Surfing Waves

As I stated in my intro, I'm relatively new to surfing (1.5 years) and I've learned as much as I can on my own. I did a search and found some answers to questions that have been bugging me but one that I haven't seen addressed is board control meaning: what to do with your board when you know you've lost your balance and are going to eat it, or what to do with your board when the wave is done.

I have watched many people do many different things. And I've also decided that simply jumping off and letting the board go flying any which way is certainly a very dangerous thing, especially in a crowd.

Anyway, what is the best thing to do?

I have:
-jumped to the side of my board while holding out an arm to catch it on the way down....this results in bruised biceps which make for sore paddling.

-turned the nose of the board toward the wave to attempt to go off the backside and sink into the water. This sometimes works and allows me to get a good grasp on the rails to place myself back on the board, but I ride an 8' funboard and it's not easy for me to turn into a wave at my skill level. Sometimes while trying this method my feet will slip off and the board will launch into the air after i get it turned around.

-stepped off the side and let it fly when there aren't people around but I feel this is bad practice and might be frowned upon. Plus I've broken leashes that way...


So what is the best solution for keeping control of your board after a wave dies out on you or you lose your balance and need to bail?

I cringe every time my board goes flying out of control and do not wish to harm anyone. So lately I've just sacrificed myself to maintain control of it.

TIA!

Hi again spectrefish, Ok some ways to get off a wave that might help.

Let cover a few items, if you are riding white water towards the beach and there is not much power in the water, lie down on the board grab the rails and lean backwards so you bog the back of the board down you will get bumped a bit but you should stop.
If you are riding the wall and you see it is dying then make your last turn towards the top of the wave and use the power of the turn to project yourself seaward, this is a useful skill as you can learn to do it faster and faster and pop over closeouts if needs be.
If there is no body in your firing line you can use the kick out, turn towards the wave as above and kick your board up and over the wave, be aware you will get some rebound from the leash.
You can also turn your nose into the wave grab the rail and pop out the back of the wave.
If the wave is gutless and dying just swing off the back whilst lying down on your board and paddle out like you were just warming up>
learning won't be elegant or easy but it will come.

Please remember that you are learning skills that a lot of other surfers have abandoned and they only rely on their leash. WRONG.
Pat your self on the back and enjoy the skills as you get them

awesome post jaffa! I'm going to try a couple of these methods tomorrow morning!

Hey spectrefish, I thought of this post this morning as I ended a wave...

Sometimes you just can't end gracefully, and you're going to lose your board, but one thing I noticed this morning that I do unconsciously is too make sure I keep my legs low in the water - that pulls the leash down and hence the board towards you. I'll even stand on the leash (with the same leg its wrapped around) to bring the board a little closer still. Just make sure the board doesn't ping back towards you too fast (but still better that it pings towards you than somebody else).

drowningbitbybit wrote:Hey spectrefish, I thought of this post this morning as I ended a wave...

I'm glad I can raise awareness.

If I do lose the board, I tend to jerk it back with a snap of the leg, but like i said previously, I've broken leashes that way. Your method seems like it would be a little better.