I just returned from the islands where I stayed in a 4th floor condo just above a nice little surf break. When I wasn’t out in the water I had a great lounge chair on the deck from which I watched waves being ridden by all levels of riders. One of the most interesting observations was paddling.
I’d often watch as several paddled side by side to catch the same wave. Some would paddle early, some would watch longer then turn and point late, some paddled with head back watching the wave, some never turned back, some paddled violently with water splashing everywhere. Some caught waves easily almost with every attempt while some struggled to only seldom catch a wave. This spot was a longboard break so there were no shortboards in the water. I tried to study those who seemed to catch waves easily with little effort. In many cases they didn’t necessarily appear stronger or more fit than those who had a hard time catching waves and in some cases they weren’t that much more adept at riding once they were up.
It seems more than just paddle hard and don’t pearl. Obviously it has much to do with the board and where you position yourself based on the type of approaching swell, etc., but there is seems to be more to it - technique, style. For those of you who have observed the same and catch waves easily, what say you about paddle style for easier wave catching?
Richard
PS: My observation deck was also the spot for perfecting sunset margs and mai-tai sipping style. Since I brought home six added pounds of “style” my wave catching will need some help.
Obviously it has much to do with the board and where you position yourself based on the type of approaching swell, etc., but there is seems to be more to it - technique, style.
AHA!..A REVELATION!!!
i catch waves easily, even on my shorter longboards (9’0"-9’2"), and with very little effort. depending on the wave, i generally use 2 different techniques for wave catching. on choppier days…i’ll sit just outside the pack, and when the wave reaches me i’ll do a buoyancy pop followed by one or two strokes…puts me in the wave quick and easy with a fast glide down the face before even reaching the inside lineup. on more glassy swell days, when the waves are a bit mushier and roll in very gently with very smooth drops, i start paddling earlier with my body WAAYYYY forward on the board, but more pressure back toward my feet so that the board paddles as it would from a more neutral postion on the board. as the wave starts to pick me up, i’ll quickly shift my weight forward (instantly initiating my drop on the wave), and then back toward my feet as i start coming down to avoid pearling (keep in mind, my body position hasn’t moved, and i’m still way forward on the board). i pop up quickly, and my back foot is positioned right on the sweet spot of the board (about 2/3 of the way up). get trim, and i’m one easy step off the nose.
I used to paddle in to waves earlier than lots of longboarders when surfing in SD.
Years of swimming competition and instruction taught me one thing; ALWAYS finish hard.
Sure, there is alot of bouncing and tipping that will help you get on a wave earlier, but I was shocked to watch people pull so hard at the beginning of their stroke (lats) and not finish (triceps); makes all the difference, especially on a surfboard, where the length of your stroke is shortened versus regular swimming.
Yup…no doubt while I was getting in to surf shape the lats developed, but the real explosive power comes from the triceps and that’s the finish. Oh my poor puny little arms now…
I went from 5 months out of the water to “back in surf shape” in about three weeks by swimming conscienciously, thinking about my finish, and doing lots of tricep extensions. Right back to paddling circles around people after months of bike riding and comparable upper body lethargy. Think about it next time you’re out; I’ll guarantee a difference.
I catch waves really easily most of the time too, but it wasn’t always like that. In fact, I had to paddle much harder & longer when I was lighter & stronger.
The difference was really learning to read water. I spent about 8 years guiding whitewater raft trips for 4-5 months of the year. Learned to recognize what kinds of bottom features produced what kind of surface features on water. It translated really well when I moved back from the mountains. I can look at a break for a few minutes and know where the sandbars, points, reefs, and big rocks are. Where the deep channels & rips are. And then I can paddle out right to where I want to be to catch a wave. Reading water is everything because it works on any tide, swell direction, or wind conditions. I’ll sometimes sit right on top of a boil or right outside of an exposed rock and catch a wave when whoever else was already out thought I’d have a problem. All the waves are produced by underwater terrain features, so you have to be able to read where those are & then you can catch waves with the smallest effort by being in the right place at the right time.
BTW, I think some people are natural & intuitive about lineups whether they know they’re reading water or not. I’m not - it took awareness, practice, and experimentation before I had proven to myself that it was working. But sometimes people just know where to be through no fault of their own…
It’s funny that this thread should appear since I was studying the very same thing in the water today. With one slight difference, nobody was riding a longboard.
