Surfing Waves

My comfort zone is surfing waist high crumbling waves and I've been getting worked in the bigger winter conditions. (You are not alone, Rinky Dink!) I think this is because I've been sitting in the lineup with short boarders and paddling into faces that are too steep for the longboard...at least for me.



So I'm going to concentrate on getting onto waves early by going further out and trying to catch them as they build. With a big board and a lot more paddling I should be able to get up to speed with the larger, faster waves. I wish there were more winter longboarders to show me the way.

Do you have advice?

I think you have it figured now , further out. More skill and positioning for your paddling. Go get em!

With a longboard you can't copy the short boarders too much. It takes extra time to turn and then get the bigger board up to the right speed. So you need to start paddling earlier just to get the speed up, but you have the extra space because you are out further. But in turn it means you need to decide whether to go earlier - no last second turn and go

Anyway, you can (depending on the wave) start 10 to 15m (30-50ft) further out than the short boarders, but start paddling earlier (before the wave comes) and paddle for longer before you get the wave. If you find the wave is going past you, move further in of course. But the earlier you can catch the wave (earlier meaning the time before it breaks) then the easier it is - more time to pop up, less steep etc

So, yes, go out further, allow more time and space, paddle hard ...and you can steal all of the waves because you are up and riding before anyone else starts paddling

Paddle in on an angle as well....will help in steeper waves...I usually work it the opposite of DTC which is catching too far inside and getting smashed then going a little further out each time until I get to that happy takeoff spot....in the competitive atmosphere here, it's better to be seen getting smashed than paddling for waves and missing them....miss a couple an suddenly the snakes and drop ins and back paddlers and intentional blocking faders come out.....plus you might surprise yourself and have hit the happy spot on the head.

Oh yeah BoMan....it always hurts less when you are already on your feet.....

dtc wrote:Go out further, allow more time and space, paddle hard ...and you can steal all of the waves because you are up and riding before anyone else starts paddling

You know that's going to get me into trouble...I'm the short, grey haired guy who needs to play nice and survive. Thanks for the help!

Big H wrote:I usually work it the opposite of DTC which is catching too far inside and getting smashed then going a little further out each time until I get to that happy takeoff spot.

For me, it always comes back to paddling. After a wipe out, I use too much energy keeping control of my barge & returning to the lineup. I need a "timeout" before the next take off.

The Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ) found that "competitive surfers spend only 8% of the entire surf session riding waves, 54% paddling and 28% waiting for waves. Interestingly, in a 20-minute heat, surfers ride waves and paddle a total distance of about 1.6 kilometers (one mile)."

My "ride time" is WAY less than this but it's so much fun.

Some waves can't be caught from outside but mostly you should be able to do that ....just make sure you rotate through the lineup or let the inside guys catch waves if you want to be nice. I used to longboard when I restarted surfing and I would sometimes surf right next to the shortboarders. When I took a steep drop I would do an ankle turn at the top of the wave and push the inside rail into the wave. In this configuration a longboard doesn't pearl as the nose goes into the wave it is only the rail on one side that goes in and it pushes itself back out. It helped me deal with radical steep drops. I still do this with my fungun. Also the more fit you are the more things you can do while surfing.

oldmansurfer wrote:When I took a steep drop I would do an ankle turn at the top of the wave and push the inside rail into the wave.

Thanks, I will work on this...and you are right about the conditioning. I was swimming a couple of miles/week in a pool but it closed for winter break. I really notice the difference!

BoMan wrote:So I'm going to concentrate on getting onto waves early by going further out and trying to catch them as they build. With a big board and a lot more paddling I should be able to get up to speed with the larger, faster waves. I wish there were more winter longboarders to show me the way.

Do you have advice?

I was going to try that by knee paddling my foamie into larger waves from farther out. The problem was that I'd never knee paddled before. In fact, I've never been on a longboard until now and 8' is barely even a longboard. Anyway, I don't recommend learning to knee paddle in a lineup, especially on a foamie, or actually within eyeshot of anybody. Yeech My attempts at knee paddling did teach me one thing, however, that my quadriceps were ridiculously stiff. I've started a major stretching routine since then and it's helped my surfing enormously. Anyway, it does seem to me that you might be able to get more paddle speed from knee paddling. I'm just speculating and remembering all those surfers from the '50s cruising on their knees into bigger waves.

