I’m tripping on the ray taking off into the blast…
I don’t believe buoyancy is the key. I think you need to be able to put the board in the right spot at the right time. Too much float doesn’t help, and not enough won’t either. You need to get moving fast enough for the wave to pick you up. When you’re lower in the water that speed is different than when you’re floating higher up. Where the wave breaks and how it breaks is just as important. The angle of the board in relationship to the wave face is also important to get into a wave. If you can’t get the board pointed down in the right direction you’ll either pearl dive, get stuck in the lip, or the wave will pass under you.
If your paddling strength to weight ratio is high enough, you can ride very thin boards and get into waves easily. It helps to be able to get to your feet really fast too. If you get up on your feet fast enough, you’ll have better chances of making those late drops. Then you can sit in the danger zone on a tiny chip and catch all the waves you want (just don’t get in the way of the guys taking off early). That’s why I like to ride the smallest board I can in bigger waves. If you don’t have to worry about pushing under the waves, you can sit further in and takeoff later. This tactic doesn’t work too well when there are a whole lot of longboards out, unless they don’t know what they’re doing.