Surfing Waves

Sometimes the incoming wave catches me by surprise when I see my position is way too deep to make the wave, I then paddle hard parallel of the wave for the sweetspot of the yet unbroken wave. When the wave is close to me and has the right steepness I want to turn the nose in the drop for a nice angled takeoff, but I find it very hard to turn when already paddling for the wave. If I paddle too parallel to the wave (too much angle) I can't get in.

Anyone has the answer?

That recent video of no paddle takeoff showed a possible solution paddle at an angle into the breaking wave so the wave sweeps the nose of your board back down the wave then popup in the middle of all that changing directions .... I want to try that one, it looks like a lot of fun. Or you could lineup better

Sit up on the tail and spin but would kill momentum.....for something like what you're talking about I jam one arm straight down in stroke and hold it there and paddle one time with the other arm then pull out and keep on paddling normally; kinda works like a brake and you can sort of spin around the arm in the water....kills momentum too and isn't smooth but can effect a quick (but kinda rough) direction change mid paddle...better is to paddle parallel and then quickly sit up on the tail, spin 90*, cork and go........I don't know if I'm reading your question right but for the most part there are no quick changes unless you spin on the tail and cork it to spring back into the game which can be done....I do that when a wave is breaking outside and I paddle out to meet it, choose a spot that will give me enough time and if done right I spin on the spot on the tail, grab the nose and dunk the board and cork forward with a frog kick and hard paddle right into getting the wave.

Japanese surfers here do this really annoying paddle to catch a wave....once they spot it on the horizon, they paddle parallel to the wave.....I don't know what they are trying to do because I haven't seen any pattern as far as how most others do which is to paddle either deeper or towards the shoulder depending on where they will be able to reach from where they are that will give them the best chance of catching the wave......Japanese surfers don't seem to have this in their mind as much as to catch a wave they must paddle 20m parallel to the wave then turn to the beach and paddle to get in regardless of who is underneath them at that point of which they have no idea because they have been paddling looking only at the wave for the last 20sec.........anyway, lots of Japanese lately and I've been yelling at them because they come from another zip code to catch the wave and summarily snake about 8 people then try to paddle for the wave over the heads and boards of another three......I honestly believe that many of the ones that I've confronted either by yelling at them not to run me over or just blocking them off when they finally decide to turn so that I don't get run down, they have no idea at all that they are doing anything wrong; someone taught them to paddle along the wave and then turn to the beach to catch a wave and wherever they learned that was apparently not as crowded as it is here. They really don't ever look forward though from the time that they spot the wave and start to paddle parallel, they are lost in the sauce and when turning to the beach and starting to paddle hard they are forever banging into others or having near misses before ever threatening the wave........

I will say one thing though.....those Japanese have the best boards and accessories in the lineup by far!

Maybe there are some waves you can't catch from your position? You need to paddle over then quickly turn the board cork it and scissors kick. Or seriously if you watch the end of that no paddle takeoff video the surfer (Wingnut?) paddles at and angle out to the break with the board facing right parallel to the breaking part of the wave. The wave pushes the nose down the wave and the surfer pops up. I wonder how big of a board you need to do that? I may try that on my funboards. That looks awesomely fun.

oldmansurfer wrote:That recent video of no paddle takeoff showed a possible solution paddle at an angle into the breaking wave so the wave sweeps the nose of your board back down the wave then popup in the middle of all that changing directions .... I want to try that one, it looks like a lot of fun. Or you could lineup better

I was working on the no-paddle takeoffs today. Sometimes the waves at my break are frustrating as hell. They roll forever without breaking even though they look like they're about to break. I got so fed up trying to paddle into them and then not getting picked up by the wave that I threw in the towel and just stayed in the break line and waited for them to throw out a lip. It was 2-3 foot and high tide-ish so I just started popping up on the waves right in the impact zone, basically doing no-paddle takeoffs. Low and behold, it worked. I started catching waves. I was even getting up inside the curtain of the lip. I suspect that the no-paddle takeoff is one of the essential skills a short boarder needs to learn. Anyway, it was fun and I feel like I gained some skill today.

How to turn when paddling for the wave?
Certainly, I use the tiller. Using a tiller for the first time takes a bit of getting used to, because when you move the tiller to the left, you turn to the right; move the tiller right, and you turn left.

billie_morini wrote:How to turn when paddling for the wave?
Certainly, I use the tiller. Using a tiller for the first time takes a bit of getting used to, because when you move the tiller to the left, you turn to the right; move the tiller right, and you turn left.

