At first glance, skateboarding and surfing look very similar. They’re both board based, they both require exceptional balance and spatial awareness, and they both require years of practice to perfect. However, there has been a decent amount of debate over the years regarding which of the two sports is more difficult to learn and master. Well, that’s the topic we’re here to discuss.
Although these two sports might seem incredibly similar there are a lot of different skills required for each of them. Disregarding the basics, the hardest things about skateboarding are the tricks and obstacles. Jumping, flipping, and kicking with a board take a lot of precision and accurate timing. You need to understand all of the technical aspects of performing a trick before you’re able to execute it. Because the board isn’t attached to your feet it’s very easy for it to get away from you in the middle of a trick, so your control of the board needs to be tight and you need to always be aware of where your board is and where it will go. The size of the board in particular makes this a challenge for young learners. A skateboard is a small target to land on and it can very easily slip out from under you if you don’t have absolute control. An inch to the left or right can make a big difference and if you can’t keep your weight centred you most likely won’t stay on for very long. It takes a lot of practice and, on certain obstacles, can be quite dangerous.
Surfing, on the other hand, has very different challenges that come with trying to master it. Tricks don’t play much of a part in surfing, so most of the difficulty lies in being able to stay on your board. A surfboard is a lot bigger than a skateboard which means that a lot more strength is required to take control of it. Whereas turning on a skateboard can be done quite easily, turning on a surfboard requires almost every muscle in your body and all of your weight. Another challenge that comes with learning how to surfboard is how to read the environment. On a skateboard you can clearly see and analyse your environment because, most of the time, it’s stationary. On a surfboard your environment is constantly moving. You have no way of predicting how a wave will move or what will happen in the water, so you need to rely on quick thinking and the ability to notice subtle cues in the water that will tell you when and how the wave will break.
Overall, both sports are difficult to master, but what makes surfing slight more difficult is the learning process. A skateboarder can access the road almost any time and can practice skateboarding whenever they want, but a surf-boarder has limited resources and specific requirements to meet. They can’t just take out their board and surf whenever they want. They need to get a wet-suit, carry their board to the beach, get in the water, and they have to wait for the right wave and catch it quickly. Even when surf-boarders start learning there’s no way to practice without literally throwing themselves in the deep end and the ocean can be incredibly dangerous. This is why skateboarders can learn the basics in a matter of months while surf-boarders take years. So, surfboarding is harder because the environment is unpredictable
I agree with a lot of what is said in this article. I have only tried surfing a few times. I also snowboarded for a number of years and tried my hand at wakeboarding a few times. In terms of street skateboarding, I did that for about 3-5 hours every day throughout all of my teenage years and a bit beyond. I pretty much gave my life to it, enjoyed it immensely, was sponsored, etc. I see it mentioned in articles that discuss/debate this matter that surfing may be harder with regard to the fact that no two waves or surf locales are the same. I will say this: there are likewise an infinite number of street spots for skateboarding, and a huge variety of different types of “obstacles”, including but not limited to flatground, hips, ledges, banks, flat rails, hand rails, manual pads, combinations thereof, etc. And all of the related terrains can be very different: concrete, brick, cobblestone, aggregate, cracks/no cracks, granite/metal/concrete/beveled ledges, … Not to mention, the number of flip tricks, grinds/slides (on the tail, on the nose, on the wheels, and even on the grip), combinations thereof, etc. There’s regular, there’s fakie, there’s nollie, there’s switch stance, there’s frontside, there’s backside, … Just being able to half-way land, say, a kickflip in a sloppy way for the very first time is beyond what the typical athletic person can even achieve by practicing for literally months every single day. Mastering a consistent kickflip that is high, clean, etc., even on just flatground, takes several years. Skateboarding is extremely difficult. You have to be extremely persistent to even half-way master 10 different types of flip tricks, grinds, slides, etc. As well, even as of the mid 90s, to be a decent skater, you have to be just as good at your regular stance as you are at switch stance (I don’t know if that’s a thing in surfing, too). I will say that one area where surfing is likely harder than skating is that it may require more overall strength and physical endurance–the paddling, the swimming, etc, are indeed intense. They’re both difficult sports, but in different ways. I do believe that in terms of technical difficulty, street skateboarding is the harder of the two. But, alas, I am biased.