Surfing Waves

I've currently got a 9' 6" longboard, and I want to buy a short board that I will be able to duckdive easily. I weigh 165.

I know that there are several variables: Length, width, thickness, buoyancy, my experience level, etc.

But assuming I can get pretty good at this, please give me some guidelines as to length, width, and thickness. I will probably pick up a junker at a garage sale to try it out, and I'd like a guideline such as "If you get a board that is less that ___ in length, ___ in width, and ___ in thickness then you should have no trouble duck diving."

Thanks!

Right, you have a bit of a problem here... any board that is easy to duckdive will be too small for you to ride.

At 165lb, I think you could duckdive a 6'6x20x2 3/4 if you were reasonably okay at duckdiving. Any bigger than that and you'll struggle to duckdive it. Any smaller than that and the chances are you won't be able to surf it.

BUT... there isn't a board in the world that makes it "no trouble duck diving" - it's a skill that needs to be learned, over and over (or rather under and under) again.

Hows your turtle rolling?

drowningbitbybit wrote:Right, you have a bit of a problem here... any board that is easy to duckdive will be too small for you to ride.

Thanks for the help.

I'm not understanding completely. There are many people who have no trouble surfing a board that is small enough to easily duckdive. You're saying that my skill level probably isn't high enough to ride a small board, since I'm even asking the question, right?

That's OK, I'm not annoyed, and you may be right. I have been surfing longboards on and off for 40 years, but at age 58, I'm not as fast and strong as I used to be.

But I'm just getting tired of battering my way out through eight-foot waves, and I want to try going under them.

garbarrage wrote:Hows your turtle rolling?

Pretty good, but I'd like to get completely away from the force of the wave.

Banana wrote:

garbarrage wrote:Hows your turtle rolling?

Pretty good, but I'd like to get completely away from the force of the wave.

I appreciate this quote much more after this morning. 8ft board, heavy lip on 4ft sets...

Unfortunately, the duckdiving of any board requires a lot of practice. A board that is small enough to comfortably duckdive bigger waves typically won't be big enough to catch said bigger waves.

I'm 75kg and can get a 6'1 hybrid fish under 3ft waves unless they are heavy and land immediately in front of me. Bigger waves, and I get belted on duckdives. Timing is absolutely key.
For comparison, I've got a 6'2 shortboard as well, and it's much easier to duckdive, but taking the drop in surf around 3ft+ is very late, and involves a LOT of hard paddling.

I can appreciate all the problems, and I am so thankful, I can rock off even on the biggest days, paddle to the take off zone behind the break, it's a hundred meter paddle but small change.
Catch a wave paddle wide and bingo only on the biggest of the big , and wide do you have to put your getunderskills to the test , with a 9ft board, it's the turtle for me. I can duck dive the little ones , but if my timing is just little out, it's a battle to recover the meters lost.
The guys who try to cut across to the inside in front of the break often get rolled and driven well in and if it's a set they end up further inside than they started. Waves of karma!
Practice, practice, duck or turtle timing, then know your spot and the little tricks,watch the guys that make it seem easy, follow their lead.

OK, thanks, it sounds like I'm fantasizing a little about how easy it could be. When I've been body surfing it's be so effortless, comparatively, to get out even in the biggest surf.

But I still want to give it a shot, so I'll be on the lookout for a 6 foot junker board.

They make it look pretty easy in this video:

just briefly, the real problem is the whitewater close to the breakzone. It's almost impossible to get deep enough to be unaffected, no matter what board you're on because you are only able to push about as deep as your arms. Smaller boards go this deep very easily, bigger boards take more practice, but timing your paddling to avoid this scenario is best.

Update...

I recently got this board for $30,



and I'm able to duck dive it. It is 6' 8" long, 20" wide, and 2.5" thick. I've learned that there's certainly an art to duck diving, and it will take time to improve...

But -- even a poorly executed duck dive gets me out of the main force of the wave, and is a big improvement over pushing out with my big longboard.

Nice, let me know how the dimensions of that bored work out im thinking about getting a 6'8 myself

jasonsurfer91 wrote:Nice, let me know how the dimensions of that bored work out im thinking about getting a 6'8 myself

Keep in mind you may be at a different skill level in your surfing and may be built (height and weight) differently so the above board's dimensions may not necessary work for you.

As I mentioned in a previous post you posted, give us your height, weight, where you surf and your skill level (what can you actually do on the wave when riding the green face) etc...

165 lbs 6'0 ft
Average I can ride the shoulder long waves away from the white
Water