I'm bobbing about beyond the breakers at Watergate Bay, north of Newquay in Cornwall. In my right hand I'm clasping a small red plastic float, like a shrunken version of the buoyancy aids the lifeguards used to strut around with in Baywatch. It's called a hand plane, and whenever a nice clean green wave presents itself, my instructor, Josh Coombes, hollers at me to kick my fins with all the might I can muster in a bid to use it to glide across the wave's glassy face.

Kids in Polynesia have been holding pieces of driftwood to plane across waves for years. Some hand planes were being sold as far back as the late 1970s (including a rubberised "hand ski" produced in New Zealand), and some surfers have been shaping their own, mostly wooden, DIY devices since then. But it's only in the past five years that the sport has become visible in the world's great surf spots such as Hawaii and Australia.

It has been gaining prominence in Devon and Cornwall, too, over the past few years, and has now been added to the schedule of activities and lessons at one of Britain's most famous surf schools, the Extreme Academy in Watergate Bay.

I have to maintain a rigid, one‑handed Superman pose with my lead arm, which holds the plane, while my trail arm lies streamlined at my side, as I swoop down into a vortex at the very core of the wave. Most people, myself included, hold the plane in their right hand for right-handed waves and then reach it across their body for left-handed waves (or vice versa for left-handed people), though you can also swap hands. More experienced bodysurfers also use their trail arm as a rudder to steer across the wave.

A wall of water whooshes past my ears and I feel like I'm in a surprisingly pleasant car wash. The sensation is thrilling. When it's done correctly, bodysurfing, as in channelling the energy of the wave with your body rather than a surfboard or bodyboard, is truly graceful, as a quick browse on YouTube will testify. With a hand plane, bodysurfing is more efficient and the ride lasts longer.

The Extreme Academy also offers stand-up paddle boarding (SUP), though hand planing is likely to cause far less ire among surfers. Partly because Jennifer Aniston is unlikely to give it a go any time soon, but also because most of the people using hand planes are surfers themselves, having a lo-fi day. Even if they did possess the superhuman paddle power they would need to drop in on anyone's wave, they'd have the good sense not to.

I was prompted to give it a go after attending the London Surf Film Festival last year (the event runs 11-14 October this year), where the winning feature, Come Hell or High Water by Keith Malloy, was a wistful homage to this minimalist sport.

"As the business of surfing has grown, a back-to-basics movement has evolved alongside it," says the festival's co-organiser, Demi Taylor. "In focusing on bodysurfing, Keith Malloy's film really captured the zeitgeist, celebrating the stripped-back aesthetic of this surfing subculture. It really is surfer and wave. There are no logos or sponsorship deals – people bodysurf for the sheer enjoyment of it. It feels very much like a tradition, and it harks back to simpler times."

The Extreme Academy rents out hand planes and fins, or you can buy your own at the shop next door. Once you've perfected your technique you might want to switch to a wooden hand plane for a more refined ride and smoother manoeuvres across the face of the wave. If you decide to do that, head to Krowji, in Redruth, the workshop of James Otter. This young furniture designer-turned-artisan-surfboard-shaper makes wooden hand planes from board off-cuts, which you can buy for £55. Or if you're really ambitious you could even make your own surfboard at one of James's build‑a‑board workshops.

Carl Coombes, who runs the Extreme Academy and is the father of my instructor Josh, tells me another reason the centre decided to start offering hand planing was the growing popularity of wild swimming. "We trialled it in some heavy storm surf and had an awesome time," he says.

The academy's hand planing lessons last two hours and include water safety tips, basic technique and wave selection. In truth, if you've surfed or even bodyboarded before, you might not need a lesson, but I'd recommend one for those with no experience of catching waves, and you do need to be a competent swimmer.

Hand planing is also the closest I've come to being barrelled (riding inside the tube of a wave) in more than five years of surfing. I didn't quite manage it, but Carl kindly said the reason I didn't reach the fabled green room was the smallish size of the swell that day. "It's much easier," he said, "to get into the barrel, albeit momentarily, when the wave breaks using hand planing than a surfboard, as you're more compact and not in jeopardy of getting knocked off the board. It's a dreamy experience."

• Sam's planing lesson and equipment were provided by Extreme Academy (watergatebay.co.uk/extremesports-handplaning.htm) at the Watergate Bay Hotel (01637 860543, watergatebay.co.uk, doubles from £105). A two-hour hand planing lesson costs £20 including hire of wetsuit, fins and hand plane. The hotel has been revamped, with a new indoor 25m pool with huge windows that open up to a new timber deck, hot tub and the beach. James Otter (ottersurfboards.co.uk) makes wooden hand planes and surfboards. Sam stayed with Beach Retreats (beachretreats.co.uk), which has several self-catering holiday homes to rent on the north Cornwall coast