Surfing Waves

Hi there,

I haven't been surfing long and ive picked a 6ft 6' short board as my first its been ok. I'm getting out athigh tide but not at low i seem to get caught in the white water any tips? when i get out to the bigger stuff i seem to have no porblems getting in on a wave but every time i try to stand up i either lose my balance coming down the wave or my front end dips in. This has led to some pretty fantastic ridesjust not on my board and i'm getting a bit fed up of face planting to the point where last weekend I cracked two ribs in fistral, am going this weekend though. Ive heard some peole say my boards a little to small but i can't afford another one. Any tips would be greatly appreciated?! also how do you get past the white water at low tide i'm quite fit i do alot of sport but have tried duck diving. rolling, jumping helpppppppppppppp

Cheers sim

My first suggestion to overcome the faceplanting thing is to cheat. Paddle into the wave at an angle, so that rather than drop straight down the face you drop diagonally down and already start moving along the wave.

The 'pearling' as it is called is mostly to do with positioning. You may have your weight a little too far forward. Unfortunately, too far back and you'll still go down.

Your board may be a little on the small side, but if you persevere you should be OK - how narrow/ thin is it?

As for paddling out. The waves tend to dump a lot more at low tide in the newquay area - in towan it's close-outs galore at low tide and not worth bothering!

Here's my tip - before you go in, spend about 10-20 mins watching the waves (I know this is difficult) you should be able to work out roughly how many waves are in a set.

Paddle or walk out to the impact zone (where you are normally getting caught) If you time it right, you should be able to paddle out in the channel and get over the next wave before it breaks. If not, get off your board, turn it to face the shore and put the fins up in the air - grab the leash where it meets the board. Duck under the wave and pull down on the leash. Keep doing this until the set has passed (you shouldn't have lost much ground) then get back on and paddle like crazy before the next set comes in.

Doing it this way means the waves don't pull you in to shore too much and by holding the leash where I said, your board doesn't float miles away and isn't a danger to other people.

It aint pretty but it works! - 16 years of surfing and I only mastered duckdiving last year!

Practise duckdiving in the summer when the water is warm and the waves are small!

Cheers

Sinsita

No offence but if you have not been surfing long maybe the waves are too big for you at this stage.
I remember when i went thorugh my pearling stage, it was a nasty couple of sessions.
they always say "if you cant get out back you should not be there"

if you can't get out at low tide, then check the paper for tide times (its usually at the back) and save yourself the trip - just go out at high tide till you are a bit better. learning to surf can be totally frustrating, face planting is pretty much a garantee till you get better. also if you are having problems with the drop on bigger clean waves, position yourself further in where they have already started turning into white water and just practice riding that till you get your balance/confidence thing sorted. they are much easier to get up on. and as sinista mentioned, you should spend a bit of time sussing out the waves before you go out. keep it up.