Duck Diving 101

Ok.  I give.  Even a strong-willed girl like me will eventually figure out when to throw in the towel.  Maybe it’s not in the cards for me to catch my own waves on this trip.  After all, I’ve only been surfing a month now and as I’ve been told a few times before, I may need to do a little expectation management.

So I decided to use today’s session, the last one of the trip, to practice my duck dive.  This is the way that surfers push themselves and their boards under an oncoming wave while paddling out to the lineup.

The duck dive is a necessity for surfing in waves that are too big to paddle up and over, so I know this will make my getting out to the lineup significantly easier.  It’s so frustrating when I’m trying to paddle out and each oncoming wave picks me up and moves me back toward the shore.  Just as I recover from one face-smacking wave and begin making forward progress again, another one comes and I start all over.

I did some reading online and it said to grab the nose of the board just before a wave comes and push it down at a 45-degree angle.  At the same time, push one foot down on the tail and lift the other foot up in the air, which will act as leverage to get the board down into the water.  After the wave passes overhead, allow the board to point back up so you can resurface and resume paddling.  If you search images of duck dives on Google, you’ll find some pretty cool shots like this one:

Before the first wave, I get the board moving with a few quick strokes, then reach up to grab the side of the board right at the nose to push it down.  Oddly, the board barely moves.

Let’s try this again, with a little more gusto this time.  I paddle a little harder, then really force the nose down.  Here’s the result:

Now, I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure this little move isn’t going to get me under 6-foot waves.

I continue to try – harder and harder I try – but I show no improvement.  Holy smokes!  How is this so hard??  I mean, my board’s not a shorty, but at 7’6”, it’s not exactly a longboard either.

After my last attempt, I’m so frustrated I actually get off my board and try to swim to the outside, towing it behind me via the leash.  This is the most inefficient way to paddle out and when Ted saw me doing this, he knew I was at my wits’ end.  So he swam over and offered to push me into some waves so I could at least score a ride or two before the vacation ended.

At this point, my expectations had been officially curbed – if I was able to pop up and ride for even just a few feet, I’d be happy – but I guess that’s right where fate wanted me.  Since I was so focused on trying to shove an obviously too-buoyant board underwater, I was unaware that the winds had been backing off that afternoon.  And without those persistent west winds, things began cleaning up.

With the first push Ted gave me, I not only popped up quite easily, I had my first true drop in.

This is a monumental moment in a beginner surfer’s journey.  Up until now, I’ve just ridden the waves’ white water straight to the beach.  But now, for the first time, I caught the wave before it broke, dropped into position, and actually down the beach a little way.  It’s this riding parallel to the beach that gives way to longer rides, and until you can master that, there’s no advancing to the next level.

I heard Ted cheering behind me and I was thrilled.  This was an achievement that I wasn’t even looking for, and as I found out today, sometimes those are the best kind.