Your duck dive is going to fail. now what?

You tell 'em salt.


France got nothing on our pizza though.

 

In the worst case scenario ( hurricane surf and at the wrong place at the wrong time) …and your are absolutely sure a duck dive is not going to work in this predicament….then I’m a true believer in never letting go of your board…so I have developed a technique that works for me. With the board on the shore side of me (duh) …and… my back to the wave…I grab the wide black strap ( the board protector) with both hands…and as the wave hits…..I grab that black strap and I duck as deep as I can with that black strap in both hand ( Death grip) …..like I’m trying to sink the board fin first … as deep as I can get it…that leaves the board pointing upright in a tombstone position. ..but rotated sideways .. of course…. with the rail facing the wave so as to have the lowest profile facing the wave…(seems to do that naturally ) ….then after the wave passes I rotate the board to the wide part facing the wave so it now serves as a brake to help keep me from being pulled in behind the wave and losing more ground…this has always worked for me and I test it often to see if I can find a negative reason not to do it…but so far so good…BUT.. I’m kind of a heavy guy, so maybe that helps….I like this technique because I feel I am under more control ( control freak) ….and it beats just hugging the board and flailing around like a sock in washing machine….

 

That is what I was thinking then I kept reading and I was like Seldom is gonna say it, he's gonna say it, then BOOM!
[video=youtube;XddfToBTelE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XddfToBTelE[/video]

 

Couldn't resist rcarter, northend served up the alley-oop I had to drop it.

 

Anyone ever smoke the duckfoot?

 

all these folks talking about grabbing their leash seem to be asking for an injury, spoken from experience

 

Hold goodnight! You just duck dive. Thats it. You dont ditch, you dont grab your leash, you just duck dive and hold the f*&k on. If you cant do that, get out of the water so you dont hurt yourself or someone who can duck dive a ten foot face that just broke. Good god almighty! Enough of this insanity!

you just f*&king duck dive!!!! Arrrgghhhhhhh

 

This is quite the epic thread. Thanks to all. Very entertaining.

All I will say, is I have always done my best to never ditch the stick unless it is ripped from my bearhugging body underwater. With that being said, in doing so, I have broken 2 toes simultaneously, where if I bailed, I would have been okay. Went as deep as I could on one of the biggest winter swells of the year, giant lip up, over and down behind me so close I could feel it scraping my back. Impacted the tail of my board while I had both feet on the tail pad trying to get deeper, the impact made my board do a catapult kind of deal, pushing the nose straight up towards my body and bent my toes 90 degrees the wrong way. Leash broke. Held down for god knows how long (probably not that long), but it felt like forever. When I emerged, luckily my board was upside down about 20 yards away. Very glad I didn't have to make the swim in, about 3/4 of a mile over the reefs.

I have always done my best, but sometimes, mother nature is going to tear that puppy right out of your hands, and you just gotta play dead until you see the light.

But I am not going to lie, I have emerged from a hold down before, gasping for air, just to see another bomb about to drop on me, I survey the area, nobody around, Im tossing that sucker a couple feet away and dropping under like a pencil. Not by choice, but by survival instinct.

In my opinion, you can practice holding your breath all you want, you can test techniques in small waves, but human instinct and survival mode will kick in and you will hold your breath longer than you ever thought possible, and sometimes at that last second, you just go, ohh fu** and you gotta bail.

I have never charged anything even remotely like chopes, but look at that contest. Every guy that got caught inside, in the flats, when the sets came, they straight ditched. I saw guys stand up on their boards in flat water and use it as a diving board to get under the wall of white water... Its just what the mind tells you to do.

 

Always ditch. Doesn't matter if it's 1' or 20'. Ditch.
Whether it's a sponge or SUP, ditch.
Don't look behind you either. It's their fault for coming near you.

 

Ohh, but with all that junk being said, unless you in conditions like Raven and those guys during Sandy, solid DOH+ thumping beach break, you should never, ever, ever let go of that board anywhere around these parts. Take it like a man and move on. If the board get ripped from your limbs, at least you tried and you can sleep that night with some dignity.

 

Haha, sick.

 

I learned not to do that in my first hurricane swell (bloody knuckles). Now, if I have to hop off, I am grabbing the tail and diving deep. I suck at duck diving, and I am not afraid to admit it. Part of it is my board volume, but I am getting better. I can handle the long period rollers, but those short period victory at sea days kill me.

 

No way man I've seen doh bombs here that would make you **** your pants. When it gets big in the south people die riding the waves. 12foot waves in 2 feet of water wooi woodworkers. Everyone claims jersey to be hard but here is the hardest spot in the world when it goes off.

 

Sorry, Noel, this idea (to me) sounds absolutley stupid. You are going down pulling the board down and the fins closer to your face. Unless I am not understanding your technique, this sounds crazy.

Paddle hard, get that nose down and get it! I was out one day where I tried to duck dive and was ripped from my board. The next wave I tried to ditch and was still put through the ringer. I don't advocate ditching, but there was no one close to me and I had to try a different technique that day.

 

Yeah, no doubt, but you know we don't even duck dive when its that big, we just paddle straight throw the waves like bullets through a piece of paper. 15 foot wall of water... aint no thing. We paddle straight through it and have dry hair. #carolinacuttingduck

 

I ditch my sponge constantly... but I stay away from crowds in the first place (would never ditch if someone was behind me) and, like, it's a soft sponge, and the sponge leash is only like 2 feet long so the only danger is if someone is like 6 inches behind me.

 

What do you do with the dip in your lip when you duck dive in the hardest conditions in the world? Ever had the dip just ripped right out of your mouth? Also curious how jean cutoffs fare in a big swell. Lastly, do you guys meet for pizza or do you do chic-fil-a?

 

Well, first of all, we just swallow the dip. If there is one thing you ain't gonna see, it's a South Carolinians loose his chew in any scenario. Wouldn't know about the cutoff jeans, we usually are rocking the dixie flag boardies. Occasionally, when getting air blasted out of a huge tube, my mullet gets in my eyes, but yeah, who doesn't have that problem.... And for pizza or chic-fil-a? We don't eat that crap (although we do agree with the ideals of chic-fil-a. A solid, southern american company, doing things the right way). On the way in, we usually just bare hand grab a few Black Tip Sharks, walk off to the parking lot like bosses. Pull out the shank (which we have in the boardie pockets at all times, just in case we meet any people from the wrong side of the mason dixon), filet up them bad boys, eat up some Sashimi while we pound Budweisers.

Thats pretty much a day in the life for a southern surfer. Big waves. Big Barrels. Big Fish. Big Shanks. Big hair (but only on the back) and Big Talls boys of bud....