Hey bo man, r u in NZ? If so, where do u live and surf?

The good points of the forgotten art of knee paddling ,, there are bigger groups of muscles engaged, so it can be more efficient, pop ups are easier but a little different.

Why the fear of being seen knee paddling? Kookitis ?

You have a different eight position on he board due to your body weight bent more condensed! So although your nose height above the water will be the same, your position will not.
You need a heavy deck glass job or you will quickly get knee dents, you will develop surf bumps, surf knot board lumps on both your knees and feet! If you do a crooked toe type paddle, you have chance at weird osteoarthritis toe damage.

Get really good at high speed knee paddling try this paddle out really fast towards a wave about to break use the speed to stand up and do a top turn back down the wave, thereby catching the wave without paddling for it!

jaffa1949 wrote:Why the fear of being seen knee paddling? Kookitis ?

I didn't have a fear of it. It looks like a great skill to have for longboarding. The problem for me was that every time I tried it I fell off the side of my board. Embarassing kookitis in my case. The main problem was that my quads were tight when I got into a knee stance. I think I would have fared better with a longer board also. I'll probably try it again on my Wavestorm when I get a calm day.

Will a wave storm be stable enough for knee paddling? So buoyant; remember a lot of the old (Jaffa era...) longboards were very heavy and sat in the water - much better for knees than a foamy sitting on top of the water.

I don't know how heavy you are but at my 85kg I'm too heavy for either longboard that I've had (9'3" x 23 x 3" and 9'6" x 23" x 3 1/16") to knee paddle.

oldmansurfer wrote:When I took a steep drop I would do an ankle turn at the top of the wave and push the inside rail into the wave. In this configuration a longboard doesn't pearl as the nose goes into the wave it is only the rail on one side that goes in and it pushes itself back out.

I don't know what you mean by an ankle turn or what the maneuver you're describing looks like. Do you mean that you're taking off in a straight direction toward the beach and then carving into an angled takeoff at the top of the wave? Can you find a Youtube video of the type of maneuver you're talking about and post it here? I'm curious to understand that kind of takeoff.

Watch this video, should be big and steep enough.

The board Bonga Perkins is riding is 9'1" x 22 5/8" x 3"

I have been using the same Molded Epoxy board for the past 10 years. Same board he used to get a 10 point ride at :29. Notice how far up on the board he is. At 1:52 Rusty Keaulana takes the drop and goes down into a bottom turn to build momentum to get around the curtain.
Sometimes angling in too early and to high will get you pitch. It really depends.

dtc wrote:Will a wave storm be stable enough for knee paddling? So buoyant; remember a lot of the old (Jaffa era...) longboards were very heavy and sat in the water - much better for knees than a foamy sitting on top of the water.

That's a good question. I weigh about 180lbs. I always figured the buoyancy would make knee paddling easier, but you have a good point. The Wavestorm probably isn't heavy enough.

Big H wrote:I don't know how heavy you are but at my 85kg I'm too heavy for either longboard that I've had (9'3" x 23 x 3" and 9'6" x 23" x 3 1/16") to knee paddle.

Ah ha, that settles it then. I'm going to have to get a longer board if I want to knee paddle.

waikikikichan wrote:Watch this video, should be big and steep enough.

The board Bonga Perkins is riding is 9'1" x 22 5/8" x 3"

I have been using the same Molded Epoxy board for the past 10 years. Same board he used to get a 10 point ride at :29. Notice how far up on the board he is. At 1:52 Rusty Keaulana takes the drop and goes down into a bottom turn to build momentum to get around the curtain.
Sometimes angling in too early and to high will get you pitch. It really depends.

Well, Pipeline definitely qualifies for a steep drop. That's an excellent video for checking out the takeoffs of some amazing surfers. I suspect that an angled takeoff on a shoulder section is probably the best bet for a newbie longboarder in higher surf.