Surfing Waves

Hi everyone,

Also I'm an experienced rider (been surfing for 20+ years, mostly short eggs, fish, and old school 6'8-7'6 (semi)guns for bigger waves), there is an issue that I had always trouble with: taking off in the breaking or just broken whitewash. I mean, my pop up is fast and smooth when taking off as waves jack up; no problem either on late take off, I can handle air drop fairly well. *BUT* trying to take off in the whitewash is ultra challenging for me. Sometimes I see these young SBer popping up in the whitewash and snaking as they catch up the face, seems easy looking at them, but when I try (whitewash pop up, not snaking ) I usually get off-balanced by the turbulences and fall off just after pop up (except in gently rolling whitewash off a soft face, where it feels like a regular take off). Not that I'm intererested in surfing whitewash but in some cases such as in onshore mush, or when some sets closeout outside but the whitewash makes up a nice wave on the inside it can be useful to take off in a pounding whitewash.

So, do you know any tips that help in popping up reliably and recover from a pounding whitewash?
Thanks !

I don't have much to say but welcome to the forum. The only thing is I can tell you my experience with the same issue. I am 60 years old and started surfing when I was 18 but I quit for 11 or 12 years and restarted. When I restarted I used a 9 foot longboard and it didn't do well in whitewater but it was better than a 7 foot fish that I surfed. I now surf an 8 foot fungun and it is great in whitewater. So my thought is the board makes a huge difference. I still have a little problem in whitewater but that is only when it's breaking on me or on smaller waves where I am not taking a drop. If I feel the board bucking a lot, I either try to pop up real quick or I hang on till it quits bucking. Looking at the design of the boards my current board has the biggest tail rocker and the longboard had the next biggest tail rocker and the fish had very little tail rocker. I suspect that having a lot of tail rocker helps but it may just be a coincidence. Maybe someone else will have more to say. edited to add: I say a lot but that doesn't mean I have a lot to say

I do like a bit of big whitewater action every now and then

Sometimes, it'll re-form (or that's what I tell myself) and sometimes, well, you're going with it anyway, so you might as well surf it

Yeah, almost impossible to pop up when its bucking around beneath you. What I do is paddle for the wave, a bit further back on the board than normal so the breaking section doesn't just lob me out in front of the wave, but then put my hands towards the front of the board and shift my weight ultra-far forward so the board slides over the front of the wash and onto the "face", where it settles down and the board rides across the top of the foam, and then pop up. If you've timed it right, you can get enough speed in front of the foam to turn back onto the unbroken section. If you haven't timed it right, you get to ride whitewater all the way to the shore like a newbie

I don't mean doing that thing learners sometimes do of holding on right until the bottom of the wave - more of an ultra-committed push onto the wave, right at the beginning, and then getting up as fast as possible.

So... weight at the back of the board... catch wave... weight right at the front of the board using hands... move hands back to normal position and pop up.
Oh, and stay low with a railgrab if necessary.

I think the smaller the board the less surface area and less force on the bottom of the board. My fungun is a pintail so it has a smaller tail area. The 7' fish I surfed has a wide tail area and whitewater seemed to just flip me off the board so maybe the surface area of the tail is what matters.

Thanks! I will try the suggestion to keep a low stance at pop up, as I tend to pop up and extend immediately when in taking off in the white wash, it should help me keeping balance while the board is "buckling". Will also try being farther back on the board while paddling for the wave: in my normal position, the board usually accelerates too fast when hit by the backwash, and it's hard to keep balance when popping up.

Thanks for the tips !

Regards

I used to have trouble taking off in whitewater but it seems ok now. I still fall down sometimes but where I run into the problem is when I am making a late takeoff and the wave breaks on me. If it crumbles away beneath me I do really well and can just take off like I would normally ride the whitewater down and make a decent bottom turn off the momentum off the drop. If the wave breaks on me as I am standing I often will fall so if I think it's going to I stay down let it slam me then stand quickly or I may try to stand quickly before it hits but if I miss the timing and get hit while I am popping up then I may fall. I also takeoff on whitewater when I am too far outside and paddle like crazy trying to get into the wave then it may break because I am not on the wave yet but it works pretty much the same as being too far inside. Also if it's bucking me around a bit I will wait for a break in the bouncing and pop up quickly. I can't tell from your description when exactly you run into problems.

oldmansurfer wrote: I can't tell from your description when exactly you run into problems.

When the whitewash just hit me, popping up blindly in the turbulences at this time usually makes me fall. And when I'm waiting a bit for the board to get clear of the whitewash, the board is already accelerating too fast down the face: feels the right time for a good bottom turn instead of a pop up May be loading up the tail by being further back would stall the take off at this time (just when getting out of the white wash) and make the pop up easier. Will experiment when waves will be back

Let us know how the experiment goes?

I've had days where it's just whitewashy and had similar problems with pop-up to you. I found that holding on to the board and just riding the whitewash for a few seconds and then popping up would usually solve it- and keeping a very low stance on the board when I would pop up.
Once up, sometimes the wave would re-break in to something clean and ridable while other times it would just stay whitewashy and i'd jump off.
Either way is better than being thrown off straight away from trying to pop up too quickly though.

Hope that helps

Thank you for this thread.. this is an issue I've been pondering. I find my longboard paddles so easily in to clean waves, but when it's onshore and choppy I can't get the same glide. I often need to use a bit of white water to catch the wave when it's onshore, but this often results in a wipeout! I'm looking forward to trying DBBB's method... for once I will be glad to see onshore waves