Surfing Waves

I already searched the forum and came upon the long hold down thread and what not, but I was wondering if I could do anything outside of the water to help me better prepare for the wipeouts.

Today, It was 4-5 ish.. with bigger sets.. and the waves were hollow, heavy, and closing out. The wave implodes because the air is trapped inside when it crashes. Anyways, I paddle in.. with no trouble.. catch a freak peak, which was so incredible. I got an amazing ride off of that.. after making a turn and pumping the wave was about to close out.. so i thought i might as well go for an air.. but instead ended up just riding off and out the back because the lack of speed. So.. i Hop right back on the board.. totally stoked and ready for mroe. 2nd wave.. late drop.. but still stuck it.. i was amazed..so amazed that i wipedout after about 2 seconds. But that was ok.. and 3rd wave.. backside.. totally got into the barrel.. and i lost my balance from the drop.. so i had some layback barrel thing going on where my back was on the wave.. but i wiped out after about 2 seconds too. HERE was the problem. Huge set comes rolling through.. Me and the irish guy next to me just paddled to try and pass it.. and he duckdived under it.. and although I tried it sucked me back and through the falls.. bad timing.. i scramble up for breath and is relatively ok because i didnt lose the board.. but next wave.. just smashes right infront of me.. rips the board out from under my hand and i just get tumbled.. after about 4 more waves and me tumbling gasping for breath.. I finally got out.. Short of breath, I ran down the beach where the 1 ft waves were breaking. But Now.. the rides I got from 1 footers sucked so much.. that I ran back to the bigger waves.. I subsequently then took a large number of bad tumbles most of which had me questioning if I would be able to live. So.. I think my main problem is I have trouble duckdiving sometimes. The wipeouts I took from falling off my board was nowhere near as bad as the ones I took from a mistimed duckdive. I think the conditions were also pretty harsh, because the irish guy got worked a lot of times too.. but he came up laughing.. which made me really envious. I really wished I could have stuck it out because although they closed out and what not.. the drops were really fun.. and it was really hollow.

So I am just wondering how to better my endurance of holding my breath. By the way I think I can only hold it for about 30 seconds in the pool!! !!!

Pratice your duck diving technique. You wont tire as easy if you can avoid the waves your not catching. Because everytime a non surfing wave smashing against you, it pushes you back, the 1 step forward 2 steps back kinda thing. Practice your duck dives when the surf isn't as crazy. Check youtube and around the forum on ways to improve your tech
Thats all i can suggest

Yeaaaa, i do, especially the waves where it smashes right infront of me and the explosion of whitewash and all just makes me kinda hurry my duckdive making me not go so deep, but im thinking that no matter how much i practice i will come across one time when I wont make it, and i still want to be able to keep calm through the situation

Time your duckdives and push deeper. A poorly timed duckdive in big waves is not a lot of fun. One thing no surfer should ever do under any circumstance is to PANIC regardless of situation. Just go with the flow the ocean is hella lot stronger than you so why fight it you just exaust your air supply quicker

Just keep wiping out, and you'll get used to it.

I'm like you - my worst wipeouts are the ones where the breaking waves detonates on top of me making a duckdive practically impossible. Then its time for another trip over the falls

Now I hate that as much as you do. But when it happened to me yesterday, I wasn't bothered and just went with it. I was helped by the fact I knew it was a sandy bottom and I was in reasonably deep water. But the difference that relaxing makes is incredible. I wasn't worried about my air supply, I wasn't thrashing about, I popped out the water and straight back onto my board with none of the usual spluttering and choking.

Just go with the flow. It'll turn out alright.



...probably

Because I'm a heavy surfer (ok, fat, I'll admit it) my shortboards are fatter and wider, and thus not duckdive as easily. My go-to shortboards are 6'2 x 19.5 x 2.5 and 6'5 x 19.5 x 2.5 custom epoxy boards, super floaty. But even in baja one overhead days on reef breaks I can duckdive, not always deep and perfect, but I don't get tossed around too much.But I used to.

Practice practice practice. Start reading threads about duckdiving techniques and try to make it happen. The only tip I have is that you have to be moving forward to duckdive, it will let you come out farther behind the wave.

Ok, thanks guys!
Yea, i think one of the main problem was that for these steeper waves i took out my 6'4'' that og made for me and it was a lot harder to duckdive with it than with 5'11''
So next time i get sucked up the falls or something ill do my best to relax.
yea i dont think my frantic tugging on the leash helped either. haha
But DONT YOU GUYS THINK that the feeling you get when you realize that you havent duckdived deep enough is the worst? like you just feel it, and right as you realize what happened,.. you get sucked back and tossed like a doll

TReMoR wrote:But DONT YOU GUYS THINK that the feeling you get when you realize that you havent duckdived deep enough is the worst?

Yup.

TReMoR wrote:I already searched the forum and came upon the long hold down thread and what not, but I was wondering if I could do anything outside of the water to help me better prepare for the wipeouts.
[.....]

So I am just wondering how to better my endurance of holding my breath. By the way I think I can only hold it for about 30 seconds in the pool!! !!!

I have no experience of wipeouts like that but perhaps looking up and trying 'hypoxic training' for when you next go to the pool.

Ive tried it, but like most healthy things it was a fad I couldnt find time for. I really resent haveing to take time to exercise just to stay fit!! The basis for my trying it was not only to increase my bodys capacity for exercise with low oxygen levels but to also grow confidence in water to stop the gasping and flailng when oxyen got low.

