Duck diving a high volume board involves leveraging your body weight to overcome its buoyancy and push it effectively underneath an approaching wave, differing significantly from techniques used for shorter, lower volume boards.
High volume surfboards, often called longboards, funboards, or beginner boards, are designed for buoyancy and stability, making paddling easier but submerging them much harder than a shortboard. The goal, as highlighted in surf instruction, is to get the board "underneath the wave. Properly," which requires a specific approach for bigger boards compared to methods like the "flat push" used for shortboards.
Why High Volume Boards Are Harder to Duck Dive
The increased foam and surface area of high volume boards create significant lift, resisting attempts to push them straight down. Simply pushing with your hands or arms, as you might with a shortboard, is often insufficient to get the board deep enough to pass under a breaking wave.
The Technique for Duck Diving High Volume Boards
Successfully duck diving a high volume board relies on using your weight to drive the board down and then navigate your body and the board through the wave.
Here's a breakdown of the common technique:
- Paddle Towards the Wave: Approach the wave with decent speed to maintain momentum.
- Grip and Prepare: Just before the wave reaches you, grab the rails of your board near the nose or slightly back, allowing enough room for your body to move over the tail.
- Submerge the Nose: Use your hands and arms to push the nose down initially. Crucially, immediately follow this by using your body weight to drive the nose deeper. You can do this by:
- Placing one knee on the tail of the board as you push the nose down.
- Using your foot to push down on the tail.
- Placing both knees on the tail.
The key is to get the nose pointing down towards the bottom.
- Dive and Drive: As the nose goes under, lean forward over the board. Use your hands on the rails to steer the board downwards and through the wave's face. Pull yourself forward over the board.
- Submerge the Tail: While you are driving the nose down and forward, the wave will start to pass over the tail of your board. Continue using your body weight (e.g., knee pressure) on the tail to keep it submerged as you pass under the wave.
- Surface: Once you feel you are through the bulk of the wave, push down on the tail of the board with your hands. This levers the nose back up towards the surface on the other side of the wave.
- Recover and Paddle: Resurface, get back onto your board, and start paddling immediately to get past the impact zone.
Key Considerations
- Timing: Initiate the duck dive just before the wave is about to break on you. Too early, and the board might pop back up; too late, and the lip will land on you.
- Angle: Aim to submerge the board at a steep enough angle to get under the wave's power.
- Practice: Mastering this takes practice. Start with smaller, broken waves and gradually work up to larger ones.
Using your body weight effectively, typically via pressure applied to the tail after the nose is submerged, is the most vital part of getting a high volume board "underneath the wave. Properly," unlike the simpler "flat push" often sufficient for shorter boards.
