big waves

[Sillysausage]

how do you guys cope with getting out to the breaking waves? can you duck dive on your big boards??

[Old Guys Rule]

It is a lot of work to get out there but the ride is well worth it. I love to surf a long board 9'6" on the big days. The white wash really pulls you back. I do a turtle role and kick through like a mad man. Once I am out in the line up, I will usually pass on a few waves to give my arms a rest.

[jethrodog]

I can't duck dive worth crap on my 8'6". i know I should but I only make it about half the time, the rest of the time I get demolished by the wave. I try to go out and around the waves when I can, staying on the edges. I will also watch the waves and try to time it right in between the sets. But sometimes that doesn't work. In the end, just put your head down and paddle your ass off!

[bluesnowcone]

i take my time, if its big i will watch the surf for a few minuets then go out where it looks the easiest and paddle my ass off and if needs be i turtle roll and try and get under them, but once i did a turtle roll the wave look me with it and i landed ontop of my board facing backwards. but like old guys rule said, its well worth the ride, you get so much speed and power, but you do need to give your arms because you fell like youv been paddeling for a few hours straight.

the easiest paddle out on longboards is for reef breaks or point breaks, you can just paddle around all the waves

[IdRatherBeSurfing]

i really need to crack this duckdiving thing am just making the transition onto a shortboard and its murder getting outback. whenever i go to duckdive i just take a gobful of water, its foul

[isaluteyou]

a lot of the time its down to sheer determination if its rough and theres not much of a break between sets then its just all out paddle power Mind you in surf like that you really have to want to get out to make it.

[Rodilla]

I am a small guy. I only weigh like 130 pounds. I surf all kind of waves and I admit I love big wave surfing although I'm not always there when its huge. I have a brand new 7.2 and I am ready to tackle some big mammas next year! But in the east coast like 6 or 7 years ago I went out with this crazy argentinian big wave legend on one of his big wave boards to a half a mile out shore break were we surfed something like 12-15 feet front face waves. I had a 8.7 pintail and its rails were something like 4 inches thick. I remember the techinique I used to duck dive was the old timer's turtle turn. Its not even a duck dive, its just a technique to let the white water pass by while you hold your board against the force of the avalanche. After that it was pure paddle power. With everything you've got! Needless to say it was one session I will NEVER forget.

Thanks Edwin!!!

P-ball

[surferdude_scarborough]

here we go a comprehensive guide on the easiest way to duck dive

Step one: get a board thats barely big enough to float you
Step two: learn to surf on said board
Step three: when waves come just stop doing what you were doig to keep afloat and you shall sink under the water.

sorted.


as you may be able to tell i can only duckdive really short boards so im a bit useless for any real help. i thought id put that in for comedy value. i actually got fully submerged while still sitting on my board once coz i wasnt paying attention. (think i was chatting to a female surfer of some kind)[/list]

[sal]

here we go a comprehensive guide on the easiest way to duck dive

Step one: get a board thats barely big enough to float you
Step two: learn to surf on said board
Step three: when waves come just stop doing what you were doig to keep afloat and you shall sink under the water.

sorted.


as you may be able to tell i can only duckdive really short boards so im a bit useless for any real help. i thought id put that in for comedy value. i actually got fully submerged while still sitting on my board once coz i wasnt paying attention. (think i was chatting to a female surfer of some kind)[/list]

LMAO, nice one S-S!

[sal]

I can't duckdive either tho!

[Dec]

Well where I surf I put on the reef booties and go rock climbing. It's usually really tough to paddle out on a beach break so I find somewhere to jump in.

Haven't you guys got piers and rocks? That saves a lot of effort if your not afraid of jumping in from a height!

[scuba steve]

I think like other people have said, it isall about paddle fitness. You can pretty much get out past the whitewater on anything if you have the stamina and strength to keep paddling.

[surferdude_scarborough]

how shall i put this


er no

[surferdude_scarborough]

no waves either though so the problems somewhat irrelavent.

[Otter]

Getting to the outside... The age old question of how to. Here's my 2 cents (or pence?).

I ride a 10', if it's really big, when the whitewash comes in I bail to the back of my board, dismount and push the sucker through the wave, holding it in my hands arms fully outstretched and locked so the board doesn't come back and bump me noodle. It makes it alot easier to get yourself through the wave as well, the board takes the brunt of the force, you just follow through behind it. Be sure to keep your arms locked though, or it may come back and break your beak. This works on 5'+ waves, anything smaller I just power through.

[isaluteyou]

intresting technique otter. How does it fair in those winter swell beach breaks Not that i'll ever ride a 10ft board well not it would take some convincing

[rich r]

The only real way to effectively get out back is the eskimo roll (going turtle/logroll).

I don't know of anyone who can properly duckdive a longboard shaped board over 8 foot. Maybe a gun, due to its shape and all, but a rounded nose, with all that volume up front, not really gonna happen.

So, anyway - when I switched up from shortboarding to longboard a few years ago, I thought the same thing - I'm never going to get out back on a big day. Buy eventually, you figure out the technique.

First thing, it depends on where you are with the wave breaking. If you're partly into the wave and the lip starts over on you.. well, then you're better off trying to punch through. But if you're heading towards a broken or about to break wave;

- Keep paddling to try and get some forward motion going. Forward motion is very important.
- You want to time your roll so that the wave is about a foot away from the nose before you flip.
- Hang onto that board. The shape of the board will help you, since it's designed to stay on top of the water - upside down, it will tend to run along the underside of the whitewater, sinking a bit. Try to keep your body close to the board
- roll back when you feel the wave has passed over. Don't wait forever. you want to still be moving forward when you flip back and start paddling again, especially in a set situation.

You do have speed working for you - a longboard will glide faster than a shortboard, so you should cover more distance in the same amount of time, meaning you should have less waves to get through.

At the end of the day though, the best things to do are;

- read the ocean; wait for that lull inbetween sets to paddle out. Better yet, start out in the middle of a set, so you deal with the leftover white water early on, and don't have to roll at all
- find the channel; go out in the deep section where the waves aren't breaking, or at least where they turn to mush.
-

[el_timmo]

JETSKI!!!

[isaluteyou]

Nice one timmo. Yep we all need a jetski to take us out.

Each surf session instead of being free will all cost us about $100

Or we could just not

[el_timmo]

yes, but if we all did it, it would cost less.... although I imagine Libby would say that it would cost the planet more in the long run..... hippie!