Here’s the scenario: about ten people in the lineup including myself and all on shortboards. Three teenagers, a couple of guys in their twenties, a couple girls in their twenties, and three more of us in the late thirties to early fourties. The teens were doing “the lizard”, paddling around without sitting up, jockeying around each other and racing for the peak. One thing they had down was catching the wave. Each one would tilt their head down, chin almost touching the deck and give two or three deep strokes. Perfect technique! It’s the same way my dad taught me to paddle into a wave, it works so well I use to this day. The girls were on bodyboards so that didn’t count for this excercise. The guys in their twenties seemed to use strength over technique. They would just stroke harder relying on sheer muscle power to get into the wave. Effective, but only if you’re young and in good shape. Last was the older crew. These guys exerted a minimum amount of energy while still effectively catching their share of rides. The technique was very much the same as the teens with the added paddle power of midlength boards. I was the only exception riding a fish.
The spot is not known for being particularly tolerant of beginners so each person was already a pretty accomplished surfer. However, it was interesting to note how each age group seemed to adopt their own way of catching waves.
I can understand where you’re coming from, considering I’m doing an armchair tour of the Iberian Peninsula, wine by wine… today’s is our old friend Mateus Rose.
In any event;
I find it’s two things: timing and location. If you’re in the right spot, then it’s two strokes and go. And bear in mind that I’m on a kneeboard, with half the float of your standard longboard. And in a ‘where the hell will the pek be this time’ beach break.
Then, timing - apply just the right amount of paddle energy at just the right time, not too early ( as then you stay out on the flat and get munched) or too late ( over the falls ) .
The right angle with respect to the wave figures in - paddling straight towards shore means you never catch a wave unless it’s 2xOH and bigger. Too much and you watch it go by.
Damn…you know, next time, I’ll be thinking about this, and I’ll prolly get munched… ah well…
To add some thoughts…I’ve found that you can “bicycle in” to a wave from way outside if you use a heavier board (cuts chop, momentum) but you can two stroke a lighter board much better than a heavier one. Also a lot of paddlers are terribly inefficient with their stroke…don’t drag your hand straight back. Put a little “S” in your motion so your hand is pulling on clean water.
Mr. DD is right though…experience is the best “trick”
Every break will have it’s special spot or bump depending on the tide, wind and swell direction.
If you pay attention you can put yourself in the “waimea boil” of what ever break your at where you get in with or without paddling.
You can take off in it, or just behind (Backdoor) or in just front of it, but if your too far in front or behind the energy hump you’re going to have to expend alot of energy to get in and the ride won’t be as much fun… I’ve seen guys see a swell and start paddling not reading the direction and end up missing it cause it moved 25 feet down before breaking. I’ve also seen guys paddle for nothing only to have it bump up right where they are going and get barrelled in a freight train double up…
It’s all about reading the break which is why locals usually have the advantage.
If I see a juicy one break way off to the side every 2 sets or so, I paddle way over there and just sit it out until it comes. People think you’re crazy but when everyone is scrambling to get in position because of the current drift you’re taking off on just the right side of the peak getting the wave of the day.
So you have to sit on the beach and watch (and time) at least for a couple of sets and then see how the current works when you get in the water.
As far as motoring… ever see someone catch a wave from behind? I have, its pretty amazing to see someone be able to paddle that fast…
RichardMc…
hope you got some good ones when you where in town…
i know when i bodyboard i can manage really late air drops by just one kick and i am in, but i geuss it’s really the timing of the ride and paddling tp the las second before your pop up
Friend of mine used to casually flip late and no stroke takeoffs in BIG OB, and Sunset well over 12’, and hardly ever bothered to stroke more than one.
Maybe it’s the older generation in the old days, but I actually have a few buds who hardly ever paddle to take off.
Not saying I can do it, I’m more a thrasher, needing a couple strokes always.
Timing, pushing the board down, timing it’s pop, and skill are more important than arms strength.
I mentioned earlier that if I thought about it, I’d screw up takeoffs for a while until I squared myself away: it’s true. Surf here, one kind of drops, Centro is a little different, though very similar. It’s about reading the waves and knowing - kinda Zen. You have it in a couple easy stokes or you don’t have it at all.
