I was recently reading the surfing forum and the aforementioned topic took my interest. Here is one of the posts which I thought was quite good:

Doctor said...

1... stay away from other surfers... simple enough, you'll just be in the way and a danger for everybody including yourself

2... don't get out of your depth too soon, like i said before, stick to easy waves, small swell, high tide, onshore beach breaks are the best for learning, let whitewash be your friend, it will give you a ride long enough to work out how to get to your feet. you're a learner so get a learners board, you can always upgrade later and learners boards if taken care of always, always hold their value.

3... never ever let the board get between you and a wave.... this is the most likely way of copping a board to the face. always try and fall behind, or to the side of the board and when surfacing, put your hand over your head or cover you face. you'll soon learn why.

I thought they were pretty good tips but after my head injury I started to think about his last point a bit more.

I'm quite safety conscious and always aim to fall well away from my board but I've been hit more than once by the board in the head on surfacing or while in the water - the last time it happened the fin bit me. Since reading this post I've been thinking... when I fall I always hold on to my paddle and it's impractical to cover my head face when I surface.

Has anyone got any other perls of wisdom for a newbie to avoid bad stuff happening. I shudder to think what would have happened if the big fin on my aircraft carrier had hit me there.