How Surf Coaching with Miguel Rodríguez at Carving Began

The incorporation of Miguel Rodríguez into Carving Social Club marked an important step in how we began working with surfers who already had autonomy in the water and wanted to go beyond a conventional lesson.

Until then, we had been using tools such as surfskate, off-water training, and technical analysis for years to try to better understand surfing. Working with Miguel allowed us to take that idea to a much more specific level in the water.

Why Miguel Rodríguez?

Miguel arrived with a career built around surfing from different perspectives: as a surfer, coach, and instructor.

He is a national and international Level II surf coach, national judge, sports trainer, and aquatic lifeguard, in addition to having worked for over a decade with surfers of various levels.

Among the athletes he has worked with are surfers such as Alex Baudin, Daniela Boldini, and Paolo Giorgio, with experience in national and regional competitions.

Photo: @patassat

The goal was not to add another surf lesson

From the beginning, we were clear that working with Miguel should occupy a different space.

Technical training is aimed at surfers who can already manage themselves in the water and want to pay more attention to what they do on the board.

It's not just about getting in the water more often, but about observing what is happening, identifying what might be limiting your surfing, and deciding where it's worth focusing.

Seeing a wave from the outside changes many things

One of the tools that began to gain more weight in these sessions was video.

While surfing, you may have a certain feeling about your position, your gaze, or a movement. When you see the same wave from the outside, information appears that is very difficult to perceive in the water.

The work then begins to follow a fairly simple cycle:

surf → observe → understand → work on something specific → return to the water.

This process continues to be one of the foundations of our current technical training.

The surfskate also found its place within the process

Carving had been using the surfskate as a tool related to surfing for many years. With technical training, it began to integrate even more into specific work.

When a movement can be better understood out of the water, the surfskate allows it to be isolated, repeated, and provides a different reference before trying it again on a wave.

It does not replace surfing. It is just another tool when it helps to understand something we want to take to the water afterwards.

From the first Surf Coaching to current Technical Training

The first sessions with Miguel were born as Surf Coaching in El Palmar and were aimed at individuals with autonomy who wanted to unlock aspects of their surfing or work in a more specific way.

Over time, this work evolved into the Surf Coaching programs we currently organize, both in individual sessions and intensive multi-day formats.

Two ways to train with Miguel

You can currently work with Miguel in two ways:

• Surf Coaching, for occasional sessions or to maintain a process throughout the season.
• Surf Coaching Camps, to concentrate the work over several days and be able to return to the water after each analysis.

In both cases, the starting point is the same: you already surf on your own and want to better understand what you are doing to decide what is worth working on next.

A fairly natural evolution for Carving

Miguel's arrival did not mean changing our way of understanding surfing, but rather deepening something we had been seeking for years: connecting what happens in and out of the water so that learning makes more sense.

Surfskate, video, observation, technique, and reading the sea are tools. What remains important is using them when they help make the next surf session more meaningful than the last.