I got a little cocky, though, and started riding waves in areas that were a little too close to the shore and rocks and got banged up...   That was a bunch of years ago.  After that, I was a little gun shy and didn't board for a long time.  So, this entry on my list of things to do was after all of that.

Now, what I can pass on about learning to board is as follows:

The first most important thing to do when attempting to catch a wave is to position oneself in front of the wave and keep your board pointing a bit upward.  If you point it downward, esp on a larger wave, you'll go down into the wave and tumble around a lot!  That's what happened to me several years ago...

Secondly, if lifeguards warn not to get in the water because of rip tides or because the waves are a little too large, heed their warnings.  Fortunately, I never had any issues in this area...

One other thing I would like to pass on:  some types of waves are easier than others to catch.  Some are just really hard.  Some are easy to catch if you have fins.  A good example of this is San Diego...  

Most of the waves I rode there are very long and smooth and nearly impossible to catch without fins.  They just simply won't "push" you fast enough for you to catch them.  But if you have fins, you can catch the waves way back and stay in front of them enough to get a nice long ride...

OK, that's about it for a basic description of boarding...

Try it, it's a blast!