Bit on duck-diving...

[SirDanley]

I find that doing a push-up style thing on the board won't quite cut it when I attempt duck diving... Is it necessary often to have to scoot one's self further forward on the board in order to gain the leverage to push it down? Staying in the usual paddling position, with the nose a couple inches off the water, I only... Do a push up when I attempt the push-up motion.

My hands are nearly on the front tip of the board; not at all like this guy's:



Other than that, I seem to be able to duck under waves well enough, but it leaves me at a disadvantageous position upon getting out of the wave, and scramble about on the board quite a bit... Is it possible that my board (6'6" shortboard) has too much float for myself, at 107lb, to execute this maneuver properly?

How many cheeseburgers do I eat?

[isaluteyou]

well i weigh 145lb and can duck a 7'4 thruster so you shuld beable to do a 6'6. Practise makes perfect

[IB_Surfer]

How about advice from a 45yr old 200lb shortboarder that surfs 6'5 and 6'8 boards. Yes, it's your 6'6" board.

dude, the guy on the pick has a 5'10 tater chip. There is no way I can get it in that deep, just floats too much. Plus, those guys are duckdiving under a big wave that is barely breaking, preety easy to do even with a small board.

The problem you are having is duckdiving whitewash. The trick is not to think of it as duckdiving, not the way you picture it, and not the way this picture shows it. You need to grab the board farther back, but not in the middle. As the wave approaches duck under, but don't keep the board tilted. When the wave is about to hit push down on the tail to make it horizontal and get it down a few inches more. Mind you on a board our size it will only go down about 6 inches, but that is more than enough. The wave will hit you on the back, as soon as you feel it slightly behind you pull up, the board will float up in a rush pushing through the back of the wave.

The most important part is that you come up with the board under you ready to paddle, no adjustments, you not on the side of it. The faster you start paddling the sooner you can clear the break.

Anyway, at 107lb if you are using a 6'6" you are still learning, so don't worry too much about it. When you go down in size the duckdiving will get easier, just keep progressing your surfing.

[drowningbitbybit]

^^^^
Hmmm, disagree with quite a lot of that, but whatever works for you
But it certainly isnt that duckdiving a 6'6 is impossible - a 6'6 shortboard should be relatively simple even for a lightweight.

I think the problem is here....

I only... Do a push up when I attempt the push-up motion.

The duckdive isnt a passive process - you dont just dip the board under and hope the waves passes over the top of you easily.
A really good duckdive looks smooth (and is, once you're really good at them... but Im not most of the time) but involves a flurry of activity.

Its a duckdive, not a duckdip.

So hands to the front of the board, push it down as the wave approaches, one foot on the tail and lift the other in the air. At the last moment, do a diving motion as if you're throwing yourself off the high board. Really get that board - and yourself - underwater.
Then kinda scoop it forward and up - get right up next to it so you can immediately paddle it as soon as you pop out the other side.

[IB_Surfer]

^You preety much just repeated what I typed. On a bigger board it's the same process, it just doesn't sink as much as a smaller board, but seems we are giving the same advice using different discriptions.

When I duckdive I get down about 2 to 3 feet, but a begginer won't, just wanted to keep it in his prespective...

[parrysurf]

the scoop is key...you need to time the pressing down of your nose, and the stomping of the tail/raising of other leg so your deepest point is at the same time the wave rolls over you. The wave will push you down some more and then you SCOOP....this scoop will take you under the wave.... and if done right you can come up on the other side and paddle away as if there was never a wave there.

everyone's style is a bit different....key is to get you timing down so to maximize your efforts

[parrysurf]

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12188&p=114685&hilit=the+good+the+bad+the+ugly#p114685

good post on the duckdive

[garbarrage]

only learned to duck-dive recently and still get nailed occassionally but the thing i found really helped the most was kicking the back foot up in the air.
when the wave is about 3-4 paddles away push the nose of the board down from a push up position, one foot on the tail, one in the air. the foot in the air is really important. sort of donkey kick upwards and your weight will pivot onto the nose of the board driving you deeper. after this i'm pretty sloppy but once i'd had the importance of the kick explained to me my duck diving became way more effective. even in bigger waves i can now get deep enough not to get nailed most of the time.

[IB_Surfer]

Weird, I was at IB on 2-3 ft overhead walled waves and started thinking of this thread and it corrected a small flaw in my ducdkving.

I actually paid attention to my duckdive to see what I was doing wrong: I was pulling up too hard on the nose after the wave, I was rushing up almost vertical and still feeling some turbulence. So, right there and then I adjusted and started to pull up less hard and came up much farther behind the wave.

Point is, thanks for posting this thread, if I hadn't been thinking about it I would not have made the adjustment. Funny.