Duckdiving my Evolution?

[Kiwistarista]

Hey Guys,

I'm a proud owner of a 6.9ft 20 wide 2.5 thick evolution-shaped board.
It's my first one and Im surfing now for about 1-2 months. Im really happy with my progress, BUT damn I want to duckdive

So now I wonder after hard tryin, if my board is just too hard to duckdive... I know it's quite long, but i thought with it's sharp shape it should be possible...

So what do u guys think???
Duckdive possible? Or better... Should I be able at my stage to duckdive it?


Another question that bothers me is,
where I should learn... Im allways goin out to the "big-waves" (2-6ft?) instead of the wihtewash... I mean I love it, even though Im gettin cleaned out 80% the time, but everytime I stand one of these big waves it's worth it (It's more standing it and surfing rather straight facing the beach, than riding it ) But Im just wondering if i'd make better progress on small waves (or even white wash...?

Hope u can help me
bye bye

[drowningbitbybit]

Duckdiving that board is very possible. Should be easy in fact, so its all technique and practise practise practise

As for progressing (well done, by the way) in my opinion a smaller day when you catch dozens of waves is more use than one epic paddle out and catching a monster

Surfing on the whitewater is a waste of time though once you're on a shortboard.

[dreamer]

i can duckdive my 6'10", although its 18 7/8ths, 2 3/5ths - the trick is learning how to distribute your weight to the front of your board then bringing that back foot up to stablise your recovery.

[GowerCharger]

my 6'10 is about as big as yours and its fine to duckdive, its something most people have a problem with at first but you will get it, you can practice when your sitting in the lineup make sure your getting the whole board sunk before you dive.
dont bother surfing the whitewater keep to what your doing, popping up is easier on unbroken waves, and while your getting nailed youll be learning a lot about wave selection and positioning which you wont learn from just surfing the soup.

[Kiwistarista]

wow thanks a lot 4 ur answers, so I guess I just have to try harder - and I will!

Is it a different technique (?) for longer boards, then 4 short boards...
Could u try to explain it roughly with ur own words?
I tried to paddle into the Wave, push the nose down, and get under the wave somehow... but that's my problem my board won't sink...

Any Advice?

Greetz
Freddy

[GowerCharger]

6'9 is shortboard really so you shouldnt need to use any special tricks to get you under.
lift yourself up and get your front foot onto the back of the tail, use all of your weight down onto the nose and get it sunk a foot or so underwater, the whole board should now be just underwater with the nose deeper than the tail. When the wave is nearly upon you follow the board under with your body and push hard with your foot to get the tail down (you can lift your other leg up to get more weight onto the tail too), as you sink pull yourself down onto the board with your arms pulling the board in a kind of scooping motion and once the wave has passed over float back up the other side ready to begin paddling hard again to get over the next wave before you have to duck it
hope that makes sense im not very good at explaining how i do things.

[Kiwistarista]

thanks again... next week I'm finally on bali and gonna train hard

Greets
Freddy