In this edition of the Nice Rack Beginner’s Guide to Surfing I hope to explain what duck-diving is for those who are not familiar with surfing and give those who do not know how to duck-dive some how-to advice. For those who can already duck-dive, I’d like to share some tips to get the most out of your dive.

First things first, the term itself: duck-diving, means to do as a do as a duck and submerse oneself. If you spend some time observing actual ducks or seabirds you will notice that every so often they will disappear under the water’s surface, they do this to look for food. Sometimes sea birds will pop back up with a wiggling fish in their mouth. (Note to beginners: avoid this.)

The function of duck-diving is to push past the walls of incoming waves. By submersing the entire surfboard and one’s body the surge of water created by a breaking wave can be avoided. It is often the case that surfers use duck-dives to escape the brute force of a wave, especially when waves are larger. While duck-diving is the go-to maneuver for most surfers and is easily the safest and most efficient way to get to the outside of a break.

The turtle roll-technique involves rolling upside-down while still holding the board. This technique blocks the impact of the wave, but it causes the surfer to lose any moment they had paddling out, which is one reason duck-dives are a valuable skill. Duck-diving will slow you down some, but usually this technique will afford you time to paddle and prepare to catch or avoid the next wave in the set.

Now to the good stuff: how to duck dive. As with most techniques in surfing, there are many personal variations; the following are meant to get new duck-divers started.

1. Paddle towards a wave, it is important to make sure you are avoiding the paths of other surfers, for more info on this visit this post on the rules of surfing.
2. Paddle hard, your momentum will help you. Don’t forget to breathe though, remember that you’re heading under.
3. Point your surfboard straight into the wave, the straighter your angle the less force will be exerted on you. If you are turned sideways you will chances of getting flipped up and over into the impact zone.
4. Place one knee on the tail of your board, where the tail-pad on a shortboard is placed.
5. Press down with your knee while doing a push-up motion with your upper body; the goal is to push your board as deep under water as possible.
6. Quickly follow your board under the water, as the wave passes over your body, be sure to keep the nose of your board pointing upward. Exhale through your nostrils and relax as you pop out of the other side of the wave unscathed!

Tips:

1. The board you are riding greatly effects your duckdive, the more volume you have the harder it will be to push your board under water. Because they are voluminous beginners boards are often the most difficult to dive. To learn duckdiving I advise practicing with a  shortboard on a small day, or in a swimming pool.
2. Because a board is voluminous does not mean it will not duck-dive! Instead of pushing your board flat against the water, turn it slightly to one rail and “knife” it into the water. By repeating this process on both sides you can get very deep underwater, it’s a trick of big wave surfers!
3. Some people push down with their foot rather than their knee to get deeper. While this might work for some, I’ve found that a well executed duck-dive using my knee works best.

Hope this helps you get started!

If you have any secrets or tips let us know on Facebook !

For more beautiful photos like the one above check out: nollie.tv

Shakas

-Jason