Surfing Waves

Hello there
Im new to this forum and fairly new to surfing to , I have a 7,6 Gun and its a bit of problem sometimes with passing incoming waves .I tried turtle roll but is not that effective in bigger waves .So is it possible to a duck dive with this kind of board.

Depends on your weight and the overall volume of the board (is it really a gun? Or is it a mini-mal?), so the rest of the reply might be wrong but...

Borderline, edging towards no.
You'll probably be able to 'duck dip' the board (have it partially submerged as the wave washes it over it, and you get right close to it) but you're unlikely to be able to sink it properly for those critical dives.

Try it on flat water. Can you completely sink the board? If you can't, then basically you won't be able to do a proper deep duckdive.

Yes it is a actual gun , and I've tried a couple of times this morning but its hard to do it properly .I will try to improve my turtle roll and see how it goes , thank you for your reply .
P.S exscuse me for my english

No. I am 6' 225lbs and have a 7'6 Stoker - you are not going to get under anything but you can kinda lessen impact by slightly getting under- just a bit though. I just bought a 6'7" Al Merrick with 54 liters of volume and not able to properly duck dive it but 100% better (deeper) than my 7'6". With time you will kinda learn what you can work through on the 7-6" but never going to really duck dive it. Sucks when you are taking one on the head but great when you are paddling for a wave.

The key for the turtle roll is to get the nose under the white water - so hold close to the nose and then sink your body down as far as you can go (your body is the 'anchor'). If the water gets under the nose then the board will go flying and you possibly with it. But if the nose is under the water (and your grip is strong enough and you are deep enough) the white water should just pass over/around the board without catching it. So you shoudnt get pushed back too far - although if the waves are big (overhead plus) then it can become quite hard and tiring.

The only other thing to keep in mind is that if you cant duck dive, you need to hit the breaking/unbroken wave at the right time. For a duck diveable board, if you make a mistake with timing you can often just dive through the wave; for a bigger board you can only go over or under, not through. So you usually need to hold back in the white water zone and then paddle hard to get into the unbroken zone in between one wave and the next. Good timing will make getting out much easier.

Of course, if you can find a rip or channel (even if its 50m up the beach), go out through it and paddle back down to the break. Its more paddling but often less tiring.

Turtle rolling is pretty much what dtc said , a couple of things to consider, you need to be straight on the the wave.
Timing is crucial and it really helps to get paddle speed toward the oncoming wave.

I ride a 9ft board and can turtle roll except genuinely big waves. Some wave I can duck dive but mostly I get spanked doing it! So turtle it is! Here in Australia we call them Eskimo rolls or eskies. Not to be confused with coolers or chilly bins as they call them in New Zealand.

It is just another skill that you by doing it over and over and over. Also builds up your grip and your conditioning.

I ride a wide thick 8 foot fun gun and can't duck dive it but I do something like a duck dive where I shove the nose underwater and my head goes under too but my butt and the back half of the board are still sticking out of the water. I do this on maybe 4 to 6 foot faced waves and the wave hits my butt and the back half of the board and pushes it down which causes the nose to come up and it sort of works like a duck dive but I do take some impact on my rear end and back. If I were going to be hit directly by the lip on a wave that size I would turn turtle instead because it protects me from the impact better but if it is crumbling then I don't worry so much about the impact.

oldmansurfer wrote:I do something like a duck dive where I shove the nose underwater and my head goes under too but my butt and the back half of the board are still sticking out of the water

The Duck Dip! TM DBBB

I always called it a half duck dive but I like that Duck Dip