by dtc » Wed Nov 12, 2014 12:50 am
Catching white water still requires you to paddle hard, otherwise the water hits you suddenly and the board gets out of control, as you say. If you are padding, then the water hits you, the differential is much smaller and the loss of control is smaller.
Catching big whitewater is harder, in a way, than catching big waves, because on a wave you will already be up to speed before you catch it - if you aren't, you will miss the wave. Whereas for white water, if you aren't up to speed you will still be hit by the water and it will push you along with a sudden jolt. So waves have a sort of built in control - if the differential is too much, you miss the wave. Whitewater doesn't have that.
Given that you are practicing for pop up reasons, there is no advantage in popping up straight away. Wait until the board is 'under control' then pop up. However, don't just lay on the board until the water hits you - paddle hard, just like you are on a wave, before the water gets to you.
Also, because the white water is all broken up, the board is less able to 'grip' the wave (through its concaves/fins etc). So boards in whitewater are actually a bit less stable than on a wave - on a wave, boards are held to the solid water. That said, if you cant pop up in white water, then you may not be able to do it on a wave (where there are all different angles and all sorts of other things going on)
I'm surprised your feet hang over the back on a 7ft10 board. Are you sure you are far enough forward on the board when you lay down? I'm 6ft3 and on my 7ft4 board my feet are only just over the tail
You should be positioned on the board, roughly, so when you lay on it in flat water, the nose of the board is about 1inch above the water level (give or take a small amount). Often you are meant to be a lot more forward than you think - and, by the way, if you are nose diving its very rarely because you are too far forward, its almost certainly because you weren't paddling fast enough. So don't move back on the board thinking it will cure the nose diving (perling), because it actually makes things worse.