Learn to Surf: How to Duck Dive a Surfboard

June 22, 2010 by jameslucas.

By Glenn Kolb

Duck diving is a surfing technique used by many surfers to punch through heavy whitewater or a breaking wave with relative ease. To get it right, it takes practice and timing. Here are the steps to learn how to duck dive a surfboard.

• Paddle hard as the wave is approaching.
• A few feet before the wave hits, lean forward and push the nose of the surfboard down hard with both arms, extending your arms fully. Your grip on the surfboard should be about a third of it’s length from the nose.
• As you are pushing down with your arms, you are going to push down with one knee. This will submerge the tail of the surfboard. Watch an experienced surfer from shore and you will notice that while the knee is pushing the tail down, the other leg is kicking up in the air, giving more momentum to the knee that is pushing down the tail.
• By now you should be fully submerged and the wave will be passing overhead. As the wave is passing, keep pushing down on the surfboard, but try to keep yourself flat to the board.
• The downward force from your knee that pushed the tail down, will now cause the nose to lift. Pull up now with your hands and you should pop out at the back of the wave.

As you can see, there aren’t many steps involved in learning to duck dive a surfboard. However, it is a skill that takes a lot of practice to get the timing correct. If you start your duck dive too soon, you will submerge and then pop back up before the wave has fully passed. If you start the duck dive too late, the wave will hit before you are submerged. It also takes a lot of practice to get the technique just right. Pushing the nose down is usually not too hard, it is using the knee to drive down the tail that gives most surfers learning to duck dive the problem. Just keep at it, practice the duck dive on smaller days, and use the Eskimo roll (also known as turning turtle) on larger days until you get more confident with duck diving.

It needs to be pointed out that duck diving is really a maneuver that is performed best with shortboards. Duck diving can be done on a funboard (mini mal) or a longboard but it takes much more force to get the nose underwater. When I surf with a longboard, I choose to turn turtle. I cannot get enough downward force on the surfboard to submerge the board sufficiently under the water. I end up loosing too much ground as the whitewater pushes me back towards shore. I find for me, it is more efficient to turn turtle and then continue on once the wave has passed.

The duck dive is another component of successful surfing. The author has a free online guide to surfing where you can learn surf techniques. Included are free instructional surf videos. The surf travel section of the website has videos of his selection of the Top 10 Surf Spots in the World. Living in Costa Rica, the author has a section on the website focused on surfing in Costa Rica.

Article Source: Glenn Kolb

Learn to Surf: How to Duck Dive a Surfboard

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