How To Duck Dive

When you’re paddling you will probably encounter some white wash that will make it almost impossible for you to get out to the line up. Knowing how to duck dive will save you a lot of time and keep you from running out of energy. Though duck diving wont work if your board has too much flotation for you to push it under the water. When you see a wave about to break you want to paddle a little bit faster than normal to build up momentum. Then when the wave is about 4 to 5 feet in front of you, place your hands on the rail right next to your shoulders then get onto your knees. Once you’re on your knees lean forward and your nose should go under the water. Then put your head under the water and lift up your dominant leg to get the tail of your board to go under the water. If you do this correctly then you will quickly pop up on the other side of the wave. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t duck dive right away; when I was learning it took me a couple months before I fully mastered the duck dive.

If you are using a long board and can’t get it under the water then you can try to turtle. When you’re paddling and you see a white wash about 5 feet in front of you, then you move up towards the nose of your board. Then once you have a firm grip about 1 to 2 feet down from the nose of your board flip over and hold on tight. The wave will then just pass right over you. This method only works on small waves once it gets to big the wave will just rip the board out of your hands. If the waves are too big to turtle you can always just bail your board and swim as deep as you can.