Surfing basics

Once you are confidently popping up onto your feet and catching waves into the beach you are ready to start developing your surfing.

Getting out back. 

As much fun as you will have been having standing in the white water and catching straight-line rides into the beach you will have probably realised that the experienced surfers are having a lot more fun on unbroken waves (green walls of water, not white water) further out. To join them you need to learn to duck dive.

To get through all the white water and the breaking waves without expending a huge amount of energy and taking a real battering you need to learn to go underneath the incoming waves. To do this follow the simple steps below:

1. As a wave approaches place both hands under your shoulders and grip the side of the board.
2. Push down hard placing all your body weight on your hands so the nose sinks under water.
3. As the wave arrives, submerge your torso and once under the front of the wave push down with one of your feet on the back of the board, so your weight sinks the tail, forcing the nose up.
4. Hold on tight with both hands as the board pulls you through the back of the waves.
5. Start paddling quick before the next wave arrives!

The Science of Duck Diving (yawn)

It is important to understand what is going on here to master the Duck Dive. As the wave arrives you sink the nose of the board and push down to get deep under the approaching wave. The raised tail is therefore hit by the weight of the wave, which combines with you pushing down with your foot (at the same second the wave submerges you) on the tail to force the nose up. At this point, because you have entered the wave through the trough in front of it, you are at some considerable depth to the water behind the wave. Because the board is buoyant, as the nose comes up, the buoyancy pulls you upwards. Finally because the board is also at an angle you will also plane forward as you rise up to the surface. You have thus made use of the buoyancy of the board to propel you forwards through the wave, at the same time as avoiding being battered back to the beach. Easy!!

If you aren't finding it that easy there are two other simple techniques, but which will cause you to expend slightly more energy in the process. Either get in front of the board, grab it by the nose and pull it through the wave, or 'Eskimo roll' i.e. roll over so you are underneath the board as the wave hits and it pushes you downwards rather than inshore. Duck diving is far more efficient than these other two techniques.