Caught in the impact zone

[Wipeout77]

What is the best thing to do when you are on a longer board and an overhead+ wave is about to break on top of you or just a few feet outside of you? Paddle toward shore? Get off the board and dive as deep as possible? Attempt the turtle? Or are you just screwed?

[VaB]

Turtle.

[k mac]

turtle all the way the best way to do a turtle roll is paddle till the wave is just about to hit you then roll over well ithink anyways it seems to work best for me i dont think there is anything else to do on a longer board in that sort of situation

[deadite]

If it's a bigger wave how do you keep if from taking you with it? I mean with a duck dive you use momentum to propel you through the wave so it doesn't suck you back with it. But you can't do that with a roll, can you?

[Hapabalapx]

your mostly done for but like everyone elese said turtle and you wont get bitched slaped by the wave as hard, but you might still get sucked a little.

[Aloha]

To hell with all that turtle stuff! I like to bail when it gets nasty and I'm on a 6'4" short board.

I've had some sets that were so large that you just shouldn't and can't duck dive them. I tried once and I just couldn't get deep enough the lip hit me exactly in the small of my back like a guillotine and really hurt! Since then if a larege wave's lip looks like it will club me in a duck dive I bail. Honestly not all waves are duck divable look around you after a clean up set and you'll see that even the surfers that rip have been given the spin cycle treatment.

So my advice to you. If no one is near you then ditch the board and head for the deep, that's the safest place to be plus you won't lose any ground that way. My sis does it all the time and hasn't killed anyone with her board......yet.

[Aloha]

I must stress that you only bail when the wave is really going to club you like it's breaking right on your head, don't bail on easy stuff and don't bail near people. If a person is near you then hang on for the ride and turtle, there is nothing nastier than seeing a long boarder bail in front of you.

[k mac]

the way the board and your body are in turtle when the wave hits you the sort of 'hydrodynamics' should let the wave just pass over you

[Phil]

maybe its just me or the way i do it but turtle roll is most usless, i do it how its described and have pulled it off once on head high ish surf, but normaly by the time ive fliped the board back over got on it and started padling another set is just about to break on me, so if i cant paddle through it over it or around it i just dont go out, so my advise would be to just bail and get as deep as you can maybe try and grab some thing on the bottom till the wave passes over you

would you try and turtle this, that guys so gonna eat it

[Wipeout77]

Phil, that's a f*ing narly picture. With a wave that big though I wonder how deep you would have to dive to avoid getting picked up. In a hypothetical case where you're going to get picked up either way, are you better off deep or near the surface?

[Guest]

Makes no difference if you bail & swim deep or just slide off the board sideways and go down afew feet, feetfirst. I'd expect that guy is an experienced waterman and nope, he's not bailing.

I earnestly believe if you atleast attempt a good duckdive you'll always come out better off & lose less headway getting out the back than if you do it the old-mans way.

Got an experiment for you; next time you're out in reasonable sized waves duckdive under a big one and get a mate with you to bail, just to see what happens, after the big wave passes and you shoot up the other side, regardless of how bad you think is was... look sideways at the bobbing head of your buddy who bailed, he's now 20 feet further inside than you and still to crawl back on his board...

That's the diffference between you making it over the next lip to rest OTB and the bailers getting hammered again & swept further inside.
Brent.

[duhkine]

My advice is to not paddle in where the waves break (obviously). Paddle back through the channel on the side of the break. If theres no channel and its breaking everywhere then I usually dont go out because its too hard to get back out and keep constantly paddling. Aloha!

[Phil]

Makes no difference if you bail & swim deep or just slide off the board sideways and go down afew feet, feetfirst. I'd expect that guy is an experienced waterman and nope, he's not bailing.

I earnestly believe if you atleast attempt a good duckdive you'll always come out better off & lose less headway getting out the back than if you do it the old-mans way.

Got an experiment for you; next time you're out in reasonable sized waves duckdive under a big one and get a mate with you to bail, just to see what happens, after the big wave passes and you shoot up the other side, regardless of how bad you think is was... look sideways at the bobbing head of your buddy who bailed, he's now 20 feet further inside than you and still to crawl back on his board...

That's the diffference between you making it over the next lip to rest OTB and the bailers getting hammered again & swept further inside.
Brent.

yeah but hes not talking about a short board that you can duck dive he was saying on a longer board so i presume its to big to duck dive

[Aloha]

Just came back from a weekend up the Central Coast (New South Wales, Australia) and Saturday was CRANKING! Caught the waves of my life, some huge sets out there, double overhead on some.

Anyways there were only a few of us out and boy did the waves give you a working! In the evening the waves were perfect offshore blown massive pumping barrels and I tried to duckdive one and the lip axed me in the legs, a bit sore but then came the suck back and I went down to the bottom board and all. At that point I was glad to have the board as it helped me back up after the spin.

However earlier that day the waves were bigger and not so clean and everyone out there was getting worked. I was bailing on some as they were just too big. One of them I was on the sea floor and could see the wave coming at me, the damn thing sucked me off the floor and held me under for ages, longest hold down of my life, I was practically pulling on my leg rope to find where up was and to get to the surface.

Bailing is still the best option,as I said my sister doesn't duck dive, she bails as her board is just too bouyant. She often keeps her ground better than guys duckdiving. Seriously there are waves that shouldn't be duckdived like this weekend there were much better surfers out who were bailing. It's not wize to duck the lip of a 10ft barrel, that's all that weight and momentum concentrated on a small area when it hits. Hence the expresion 'axed by the lip'.

The only way you will lose ground bailing is, if there just isn't enough deep water, like what happend to me above, or the board pulls you by the legrope. That's one good reason why the leg rope should be longer on bigger days, as it gives you more room to play with. In a bail the wave will pass right over you and you remain in clean safe water.

[Aloha]

That picture looks like Teahupoo to me. I'd say the guy makes it, if he's in full paddle he should be able to penetrate the base in time. He's got to make it! All that behind him is shallow reef, I heard one guy tried to duck dive there on a big day and was killed when he was sent head first into the reef.


The world's heaviest wave

[duhkine]

That picture looks like Teahupoo to me. I'd say the guy makes it, if he's in full paddle he should be able to penetrate the base in time. He's got to make it! All that behind him is shallow reef, I heard one guy tried to duck dive there on a big day and was killed when he was sent head first into the reef.

What guy? Cant see anyone or my vision has gone bad. The 1st pic is cool by the way.

Aloha!

[Phil]

its not teahpuoo all ready had a discussion on anohter site theres no way anyone would paddle out there when theres a chanel you can safely paddle out in also if it was teahupoo i dont think that guy would be siting out there on the sholder, i think its just the angle its taken from makes it look like it is

[Aloha]

Yeah you are right Surfline says it's Fiji, nevertheless it looks like a bowl on a reefbreak so it begs the same question as to why he didn't paddle for the channel. As for sitting on the shoulder at Teahupoo, here is a frame grab from a DVD I've got of a guy pulling back on a drop at Teahupoo, he doesn't make it by the way and rides the lip from on top.

[deathfrog]

ow..

[Phil]

thats prob the worest thing that could happen at Teahupoo thats got to hurt