SURF: 3-4 ft. + waist to shoulder high with occasional 6 ft. and poor-fair conditions.
Apartment hunting had put me in a pretty rotten mood and after failing to catch a wave on Tuesday I opted for an early morning with the new shortboard. I was trying to practice duck diving and paddling to get the hang of the board rather than trying for any waves. One puzzled guy asked me why I only paddled out to the white water, flailed around, and then boogie boarded it back. I told him what I was doing and he laughed and paddled on.
I still can’t get a clean duck dive in. I had wave after wave to the face trying to get the board under.
It should look more like this:
And less like a wave smacking you in the face.
El Porto Fridays has a great description on their site:
- Prepare: Approach the wave with some speed. I’m not saying you want to go for a full sprint, but being idle when the wave approaches won’t help your cause either. Whatever rhythm and momentum you have, keep it up.
- Nose down: As the wave approaches, push the nose down into the water like you are submarine and the captain just called out, “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!†Timing this correctly will take some practice. Dive too early and you may pop up right in the curl; too late and you may get blasted by the wave. Just experiment a bit and you’ll figure it out.
- Tail down: As the wave starts to pass over you, take your foot and push down on the tail of the board. If timed right, the curl of the wave will pass over you and you’ll roll under and get shot out the back. Some surfers like to use their knee instead of their foot to push the tail down. The choice is up to you, but I recommend using the foot for two reasons. First, using your foot will allow you to push to the tail farther down and achieve a better arc. Second, the knee is a much more focused pressure point and can cause more damage to the tail of your board in the form of a significant pressure ding or full de-lamination over time.
- Exit: Finally, straighten out, sail to the surface of the water and paddle on.
I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually, but I’m expecting to take a lot of waves to the face trying!