Learning the Duck Dive
The surfing duck dive is an advanced technique for short boards.When I teach Surf Lessons in Oceanside CA, the first lesson in paddling for waves is going over the foam wave coming in. If the waves are small, you can go over them easily on a soft top board or duck the nose under the lip of the foam.
Big Waves
When waves are bigger, the foam is taller, and there is more power, you want to get as far under the lip as possible. The easiest was is to paddle hard, grab the front of the surfboard (short boards) and push the nose toward the ocean bottom. It will naturally hit a point where it wants to resurface and hopefully by then the wave has passed you.
Learning the Surfing Duck Dive Saves Pounding
A more effective duck dive is placing one knee at the back of the board and then pressing the nose down while lifting the other leg into the air so it might remain above the water for a second. This applies more pressure to sink the board. Many surfers will put a foot to the rear of the board to get even more pressure to dive.
Sometimes if a big wave is going to crash on me and I don’t have time to duck dive or if it would be inconsequential, I will just turn turtle and point the nose of the board up through the wave while I remain under the board. This minimizes the resistance of the board.
When I don’t have to duck dive, I will just push the nose of the board under the oncoming foam. Depending on the height of the foam and the power of the wave, most of us will look for the process that consumes the least energy.
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For Oceanside Surf Lessons Calif, see the Landing Page
See a My Dry Land Surf Lesson and in Water Demonstration,
I also have a video on doing the 4 different kinds of pop ups you can use to get up on the board in the water. Necessary if you are going to learn without a surf lesson. See this video
