Surfing Waves

Hi all

I am originally a bodyboarder (not bad at it either ) A friend of mine rented one of these soft top training boards (10ft) i had a go on it and wow i was hooked so the next day i bought myself a 7.8" fun board (i dont hang around)

I cant beleive how different surfing is to sponging i mean im a pretty good Dker (dropknee) and thought that surfing would be breeze. Man i was so wrong. My pop-up is pretty quick and i get onto my feet okay but staying up is another thing lol. My wave knowledge is pretty good and paddling a surfboard is fine to me feels pretty natural.

Well thats my story heres my questions.

Im sure with repetition ill get the pop-up right (currently doing it on the foamies) But when should i think about tackling actual waves? I remember learning to dk and i only went for bigger waves when i was competant with my balance and stance. does the same idea apply here.

I started practising duckdiving my board and really cant get it right which annoys the hell out of me because ive taken my bodyboard out into some seriouse winter swells and done fine. When begin your duckdive where should your knee/foot be placed and what action should it do to get you under. Sorry im a little confused. Someone told me i should duckdive a surfboard like i duck a body board i cant seem to draw that comparision but anyway ill keep on attempting it.

Thanks in advance for the help

I think it would be near enough impossible to duckdive a 7'8.

There are threads on here about rolling it.............otherwise, check behind you to make sure no-ones there, and ditch it, dive deep and when you re-surface pull your leash and hop on your board and paddle like mad

Turtle roll-as the wave is about to hit you just roll over and when under water pull your board towards you then just roll back on top and carry on paddeling.

Thanks for the info i think i will practise turtling it. Id rather not let go of the board that will be my last resort. Theres a nice section on this site about turtling which i intend to study.

Thanks

Bah another one turns to the dark side.... :roll:

Nah wont be giving up bodyboarding but i live right next to the beach have a lot of spare time and as san diego is always pretty good i go in the water every day so im splitting my sessions up if the surf is big out comes my bodyboard if its good to learn on (need small waves at the mo just a beginer lol) out comes the surfboard.

So far ive been going in for 2 2hour sessions one on the surfboard one on my custom x.

My immdeite goal is to actually beable to trim a wave with a surf board and currenlt im really attempting to do an ars on my custom x (well im getting there)

Hummmm thats sounds respectable ;) get to sponge out for the propper stuff :) heh

yep the great thing about sponging where iam is that hardly anyone does it properly (they are surfing crazy in socal) So when onlookers see you busting 360's in dk position most of them have never seen anything like it lol. Theres only one other really good bodyboarder on my local patch(he should turn pro he's that good) otherwise its jst a mob of toursits riding the white water

Down here they differentiate(sp) between bodyboarders and boogieboarders. A boogieboarder is a toursist on a pice of polystyrene. A real bodyboarder rides real waves preforms hard tricks and can handle the surf. Surfers here look down on wannabies but thus far they seem to accept decent bodyboarders.