Originally Posted by
zaGaffer
Non sequitorum. Duck diving a long board really isn't all that difficult. The technique is almost the same as duck diving a short board, except with the slight variation of using the board's rail to break the laminar as opposed to just using your weight to shove down the nose. I've seen wizened, little, old men do this with 10' old school PIGS. Okay, so maybe these old men are the same guys surfing these SoCal breaks since they were teens in the 60's. They've still all shrunk happens to the best of us. Duck diving a long board is more work, takes an acute sense of timing and requires practice, practice, practice. And who likes to do anything that takes effort and does not offer an immediate sense of return? Not me, but if a crazy, lazy kook like me can flounder a board under a wave, so can you! Turtle rolls are more for big waves. Like Sunset or Waimea. Seriously watch, Surf Crazy or Hollow Days or any Bruce Brown flick, I think he might have made one other one called Endless Winter or something, they're all on Netflix. The only time you see any of those guys rolling over is in the Winter on the North Shore, also the only place you see any of them ditch their board. Which reminds me, I saw an old Hobie board on Craigs the other day, thing had ropes sewn through holes in the body of the board of itself. I've read about people paddling out in huge waves back in the 60's with boards like that. They used ropes so that when they "Hawaiian Rolled" (as Turtling is more dignified-idly known, I have also never seen a tortoise or turtle intentially roll onto it's back either) under monsters, the wave's back pressure wouldn't just rip the board right out of they're hands. Like many surfing innovations and designs, this one went the way of the passenger pigeon (MMMMMMMM passenger pigeon, you have to love animal species that humanity ATE or are eating into extinction, our great-grandparents did, I kid), and like the passenger pigeon, also died out due to the invention of the Gun; however, unlike the Passenger Pigeon, not due to modern canning techniques. Also, the Hawaiian roll is slow, it stops all of your forward momentum, then you have to not only overcome inertia, but fight the tug of a wave that's now heading towards the shore. If you are duck diving properly, you should be able to use the underside of the wave's turbulence to propel you forward, think about it like rolling up/down an upside down hill.
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As far as ditching your board, it's just bad JuJu, but like they said in Lil' Orphan Annie, "when you gotta go, you gotta go". I can't remember the last time I ditched a board or peed myself. I was probably pretty drunk or loonie on the gypsum flower, we've all done it, and like the aforementioned vices, I know it's happened more than once. There is nothing funnier than seeing somebody ditch a longboard (or any board for that matter) right as a wave breaks, then watching the board shoot straight up out of the back of the crashing wave, soar like a bird into the air, flash for an instant in the sun (or lack thereof if it's May or June in SD) and then catch on it's leash; before diving straight back towards the sea like a pelican, eying your melon like it's a passenger pigeon mackerel.** MMMMMMM surfer melon mackerel. I see that happen every so often and invariably laugh my ass off. Luckily I have never anyone take an Inter-continental Ballistic Surf Missile to the dome, that would be No Rad (I know puns are terrible, but no one got my "Ut fundum ipso loquitor" joke). I would most likely stop laughing, it would certainly kill my buzz. I've also had a lot of leashes break over the years, I buy good leashes too. Good leashes are expensive and I'm more miserly than Scrooge MacDuck without a swimming pool full of money. I try to avoid straining them more than necessary. Also, since I'm perennially doing ding repair on one board or another, I try to eliminate the possibilities that result in said dings. Resin costs money, catalyst costs money, fiberglass costs money; acetone to get the combination of resin, catalyst and fiberglass off of my hands, the cat, the dog and small children costs money. My wife frowns on animals and children being doused in acetone, let alone being covered in resin, catalyst and fiberglass, let alone the needless spending of cash on all things that do not result in some person poking at either her toes or fingers with sharp objects and acrylic colors or applying wax to various and sundry body parts with foreign sounding names. You'd think she was a surfboard. Ditching boards does not win either the Scrooge MacDuck nor the zaGaffer's Wife's Good Housekeeping/Penny-pinching Seal of Approval.
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So seriously, if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball; and if you can duck dive a shortboard, you can duck dive a longboard.
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