Surfing Waves

when i go to duck dive i do it but i can feel the wave dragging on my back and pulling me back is this normal if not how can i fix it

Depends... if you're going under the wave before it breaks, it should be smooth as anything. If it's big and just broken, however, you will feel it dragging you backwards.
The solution, as always with duckdiving, is to go deeper.

It's also possible that if you can feel it on your back, you're diving too early and then coming up before the wave has truly passed, so make sure that you dive at the right moment, go deep, and stay down for as long as you can.

Do you wear contacts ? If not, look for the "cloud" to pass over you.

I just helped this girl with the same problem. She showed me her duck dive technique in flat water between sets. It was a nice angle down and angle back up. But I told her, "where's the moment when the board is flat under the water ?" After she realized what was wrong, it clicked and she did much better.

waikikikichan wrote:Do you wear contacts ?

I think opening one's eyes even briefly underwater helps. That being said, since I wear contacts I usually do it with my eyes shut, and I can tell the difference, almost never go deep enough.

Help !
Need help duckdiving, I've been surfing for 20 years and I've never been able to get it right.
I'm sick of getting hammered so I'd appreciate some advice.
I can sink my board pretty deep, but the problem is that in a thick wetty I float.
I get the board under but can't get myself under, when I try to go under the board just floats to the surface and I get nailed.

I do a maneuver that I call a duck dip. I am on a board with too much flotation for me to duck dive but I can shove the nose under the water and kind of do a handstand pushing the nose down. My rear end and the rear end of the board is still out of the water and the wave hits me but my head and the nose of the board are under the wave and as the wave hits my rear end and push it down I start to pull the nose up. This works really well. In your case since you are floating back up your timing is off. You want to do a duck dive right before the wave hits. The other part of this is you aren't going to duck dive under a lip coming down on you unless it is a small wave. The lip will often go right to the bottom and there is no way to go under it so you need to stay out of the way of the lip. I think the deeper you go the less force the wave will apply on you so even if you can't get completely under the wave you will lessen the impact except for the lip from a bigger wave. On a side note getting hammered is part of surfing. The better physical shape you are in the better you can handle the pounding. The better you can handle the pounding the more waves you can catch and the more fun you will have.

the best way for me was duckdiving in a swimming pool with my goggles on. after doing that for a few times you still have to learn to time the dive when the wave comes

here is a sketch



i didnt mention all the situations so dont take this as the bible of surfing also im but a beginner in this major thing. i had a big wave hitting mme and got smacked real hard and lost controll rolling and another wave hit me again.
maybe leaving your board can help sometimes and just go swim. but then at the other hand sometimes the surfboard drags you. u do what u gotta do i guess.
i get punished real hard many times. sometimes you learn the hard way

be carefull

today my duckdiving was all over the place. A bunch of times I got dragged and had to let go of the board. Some times I made it through OK. I found out I had to pay attention to the sequence of dipping both the nose and the tail of the board.
I also tried to swim the board down using my legs but that had mixed results if I failed to dip the tail in first.
So, sequence matters, every step of the duckdive is important.

Really use your leg to submerge it even deeper and wait until the wave has passed that could be the reason... But just practice on your technique and make sure your mastering ever step. Good luck

I think YG has it. I struggle with DD'ing but it's normally because I don't get far enough down. Really use your leg to submerge the board.

YungGrom and SeaMissile - "Really use your leg to submerge the board"is good advice,but it might be hard to understand for those just learning or not good at Duck Diving. I think you need to break down the movement to be more easily understandable. It may seem 2nd nature to some of us, but other might be totally lost.

Oh sorry for the extremely late reply.

When you go to duck dive you need momentum (this won't drag you back as much) you don't need no lean forward just hands around the rails just a bit in front of your shoulder and your knee or leg should draw up to it. When I indicated about the really using your leg I meant extending your leg once it's of the tail pad and the other leg raised, This should get you a deeper duck dive and hopefully with a bit of practice you won't be feeling the dragging back motion. Sorry I'm awful at explaining stuff like this