Surfing Waves

Posted: **Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:55 pm**

I've had it today! i got no where near the waves! i was so pissd i left about 30 mins into my session. the sets didn't stop for like 3 minuets and by the time it stoped another one was about to start i mean wtf!?

my board is 6'6"x 21" x 2.75" i'm about 200 sumthin and 5'10" i am able to go under water but i'm not sure about the motion of a swoop up. I have two ways of doing what I think works.

1: I call it the Submarine dive. Its when i put my do a pushup on my board and i'm poking it into a wave to get pulld onto the other side. then my body goes under and i pull the noes of the board so that it pulls upward.

2: i do a v shaped dive with as low as i can go and then pull the nose upward to get up.

BOTH FAIL! I ended up closer to the beach. IF i duck dive correctly should i feel any water hit my face? if i'm doing it wrong should it be like a hot tub jet stream to the face?

please help, i read the help guid and it dosnt do that well of a job.

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:44 am**

I feel your frustration! I have the same problem.

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2009 4:12 am**

its sooo annoyying! cuz i see perfect waves! big ones plp are riding but i can't duck dive for xxxxx to get to them!

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:32 am**

Plenty of threads on here about duckdiving, so i wont go into much detail with that. The idea is you sink the nose by moving your weight over the nose, then use your foot to push your tail down to pivot your board back up behind the wave (check out the pic below, USE YOUR FOOT). If you do it correctly on a large wave you should feel a burst of speed as you get squirted out behind the wave. Just know that the actual ducking motion is only 25% of the technique. You must duck correctly, time it right, come up in the right position ready to paddle, and be ready to keep charging when you surface back up. Everything must be on point for it to work correctly. Duck diving is not something that will make you get out to the lineup with ease on a heavy day. Its still a fight on a heavier day and takes alot effort to make it out, but it will help assist you in making it out to the lineup. I think your conditioning and paddle technique is more important. I remember when I first started off there would be alot of days I couldnt make it out no matter how hard i tried. I kept thinking to myself there must be some special technique that makes it alot easier. Then the more I surfed, the better I got at paddling, and then the easier it became to make it out.

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:24 am**

I just learned how to duckdive recently and the thing i found that really made the differance was to; when i pushed on the front of the board to sink it, to also lean forward toward the nose for extra sinking ability and control. Then push down hard on the tail. As mentioned timing is critical, and i also noticed that the more tired i am from paddling, the harder it becomes to execute properly..., so yes conditioning v important also. But id definitlely recommend trying to lean forward as you sink the nose....

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:31 pm**

Can you only do it with short boards? Like how long is the cut off? 6' 5" ?

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:49 pm**

it depends on your size - the bigger you are the bigger board you can duckdive.. The thickness and width would also be factors. With good technique (practiced on shortboards) people seem to be able to duckdive boards well above the 7' mark.

As for where you should feel the water on your body, i generally feel ive done an acceptable dive if i feel the water rush over the foot i used to push the tail; if i feel the rush on my ass / back (or face for that matter...) it means i havent done it properly / gone deep enough

Posted: **Sat Aug 29, 2009 4:23 pm**

theres a lad that surfs a longboard and he can just get that under, prob like 9"6 or something, he is very good tho but still lol he sinks one rail first then the other cause its so boyant, i wouldnt recommend doing that but its deffo possible.

what i basically do .... grab your rails highish up towards the nose, do a push up and put all of your weight over the front, whilst doing this put your right foot (if regular) on the tail and push down to sink the back of the board (aim to sink it just before the white water hits you, also paddle as fast as you can into the duck dive this will increase the chances of getting through the wave) you should now feel the wave pass over, now tilt your board upwards to rise back to the surface as quick as poss so you can begin paddling again. hope this helps

this pic shows the corrent timing of a duck dive, try to aim for this but as you practice more and more timing will just be natural