"I paddle super hard and still can't catch the wave"

[waikikikichan]

"I paddling super hard as I can and I still can't catch the wave".
"What's the best workout to increase paddle strength ?"
"Do paddle gloves make me go faster ?"

You need 3 things to catch a wave - Power, Position and Timing.
Power - you the paddler, the size and float of your board, the speed of the wave itself etc.
Position - Where the board is on the wave, Where you are on the board.
Timing - When to start paddling, when to pause, when to stop, when to pop.

If you have Bad Timing, you could make it up with a strong paddle and being in the right spot.
If you have Bad Position, ( say because of the crowd or current ), you could make up for it with quicker than normal pop up or a fade to adjust timing and use your power to get in.

But of the three - Timing and Position are most important. Even if you are not very strong ( or a bit on the heavier side like some of the uncles at Waikiki ) you can use your knowledge of the waves to know where to sit and when to go, and catch everything.

Watch this video from 1:03 mark.

That's how easy it is.

[BaNZ]

I watched it from the start as she has a nice body. If only my local break has good waves like that, I would have much more time to practice.

I'm terrible at positioning myself and I keep picking waves that closes out completely. The other better surfers keep picking up the good ones that is ride-able.

[Oldie]

...
That's how easy it is.

Haha. Anything but.

I think this is so hard. Last summer in very small surf I was sitting beside a guy about my heigt, size and age. He looked a bit stronger and certainly more experienced. He did what you describe and catched any ankle biter. Very few paddles and a smooth glide into the wave. I tried to copy him, but failed.

[oldmansurfer]

some waves are easy to catch and some aren't but the right board and skills help.

[BoMan]

But of the three - Timing and Position are most important. Even if you are not very strong ( or a bit on the heavier side like some of the uncles at Waikiki ) you can use your knowledge of the waves to know where to sit and when to go, and catch everything.

Of course you are right but it's complicated and that's what I love about surfing. If anyone missed it, DTC wrote a great post that built my knowledge of the waves!

Re: Swell direction and Height-close our conditions
Postby dtc » Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:03 pm

different swells (often called primary, secondary, tertiary) are created by different weather patterns. (note: following is taken from Australian BOM) Think of two children throwing large rocks into either end of a pond. The waves will travel out from where the rock impacts the water through to the other side of the pond. Eventually all parts of the pond will have waves caused by both children. The two wave trains will interact with each other where their paths cross, generating higher peaks where the peaks of the wave trains intersect, and lower troughs where the two troughs meet. Even after the last rock has been thrown, the waves generated will continue to exist and interact for some further period until they decay.

Each of the places those rocks land is the centre of a 'weather pattern'. There are usually more than 3 weather patterns affecting any one location, but after 3 the impact is fairly small so not usually taken into account. In your case, the secondary and tertiary swells are a lot smaller than the primary swell, so while they will affect it a bit they arent going to be that much of an issue (eg may create some bumpy conditions or small intervening waves, but not too bad)

In most places a 9s interval is enough to create a surfable wave; but the 'swell period' describes only most powerful waves in a swell, but a swell will have a mix of waves of different periods.

two other things that are relevant:

- wind. Wind can blow larger waves flat or stand up smaller waves and allow them to be surfed (or made harder to surf).
- the way your beach faces. The primary swell you listed is NW, but if your beach faces SW then its simply not going to get most of that swell, because the swell is going on direction and your beach faces the other. Instead you will mostly get the SSW swell and perhaps some refraction

Close out or not, and length of surfable wave, is far more dependent on swell direction than height or period. Swell direction here meaning 'swell direction as it works on your beach'. You can have one beach that is surfable and the beach around the headland that is completely flat, or one that has long peelers and the next is close outs.

So what you probably had was the occasional NW wave at 9 seconds, but even with the NW swell it may have more commonly 4-6 second period waves. You may have had the swell coming from the wrong direction to even give you much of that NW swell (I dont know your beach, that is for you to figure out from experience)

My suggestion is this:
1. focus on swell direction first - this will tell you whether the swell creates surfable waves at your beach. The more dominant the primary swell (how much bigger than the secondary swell) the cleaner the waves will be
2. swell size then indicates how big those waves may be (noting that they are affected by direction)
3. swell interval tells you how powerful they will be (which obviously also relates to size - 4ft @8 seconds produces a smaller face than 4ft at 18 seconds)
4. wind is a variable and also can change direction and strength quite suddenly; under 10mph/16km/h or 10 knots, usually not much of a factor. Above that and it can improve or reduce your waves depending on wind directions

[mg100]

Sorry but as soon as I saw the hot chick I forgot everything you said.

[RinkyDink]

I'm terrible at positioning myself and I keep picking waves that closes out completely. The other better surfers keep picking up the good ones that is ride-able.

