I’ve surfed for 54 years, most of which was on a board over 10’ long. My quiver consisted of longboards, performance longboards, and semi gun style longboards. Choice of board depended on size and condition of waves. Wetsuits are the norm in New England. Waves run knee high to “blue moon” triple overhead. For talking purposes here, we’re talking any size wave over head high.
Over the years I’ve come up with a way, which I believe is unique, to duck dive a longboard. Let’s say that short boards “duck dive”, longboards need to “reverse duck dive”. Here’s my method: you’re out on a big day and find yourself caught inside. You ain’t gettin’ over that peak and you have to make a split decision. “Turtle” like your grandfather did, but that only works in small waves. “Ditch” your board, hopefully you won’t get someone hurt or snap your leash. “Man-up”, take that baby on the head and get pushed back to the beach and start all over again…or you can “reverse duck dive”.
Here we go… hey pay attention. Slide off your board and point the nose straight at the beach. Position yourself behind the tail of the board, grab the fin with one hand and place the other hand on the tip of the tale. Keep your board an arms length away from your chest. As the wave jacks up, you are in the trough of the wave below the peak. Take a deep breath and drop beneath the water’s surface, pulling the tail of the board in towards your body. Using your body weight and your legs to scissors kick, attempt to drag the board through the wave.
Hang on as long as you can. If the board gets ripped away, grab your leash to retain control of the board.
If successful, you popped out the back of the wave, sitting outside on your board, watching all the hodad carnage inside, or paddling for the next bomb unchallenged. If unsuccessful, you are another hodad in the white water gasping for air and looking for your surfboard. Practice make perfect, and perfection ain’t easy, but once you’ve mastered the “reverse duck dive”, you will have another tool in your surf tool bag. PS: don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret.
This method can work, but there often isn’t enough time to get everything in position. I usually wind up with my arms around my board, one hand locked on the wrist of the other. Head down and sinking the nose. Rarely get the board ripped out of my arms. Taking it on the head and back helps prevent a snapped board. Believe me I know. Although sometimes the best thing you can do is push it away from you and hope for the best. These kinds of situations are why I always bought a new leash every September.
Longboard Duck Dive
From a guy called PunkRock on the old Surfline forum many years ago:
Paddle hard to the base of wave. Slide forward. Push down on the nose with all of your weight. Shovel the nose downward with a side-to-side scooping motion. Push the board forward allowing your hands to slide along the rails. Grab the rails hard, allowing the board to bring you to the surface. Tried it once on a LB in a clean-up set on Kauai – it worked.
The secret is pushing/sliding the board forward while pushing it downward from the nose. The front half of a longboard has similar volume to that of a 5-6 short board. All of that front-half volume and length is in front of you and underwater now — push forward, grab the rails hard and allow it to bring you to the surface behind the wave.
Paddling speed, momentum, timing, leverage and sliding the board down and forward are the art.
Practice the sequence on flat days.
(It’s a bit like pearling the board when “paddling hard” for a take-off.)
It’s about physics, shifting buoyancy in your favor.
Yes, I have used that technique for a few decades. Of course, it depends in part on the wave type and where one is in relationship to the breaking or about to break wave.
So your back is to the wave?
I don’t know…in waves big enough where getting through is a challenge, having the trailing edge of the fin that close to my vital organs seems ill advised. Also I assume you’re talking about a square tail? Putting you hand on the tip of a round pin also seems ill advised.
Just yesterday I got caught inside a fairly big wave on my longboard. Outside of me a guy bailed his board going through the lip. I turtled and got flipped end over end but held on. When the second wave approached I saw half the guy’s board (old school thick stringers Nolan glassed longboard) hurtling towards me. I had little choice but to dive off at the last second and instinctively protect my head. I got a long hold down, long enough to reach that panicky, flail to surface stage. Bottom line, I always try to hold onto my board, even if that means bear hugging my board with my legs straddled around it.
I’ve “perfected” and used that duck dive for quite a long time, as I am also quite old (I’ve never used the “turtle”). Bigger days, I’d ride a 10’8” swallowtail quad. It may not work every time, but my percentage was pretty good. Tell you what, try it a couple times on the next head high day, if it doesn’t work for you, I’ll give you your money back.
One method I’ve used is roll/tip the board on its edge while at the same time getting nose in a headlock, with your body hanging down. This sinks the nose and with the board on its edge seems to give the wave heaps less area to push you back.
I personally wouldn’t grab a fin because it could do some damage in the throes of a breaking wave, and I wouldn’t grab a leash for the same reason. That I learned the hard way, two fingers snapped like twigs.
But I find your method interesting, and I appreciate you posting it. Just creating a visual in my mind from your description, I think the actual dynamic is similar to having the leash attached at the very end of the tail, and swimming down deep enough and hard enough to pull the tail under, a method I used to use at Ventura Overhead (outer reef).
I guess the effectiveness depends on the length of your leash and the depth of the water, but usually bigger waves break in deeper water, and I never actually touched bottom out at the Overhead, even swimming deep with pumping adrenalin.
For the past few years I have been putting my leash anchor at the very tail, although I no longer surf big enough waves to really have to wrestle with this issue much.
I’ve never had a problem grabbing the fin, whether a center or side fin (I use keels as my front quad setup). As I drop and pull the tail in towards me, the turbulence on the board is lessened, as your body blocks the tail area. If my timing is off or the wave too big, and the board gets pulled away, the “sharp” edges are forced away from me. Hey, it’s a personal thing that has worked for me. There’s nothing like the feeling of popping up behind the wave, getting a quick glance of the white water wrecking everybody inside, sliding back on the board, and catching the next bomb.