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.