Your duck dive is going to fail. now what?

What do you do when the wave breaks right in front of you on the bar, and it doesn't dissipate it actually growls into a river torrent because it's a long period swell, then you realize you are in knee deep water and the white water is over head...

Try duck diving brodies

 

The answer is you lay the $^$%$ down and become a water worm and if you hold your board you are going for a ride.

 

Always hold your board. You never know if I cut your leash.

 

And sorry seldom.. but I am one of those guys who sometimes does the 'swim back out'. If there are a stack of 4-5 waves and my board is upside down, I'll either wait, flip my back over, yada yada or go under all 4-5 sans the board while making progress back out to the lineup. But I'm not the type to be a little ***** and get in people's way.

To me, the most critical section is the final one (usually), so I generally appreciate when people get the fu%k out of that area as quick as possible (it is hard to find a good solid face in New Englands sometimes, those end sections matter). Longboarders in particular (no offense) big offenders in this arena.

In the end it to me it all comes down to what is the most appropriate move for the situation. We are all responsible for our own craft.. assuming no one is around, I'll swim, body surf, no leash, etc. But etiquette comes into play when sharing with others. So I use the technique that keeps myself and others the most safe THEN top priority is getting out back to catch more waves. 99% of the time the option that fits both those descriptions is hanging onto the board.

 

sometimes you can tell by the way its detonating no matter how hard you bear hug your board, sh!ts getting ripped from your hands, and now its moving around near you bashing into you and you burned a ton of oxygen clenching your arms/hands/bung.

if I am taking some surf lickens, and I can afford to ditch board, I might, you can have longer time underwater which might be needed becasue you conserved o2 by relaxing instead of clenching up tight

I have swam in DOH conditions 2x becasue of this to retrieve board

it wasnt the technique so much as the sh!tbox old leash
this has made me buy new leashes every season and surf trip

 

Kookie I'm sure you would do that in a way that doesn't interfere with others. And you have spoken the truth about the all-hailed end section. That is where I too look to release the most amount of energy, it is the coup de grace of the wave, and the place where I'm usually looking to interact w/ the lip after a little cover up.

#letusgivethanksandpraiseforendsections

 

LOL. Duckdiving is definitely NOT pointless in probably 95% of the situations. Let's be as clear as my crystal balls.

 

ah baddy, why must you present a question where there is no answer. Defining a wave as a "mac truck" leaves out such details as to what makes such wave a described "mac truck" Are we talking point judith mac truck or mavericks mac truck?

conditions and locations matter baddy. For one to say Healy was in the wrong by ditching his board lays out fact that they have never been in a situation where the waves were "mac trucking" enough to render duck diving futile.

Have I ditched my board? Yes. Have I held on and gotten a bloody nose and bruised face? yes Have I been hit in the face by a guy ditching his board? yes

every situation is different, if the duck dive will not work, the board is being ripped out of your hands or your ditching it. End of story.

 

How about when you tried to grip your board through a DD but got spun and lost it because of the size and now it's trailing behind you when you surface and another 4 sets are coming in? Do you lose forward ground and time going back to your board or do you make the best of what's just ahead of you and plan to dive deep sans board through the next few and hopefully not get a heavy yank? I think the hardest yank is when the board is still on the surface when the wave hits. Is there a way we can pull our leash leg deeper to start getting the board submerged before the crash of the wave? There are two different topics here: 1) Do you ever willingly abandon your board? 2) How do you respond when you lose your board against your will?

Lots of different circumstances here mentioned by posters and lots of good points raised on both sides. During Cristobal I got my prize surf craft damaged with a big gouge on the deck during my second of three sessions by a LBer who was having trouble holding onto his stick in the impact zone. I don't think it was a case of him freely abandoning his board as much as losing it in one of several successive OH sets that came crashing down. During this when several of us are getting spun in the impact zone, we are ending up getting thrown together when otherwise starting out several feet away from each other and you can't see this happening before and during the spin because it's pure whitewash. Wasn't a very kookish lineup that day but there were a ton of surfers out and in the impact zone in a crowd people are all hazardous to each other, kook or not. Got to the point where I was covering head and getting in fetal position during the spin to protect from various unknown boards shotting through the water at my head. Was less about position and making it out back then and more about withstanding the sets until the next lull.

Again, lots of topics here in this one tread. Careful about pointing the finger and chastising other posters in absolute fashion. They may not even be talking about what you're talking about.

 

If you're bailing your board, probably means your not equipped to handle it (mentally, physically, etc) and should get out of the water.

I always try to duck dive, no matter what the size of the wave...if the board gets ripped out, so be it. Only time I remember bailing my board was when the tide dropped too low and a massive groundswell jumped up and started closing out the beach with death hammers. I immediately got out.

 

Some real good points here. First, it's amazing MIS talks about clenching his bung. Second, I fully agree that the relaxation under water is far better for O2 conservation. Third, check your leash at all ends and stitching before and during every session of circumstance. One gnarly breakage will condition you to this, trust us.

 

Dudes I do what I want to do, if I'm going to ditch I ditch, if I'm going to dive I dive. I do what ever I want at my break. If my board hit you when you were paddling behind me you just might be gay if you were that close. Then you are at fault for getting in my boards way, so I will tell at you and then fight you. If you don't like the rules get out my break and get out of my ocean. I don't got time for petty crap.you wil get hit because your a dumbas and are paddeling behind me.

 

Sic HOTY14 post from sandblasters! Braw even used all capital letters this time and only had two spelling errors!!! Man is on the way up academically. You heard him, get off his peak.

 

if your in knee deep water over sand why not just stand up and try jumping over it. tourist swimmers can do this all day with boogie boards. if you're in that situation it sounds like you haven't even paddled out yet.

 

Heck yeah man!

 

1) yes i've sold boards that i no longer wanted
2) my usual response is to cry and whine about it

Maybe not but it probably was to some extent.

 

What about when you get yanked backwards because of holding onto the board still and get pulled back towards the beach? Can get pulled pretty far sometimes which puts you further into the impact zone for the next set - great. Do you advise just fighting through (aka do what you gotta do to get out) until you say no mas and that's a day you didn't make it out?

 

lol scotty

bro, remember the time I was responding to you in kind of a fight with you and PB&J thought it was me calling him scotty as a derogatory name? Classique.

 

everybody mistimes a paddle out. if you acknowledge that it has happened to you sooner than later then you can head back in and try again. its not easy to give it up but if you do it before you tire your self out you can just get back to the beach and wait for the next lull. If you wait till you exhuast yourself you might just give it up after dragging yourself back to the beach.

bottom line is hold on to your board whenever you can. you'll be better off.