How to Duck Dive

The surf is rolling. The waves are right there, ready to be ridden. There are a few people out there paddling out, raising, and sliding down the surface of those beautiful waves. The beachgoers are talking about the surfers. The kids are playing in the sand, or pretending they are little surfers too. This is the type of day that you decided to learn to surf. You haven't tried standing up yet, or you've got a few 1-3 sec break water waves that gave you the fever and you want to keep doing it. You walk out and get on your board. You begin paddling out, after an hour you are still in the same spot, and you are continually getting hit by the waves. You can't seem to paddle fast enough to get out to the other surfers, and nothing is working. This is where duck diving comes in.

Duck Diving? Yes. This is a maneuver where you place the board and yourself underneath the wave, and pop out on the other side. You go under the wave, the wave goes over you, and it pushes you forward when you come up. In this way, you will zip right out to the line. The concept is very easy. You have noticed that when you dive under a wave rather than taking the whole force, you can get out past the breakers faster and easier. This is the idea behind duck diving.

As you paddle toward a breaking or wall of whitewater you know you are going to go under it. Depending on the speed of the wave, when it is about 30 feet ahead of you, grasp the rails of your surfboard just above your shoulders. Do a push up on your board, and push down with all your might causing the nose to began to go down. Using one knee, or some people use their foot, push down the back of the surfboard. The board's nose will drop and then suddenly the whole board will go down.

Because you are leaning so far forward on the board, your weight and momentum will carry you straight down into the water. Make sure you take a good deep breath before doing this. If you are able, you can open your eyes and watch the wave go over you. Or, if you can't watch it, you can feel the pressure go over your back. As soon as the pressure hits the middle part of your back, pull up on your surfboard, and lean your whole body back as much as you can.

The wave, because it has turned into something resembling a rolling pin, it will push you forward and propel you up and forward. As you get shot up to the surface, expel your entire lung of air. You might need to take another breath very soon, and won't have time to blow out air and take a breath in. As soon as you come up on the surface, get yourself centered on your board again and begin paddling.

Most waves come in sets of 3, so if you duck dive one wave, you can bet you will be duck diving another 2. That means you'll come up in time to paddle twice, take a breath and do it again. The good news is that when the three wave are done, you have a break to continue paddling. This takes practice to perfect. A lot of the maneuvers are unnatural to the body, but once you get the hang of it you'll be fine. One of the hardest parts of this whole maneuver is when to start the dive.