Surfing Waves

Aloha all!


I am 5'2, 105lbs and currently transitioning from an 8'0 blueplanet longboard to a 6'8 surf betty (between shortboard and funboard). The board feels better on my body but I'm having a tough time charging through white wash. I max out at a Hawaii 3 foot wave. Any suggestions, I feel like this board is still a little big and buoyant to duck dive. When I turtle roll it, it feels as though the pressure of the wave is pushing my board and I down.


Any suggestions may help!

Mahalo!

smallkine808surfgirl wrote:I am 5'2, 105lbs and currently transitioning from an 8'0 blueplanet longboard to a 6'8 surf betty (between shortboard and funboard). The board feels better on my body but I'm having a tough time charging through white wash. I max out at a Hawaii 3 foot wave. Any suggestions, I feel like this board is still a little big and buoyant to duck dive. When I turtle roll it, it feels as though the pressure of the wave is pushing my board and I down.

I am 5'2" 125 lbs. and can NOT duck dive NSP Funboard. I can duckdive the 6'4" NSP Fish, but that's about my max.
Question:
1) What break do you surf at ?
2) Are you paddling full speed up to the wave and turning over at the very last second ?

I live on North shore, so when it's big I surf Pua ena or Ali'i, when it's smaller I like to surf Lani's and sometimes Chun's... but usually too croweded. I surf Maleakahana beach sometimes too when it's breaking out that way.

Most times i'm coming full speed at the wave.. it just feels weird when I turtle roll on my smaller board.

I only surf boards that are too big for me to duck dive but I can do a partial duck dive. Mostly I try to avoid whitewater and always look for the shortest distance to get outside of the whitewater so I don't need to do any kind of duck dive or turtle roll. Then for smaller whitewater I just do a push up on the board and let the whitewater go between me and the board. If it is a little bigger I push up and then lean back to lift the nose up so the board goes over the whitewater. If it is bigger then that I usually do a half duck dive which is known on these forums as a duck dip. I basically do a handstand on the board but first shoving the nose under water so when I tilt up my weight is pushing the nose further underwater. Then the wave will hit my exposed rear end and the bottom half of the board and when I feel that I pull up on the nose so the wave helps me out by pushing the tail down as it goes by. I may do a turtle roll if the wave is going to land right on me

smallkine808surfgirl wrote:Most times i'm coming full speed at the wave.. it just feels weird when I turtle roll on my smaller board.

That's the thing with moving down in size too quickly. You gain maneuverability but lose paddling power. Sometimes a bigger heavy board has the momentum to pierce thru the wave. You just got to stroke even harder on that shorter board and kick like hell when your flipped over.

waikikikichan wrote:That's the thing with moving down in size too quickly. You gain maneuverability but lose paddling power. Sometimes a bigger heavy board has the momentum to pierce thru the wave. You just got to stroke even harder on that shorter board and kick like hell when your flipped over.

I'm hoping to be able to ride my 6'8" walden cd at some point to add variety to the type of ride I can enjoy. I love the way those magic carpets and eggs draw nimble yet smooth lines. Do you have a recommended plan of moving down? I mostly ride my 9' longboard but for a while I was on 8' mini tanker, and occasionally a 7'10" minimal. I don't feel like I'm less capable on the minimal except I need to focus a little on lateral stability while paddling out. I know I won't be able to duck dive anything buoyant and that the paddling would be more laboring as well as I need to adjust the take off position and techniques.