The hard paddling, for me, is to get into the right spot. Right where the curve and me are gonna have some fun together.
As an aside: a favorite professor of mine ( history, anthropology, geography, economics- the cat understood things come together at the crux) had a little sign on his desk: “Age and treachery will always defeat youth and skill” - being aged, somewhat, I find i stealth-paddle into the right spot, the sweet spot for my drop, and do it when all the kids are powering here and there at the last moment and failing miserably.
most of our spots here are reef breaks, so they tend to have tighter take off areas than the sand bars you probably surf in Texas(not true in all cases, but in general). I have lineup markers for most of the places I go and adjust them for tide, swell direction, size, etc, so that I can sit right in the bowl and not have to jockey so much for my waves. At some places, even being just a few feet out on the shoulder, will keep you out of the game. I’m a decent paddler, so I tend to sit a little further out just to not have to hassle with the crowd as much and establish that I’m going. But, at a few spots I go where there’s no crowd, I tend to stick to the sit in the bowl, take two strokes, and stand up approach. Joey Cabell once told me it’s all about positioning- so there you go.
This is an interesting thread. I try and remember to keep a ‘long stroke’ (triceps) and to give the stroke some ‘s’ in it too. But could someone help me more with the idea of ‘popping’ into the wave. My normal style is to sit on board (with enough of the nose out of the water so I can turn it 180 degrees when it’s time to paddle) and then lie prone. Sounds like I’m missing a trick. Any clues?
Flip around super late…as you turn the board with eggbeat, really grab the nose and shove it down underwater, and the POP back up gives you about the speed of two paddle strokes, so you don’t need those first two. Any more is up to you. I need it, but lots of my buds don’t.
for me, it does even more than that. a good buoyancy pop (timing is everything) feels like it pushes the board into the wave, while i’m neutral over the board (rather than my weight on top of it paddling both the board and my weight). it’s like the board first catches the wave by itself…then i just hop on for the ride. the key is to time it so that when the wave lifts the tail of the board back up to water level (which is now a steep incline as the wave is coming up over you) you are right in the perfect take-off spot.
As I’ve said before, there’s a right way and a wrong way to paddle
Most freestyle swimming stroke technique today, which you can extrapolate into paddling. dismisses the old “S” stroke". Better to pull straight back than waste time trying to “S” stroke which may cause more cavitation than the straight pull. Where the “S” stroke fallacy came from is that freestyle swimmers roll their bodies as they stroke which makes the path of their hand appear to do an “S” pattern but physically you are doing a straight arm pull.
Another problem with doing an intentional “S” stroke is most people will over exagerate the stroke and bring the arm too close to or over the center-line of the body which is just asking for shoulder problems.
Also, keeping the arm bent at the elbow recruits the use of the big back muscles for a stronger pull rather than the smaller cuff/shoulder muscles during a straight arm pull.
I won’t dispute the value of S stroke for long distance paddling, but for sprint paddling a surfboard into a wave, FORGET about it. Just pivot off the shoulders, arms barely bent at elbows, and rip your hands thru the water with lat power.
That’s how you catch waves at big Sunset, Wiamea, or anywhere else…that or a jetski…
Whoa now. So I’m sat on the board, facing the incoming wave. I leave it til late to turn the board thru 180 degrees (still sitting). As the face arrives (and I’m still sitting at this point - yes?) I lean forward, grab the nose (what are we talking? hand on each rail about 12" back?) and push it hard down. At the same time as this I’m pulling my legs up to lie on the board? Sorry to sound dim. There’s a clear choreography here and I don’t want to goof it up. Does that sound about right guys?
i’ll dig through some video i have of my friends and i and see if i can’t find a good shot of it. in the meantime, i’ll try and be as descriptive as possible…
sitting back toward the tail, with the nose up in the air at about 30 degrees, grab the rails with both hands and pull the board down into the water while simultaneously positioning your body on the board in your normal take-off position. start the motion just before the wave reaches you, so that as the tail of the board rises to the surface, it is instantly picked up by the approaching wave. give it one or two easy strokes, and you’re dropping in with a fraction of the effort of the standard long-distance paddling. practice makes perfect. just keep your eyes peeled next time you’re out…i’m sure you’ll see someone who’s got the motion down.