That's it, I thought! But then when I did a close inspection of my longboard, to my disappointment I couldn't find a rudder. No wonder the price was so low..

oldmansurfer wrote:Maybe there are some waves you can't catch from your position? You need to paddle over then quickly turn the board cork it and scissors kick. Or seriously if you watch the end of that no paddle takeoff video the surfer (Wingnut?) paddles at and angle out to the break with the board facing right parallel to the breaking part of the wave. The wave pushes the nose down the wave and the surfer pops up. I wonder how big of a board you need to do that? I may try that on my funboards. That looks awesomely fun.

Yes for some waves you're simply to far out of position to catch, but the paddle speed of a longboard offers much more possibilities to adjust position left or right compared to a shortboard.

I did manage to turn a bit, when going right to counter paddle with my left arm, but that kills the speed you need to catch the wave.

And yes that moment of Wingnut doing that radical takeoff in the falling lip of the wave. I will watch again "the art of longboarding", right now.

Big H wrote:Sit up on the tail and spin but would kill momentum.....for something like what you're talking about I jam one arm straight down in stroke and hold it there and paddle one time with the other arm then pull out and keep on paddling normally; kinda works like a brake and you can sort of spin around the arm in the water....kills momentum too and isn't smooth but can effect a quick (but kinda rough) direction change mid paddle...

Yes, I was trying something like that, even doing backpaddling with the left while continue paddle right. But it kills momentum.

Some waves are just too far to catch. From the moment u read the wave there is only so much distance you can cover AND get into the right angle to catch the wave.

Funny story about those Japanese longboarders. Actually I was doing about the same thing, with this difference: the whole crowd was West of me. I surfed a crowded wave I know well (Oldmans) and I was surprised at the positioning of the outside pack, way too much west according to my landmarks. But the inside wave was breaking about 60 meters further inside and they where lining up with that I guess.

I chose a bit of a middle position, more West but still within distance of where I thought I should position. I hadn't surfed this wave in this big a swell (9ft faces) for some time, I kept thinking maybe they know something I don't..

It turned out my landmarks where right, when the tide dropped and the setwaves came thru, I had to paddle hard to the right to catch the sweetspot. The guys behind me where closed out.

RinkyDink wrote:I was working on the no-paddle takeoffs today.

"The ultimate in cool"

Big swell out there most of the crowd sits where there is no chance of being caught inside....they are also too timid to take the biggest waves that come thru which they are in position for sitting to far outside.....I like it out there in those conditions....sit inside a bit and you can get a ton of waves with little competition and using a longboard still have enough speed to get outside and in position to catch on a cleanup set.

BTW the Japanese I'm talking about in the post were all short boarders......not that it really makes a difference to the story.

Keep pressure on the rail closest to the face while paddling and keep the same pressure during the popup and finally your stance, that works for me.

You can always do a late under the lip takeoff - like John John here - watch from about 0.15 - 0.30

icetime wrote:Keep pressure on the rail closest to the face while paddling and keep the same pressure during the popup and finally your stance, that works for me.

Hmm, I think it's not easy to keep pressure on a rail while paddling. Anyway, I guess this could only work in an ultra late takeoff where the throwing lip pushes the nose of the board in the drop, the takeoff Oldmansurfer is working on

dtc wrote:You can always do a late under the lip takeoff - like John John here - watch from about 0.15 - 0.30

If I could only make that late turn then the rest is easy

icetime wrote:Keep pressure on the rail closest to the face while paddling and keep the same pressure during the popup and finally your stance, that works for me.

I see the OP question as how to do the opposite. I think he wants to turn towards the beach to let the board plane downwards, not be "High and Tight" to the wall of the wave.

waikikikichan wrote:

icetime wrote:Keep pressure on the rail closest to the face while paddling and keep the same pressure during the popup and finally your stance, that works for me.

I see the OP question as how to do the opposite. I think he wants to turn towards the beach to let the board plane downwards, not be "High and Tight" to the wall of the wave.

Yes, that's correct, thanks for solving this little confusion Waikikikichan.

[quote="Big H"]Sit up on the tail and spin but would kill momentum.....for something like what you're talking about I jam one arm straight down in stroke and hold it there and paddle one time with the other arm then pull out and keep on paddling normally; kinda works like a brake and you can sort of spin around the arm in the water....kills momentum too and isn't smooth but can effect a quick (but kinda rough) direction change mid paddle...better is to paddle parallel and then quickly sit up on the tail, spin 90*, cork and go........I don't know if I'm reading your question right but for the most part there are no quick changes unless you spin on the tail and cork it to spring back into the game which can be done....I do that when a wave is breaking outside and I paddle out to meet it, choose a spot that will give me enough time and if done right I spin on the spot on the tail, grab the nose and dunk the board and cork forward with a frog kick and hard paddle right into getting the wave.

Can someone illustrate how does one do that? " spin on the spot on the tail, grab the nose and dunk the board and cork forward with a frog kick and hard paddle right into getting the wave."

Is it sort of like a giddy-up on a pony?