Getting through walls of white water

[oldmansurfer]

I do this technique when I enter the water. I walk out (sand bottom) till I am close to the breaking waves (shorebreak) and typically in knee to waist deep water then stand there and figure out the timing of when to attempt to go out. If the waves are less than head high I lean forward and raise the board over the top of the wave. On bigger waves or deeper water I grab the board under my arm and dive down under the wave. I have heard it called an underarm duck dive. I also do these techniques if I am on a shallow area after a wave. Sometimes I will be inside in significant sized surf and can't paddle back out due to too many waves coming in and too exhausted. Usually there is a current going to the side where it will become a rip going out. I move along with the current till I get my breath and do the under the arm duck dive repeatedly till I get to the rip going out. However I might have used the excuse that I was in too poor shape before but now I am in much better shape so I like to think of it as saving my arm strength for the rapid paddle through the impact zone.