Just did a little google search and found this http://www.kenalu.com/2008/03/22/learni ... t-breathe/

There are lots of other articles on this - it may help. You seem like the dedicated type

Ooo, yea.
Hmm, not sure if i will do that, because the relaxing thing helped a lot. Although the waves werent as big and pounding, as last time the wipeouts were still pretty bad, and being relaxed and letting the wave pass was good advice.

you sort of get used to wipeouts by doing it. if youre not wiping out youre not pushing hard enough. sooner or later youll have a similar wipeout and it wont seem so bad.

Wipe outs can be really scarry, there is a feeling of helplessness, and panic because you are tossed around like a puppet. The best thing I can give you for that is to relax, not fight it but allow for it to happen. You have no control over any of it, so you might as well embrace it and go with the flow. Your worst enemy is these situations is the panic that can set in your mind.

One of the best tip I have found when I get caught in the wrong spot with crashers overhead and I'm being tossed around is to slowly start counting. 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5 ect... It keeps your mind focussed out of fear and reassures you, because you know that you can easilly and safely stay under water for at least 30 seconds. Most of the time you remerge within 5 seconds but it seems like an eternity being tossed around. I do not think I have stayed under more than that, but then again, I do not surf huge waves.

Try it, its great. Best tip I ever received. Let us know how it works for you.

I find never letting go of your board the best bet, hug it, don't let go! The only time I bail is when the lip is going to axe me. I'm the same, my worst hold downs have always been in clean up sets (where I have bailed) never from wipeouts.

If you are getting sucked backwards over the falls then you aren't duck diving correctly. This should never happen, or should be a very rare occurrence if you can duck dive your board properly. Fitness is really important too. If you can't get to the surf often, then go swimming. If you aren't fit you'll be tired and anxious and struggle out there, even if you can duck dive well. I think a lot of surfers think they are fit but get a big surprise when the try do some laps at the pool.

I hug my board when I'm duck diving a clean up set. That way you aren't going to lose it. Yes you will cartwheel, somersault and spin underwater, all the while holding onto your board but you'll come up a lot quicker and have a better chance of standing your ground. Always remember if it's too much for you then just get washed in. It really isn't that bad out there. The more time you spend in big surf the quicker you'll get used to it. One day you'll be sitting out there and you'll remember that you used to be scared of situations like this but now it's just a normal day for you.

old article from surfline i think. these excercises helped me a lot.

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The most effective way to increase your body's efficiency when briefly starved of oxygen is hypoxic training. And yes, you guessed it, this involves swimming or otherwise exercising in short bursts while holding your breath.

When Brian Keaulana and his trainee lifeguards go rock-running underwater, they're undertaking a form of hypoxic training -- forcing their bodies to learn how to work better even when the regular, consistent supply of oxygen isn't available.

Since underwater rock-running isn't an option for all of us, here's a couple of suggestions:

IN THE POOL
Swim a warm-up 400 metres or so. Then try this:

- 25 meters freestyle, no breathing. Head down all the way. Do 10 sets of these, with 15 seconds gap in between each set.

Follow this with:

- 25 meters underwater swimming. If you have fins, use 'em. Do 10 sets, and chase each set with 25 meters nice slow, breathing freestyle. 20 seconds gap on these ones.

IN THE SURF
The ocean has supplied us with a great measuring device for underwater hypoxic training. It's called swell. Using swell intervals to time yourself underwater both puts you in touch with the sea's rhythms and provides a good discipline.

Try this on small days: swim out and around the nearest break for a little while till you're warmed up. Then:

- Dive and stay down for two waves. Then come up and breath for two waves. Then dive for another two waves. Do 10 sets of two waves, then just swim around for a while to settle yourself.

Now test yourself:

- Dive and stay down for THREE waves. Then come up and rest for three. Do this three times. OK . . . you're doing well.

A couple weeks of either of these and you'll find a remarkable improvement in your ability to function during wipeouts. WK also recommends bodysurfing as an excellent form of cross-training for larger surf -- it's essentially hypoxic, and has the advantage of being fun to do in surf you'd never paddle out to ride.

*This very good point was brought up by John Harris of Maryland: In the not too distant past, shallow-water blackouts have led to the deaths of some very experienced watermen. My advice: always do underwater breath-control exercises with a buddy. Even in a guarded pool, I'll only swim underwater laps when my buddy is there and is aware of what I am doing. Lifeguards can't see everything all of the time, and it only takes an instant to drown.

Rodrigo wrote:- 25 meters freestyle, no breathing. Head down all the way. Do 10 sets of these, with 15 seconds gap in between each set.

I'm out of breath just thinking about this.
25 metres, yep no problem doing a slow breast stroke... but freestyle (burn up all the oxygen fast) doing 10 in a row with 15 second gaps? I'm going to have to try this next week, lets see how many I manage. I'll warn the lifeguard to have an ambulance on standby.

you will be suprised how quickly you will get good at those fast sprint freestyles with head down all the way

although yes the 15 seconds break is optimistic - even after a few months i could do a few sets with a 15 second break, then it would get gradually longer until i was resting about 25-30 seconds in order to recover

i once saw some dumb movie with guys running underwater holding rocks.. i tried it on a flat day and found it pretty easy after all that swimming. got to have a buddy up top watching you all the time though.