Just some advice from a beginner. Look at the very first frame of your video and check out the takeoff angles of the two surfers. I think you're taking off too straight. The other surfer in the frame has the right takeoff angle for that wave, in my opinion. In small waves, from my experience, it's almost required to angle your takeoff. There isn't enough of an incline to a small wave to keep a surfer on an incline if they're takeoff is pointed straight into the beach. Obviously on a head high wave a surfer can do a bottom turn to get back onto the incline on the wave face. So from my experience, if I take off straight on a small wave I slide down the face of the wave into the trough and kind of stall there (a heavy back foot doesn't help me either). Sometimes the wave has enough juice to pick me up and slide me down its incline again, but more often than not I'm stalled in the trough and surfing in whitewater pretty quickly. Anyway, I think you might have better luck if you improve the angle of your takeoff and stay high on the wave (that's where the incline is). That's my surfing mantra these days, "Stay high on the wave." I also avoid the trough of the wave (if I can) until I want to bottom turn into a top turn.

[oldmansurfer]

I watched it from the start as she has a nice body. If only my local break has good waves like that, I would have much more time to practice.

I'm terrible at positioning myself and I keep picking waves that closes out completely. The other better surfers keep picking up the good ones that is ride-able.

Yes that wave you rode was closing out. There was no trick to making that wave from where you lined up. So the solution is obvious...... learn to read the waves better. Each wave has a different shape but some are similar. Watch what the other surfers are doing, where are they lining up, what is the shape of the waves they chose to go on. Then try to find waves with that shape. So both look at the shape of the wave and the position they place themselves in relation to that shape. Of course this is unless you are happy riding whitewater then just keep doing the same thing

[RinkyDink]

There was no trick to making that wave from where you lined up.

If a surfer is at a break where closed out sections are the norm, then I think the best way to surf that spot is to see how far in front of the closed out section one can get. Who knows? at some point a surfer might start making it around those sections. Obviously, if a surfer just wants to relax and surf what the wave is offering, then there is no need to worry about technique. However, if a surfer is working on making it around closed out sections, then I think that person needs to take a look at their takeoff.

My experience with the two main styles of takeoff (straight versus angled) is that a straight takeoff forces a surfer to bottom turn in the trough. Unfortunately, that means (especially on a longboard) that a surfer has to carve a bottom turn to get back onto the mid to top section of the wave where there is enough of a slope to generate the speed to get around closed out sections. In small waves a straight takeoff is going to force a surfer to take a second or two to get a lonboard turned, not to mention the loss of board momentum that results from a carving turn, is enough to prevent a surfer from making it around closed out sections. In my experience, if I want to make a section, then I need to have a lot of board speed going into my angled takeoff (meaning I'm paddling my ass off going into my takeoff) and after my popup I need to be moving across the wave face (not in front of it) as fast as possible where I'll be looking down the line getting ready to either go over, around, or through a closed out section. In other words, I have to get rid of the carving turn step (bottom turn) a straight takeoff requires to get back onto the speed generating slope of the wave. So, I guess if there is a trick for me, it's that I want to have a lot speed going into my takeoff and after my popup I want to be flying across the wave rather than having to stall my board to complete a carving turn.

[oldmansurfer]

He was saying that others could ride waves but he always picked the ones that closeout. So some waves were not closing out but he couldn't apparently pick which ones. My usual for closeouts is to go to the end of the wave or to find a section that allows me to get down and back up at least once.

[RinkyDink]

My usual for closeouts is to go to the end of the wave or to find a section that allows me to get down and back up at least once.

I do the same thing, but when I started I missed the obvious a lot. Sometimes that peak I'd been surfing for the last 6 months would start closing out. I'd have to catch the wave a little bit off its usual peak spot to get a decent ride. Silly to admit, but I still sat on the usual peak thinking it was better when the sweet spot had clearly moved. Anyway, I'm beginning to develop a sharper awareness of the swell direction and its effects on the waves. I haven't really been paying close attention to the relationship between swell direction and wave characteristics aside from loving long period south swells.

[pmcaero]

You guys are so nasty commenting on that girl's body instead of focusing on the pure art of surfing as shared by master Waikikichan!

If I had waves like those, and an empty lineup, you would not have me complaining. You can see they maintain a decent slope without breaking. I've literally never seen with my own eyes waves that good.

But reforms like in Banz's video can be good fun too, I'd recommend working on turns next time you end up on something like that, you get an extra push from the white water at the top and you can alternate going both directions.

[LostAtSea]

This is for any beginners who may be reading, and in conjunction with the advice of others - In response to the title of the thread...

Paddle to the part of the wave where you're sure to pearl and catch it there.

You really only need about 4 or 5 power paddles to get yourself moving down the wave.

Just get to your feet before your nose goes under.

I don't think about it much beyond that when I'm in the water.