draw. Being better at surfing didn't stop anyone's last mistake from following them into their next wave.
That's useful to know whether you're chasing a world title or just surfing a boardriders comp on a Sunday morning at your local. There are more than 250 boardriders clubs across Australia, and more than 80 of them compete against each other every year in the Australian Boardriders Battle. A lot of Sunshine Coast surfers are dealing with exactly this problem most weekends without realising it. What separates a good heat from a bad one isn't only about picking the right wave or having the best turns. It's about how quickly you can let go of the wave you just messed up and paddle out with a clear head for the next one.
Here's the hard part. You can't practise that skill by doing more physically or by picturing your heat in your head the night before. A 2024 study looked at how surfers actually get better at competing, not just at surfing, and found that training only works when it copies the real pressure of a heat: a set number of waves, a clock running out, a score on the line. The researchers were blunt about it. Practising your pop-up on a skateboard or a trampoline might help your technique, but it won't teach you what it feels like watching your competitor go past on a good wave while the clock ticks down after you went a bad one. That feeling is the real challenge, and the only way to get better at handling it is to be put in that exact situation, again and again, until it stops rattling you.
Training the mind, not just the body.
Heat Analysis Intensive
This is exactly what our Heat Analysis Intensive is built around. We put a small group of boardriders, club-level surfers and above through a set of real, judged heats. Every wave gets filmed, and every heat is properly scored on the beach by a Surfing Australia judge. Afterwards we sit down and watch it back together. You get to see, in your own footage, what actually happens forty seconds after you blow a wave. Did you paddle straight back into position, or did you drift? Did you start picking worse waves out of frustration? Chances are you did exactly what the study found most surfers do without even noticing.
It's a small group by design, because the value is in watching the footage back properly, not in how many people are on the beach. If you already compete at club or interclub level and keep finishing heats wondering how you let a good position slip away in the closing minutes, this is built for that exact problem. It's less about becoming a better surfer and more about learning how to actually surf a heat.
We're not saying nerves don't exist. Anyone who's sat in the sand before their heat with their stomach in knots knows they do. But the research is a good reminder that nerves usually aren't what actually beats you. It's the wave you already messed up, still sitting in your head when the next set rolls through. That's the part worth training
Get in touch or check the website for current availability if you want in on the next Heat Analysis Intensive. www.scelitesurfing.com
Sources:
Klingner, F.C., et al. (2023). "The heat is on: Investigating the effect of psychological pressure on competitive performance in elite surfing." Journal of Sports Sciences. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2023.2230032
Dann, R., Duhig, S., Roberts, L., Kelly, V., Renshaw, I., & Headrick, J. (2024). "A principled approach to skill acquisition in competitive surfing: Embracing representative learning design." International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17479541241279044
Surfing Australia. "Australian Boardriders Battle 13th Season Now Officially Underway." https://surfingaustralia.com/australian-boardriders-battle-13th-season-now-officially-underway/
