Caught my biggest wave

[isaluteyou]

Just thought id let you know i caught my biggest wave on a surfboard it had about an 8ft+ face to it with lotsa power but i managed to stay with it and had an epic ride it was probably the best ride of my life. Needless to say my heart was pounding.

By the way does anyway have any advice on what to do with sneeker sets. When i used to bodyboard they never really bothered me as duckdiving with a bodyboard is really easy. But today the surf was pretty big and there were some freakish sets that came bowling in and totally demolished the line up me included i ended up getting caught right in those freak sets which lasted about 4 waves and man i was fighting for survival. Mind you three quarters of the line up was as well. Now normally if i get into trouble i would just ditch the board if that happens but there were a load of people behind me so that wasnt really an option so i had to turtle them which i barely survived it.

[FishKid Wales]

Nice 1!

[rich r]

I can't say this enough.. never, never, never ditch your board.

If you go turtle, hang on tight. Just like duck diving, rolling over works best if you have a bit of forward motion going with you.

Now, if your board has any rocker to speak of, by going turtle, you in effect will do a sort of reverse duck-dive through the wave. Once you get the motion down and how to keep yourself positioned under the board, you'll notice that the wave passes right through you, and the whitewater should be above the board.

Once you get even better at it, you should be able to do something almost like a real eskimo roll - where you just roll back over and keep paddling like you never left the board (without having to jump back on your board, point it in the right direction, reposition yourself, etc.. you'll magically will be right where you left off)

[isaluteyou]

thanks for the info.

However i disagree about ditching the board. If there are other surfers arond absolutely not or if there is no reason to then dont. But when you on your own and the wave is about to drop in on impact neither duckdiving nor turtling will help as the wave will just drop on your back its just plain bad luck if that happens. And because Now if its a choice between having a big wall of water crash on my back or dicthing and diving under then ill take the ditch. This very rarely happens as normally the forward thrust will take you past impact zone but not always having personally felt a 16ft wall of water crash on my back you might see my point

[GowerCharger]

dont ditch your board, learn to duckdive deeper. Keep and eye on the horizon (you should be doing this anyway) and when you see a bigger set coming just paddle out towards it as hard as you can, with a bit of extra speed you can get deep enough to get under them, and if you see them early enough and paddle hard enough you might get out past the impact zone and catch one.

[LovintheSurf]

oh nice man, wow i just got the biggest, or at least one the biggest waves i have ever ridden as well. I was flying, it had steep face as well, cause the waves down at IB get pretty hollowed out. what size board do u have? if its 7'4'' or under u should duck dive it man, its way more effecient than turtling. u can do it with bigger boards, u just need to use your foot to really push the board under

[gdude335]

thats a big wave. Also if you dont want to battle agaisnt the set just take the wave to the beach and tada!

[cj]

I agree with everyone else, Don't ever jump ship, your board will not appreciate being left on its own, and it will probably come and hunt you down. If you piss your surf board off, it will punch you in the mouth. I think just about everyone here knows what I am talking about.

When I first started surfing, I couldn't duck dive at all. I would paddle at the way and duck my head down and try to point the board down.

I found it easier to turn the board over. Then I decided to learn how to duck dive deeper, which is really just a matter of confidence. Push the board down and fully intend on going deep.

an 8' face is pretty sweet. Congrats on that.

I always look at The freak sets are the sea's way of playing with you. Remember God like's to mess with people once in a while too.

[isaluteyou]

i suppose i should really practise duckdiving more. Actually bigger waves show all your weaknesses and duckdiving on a surfboard is one of the things on my list to improve.

Thanks for the constructive comments all i will take it on board

[surfishlife]

that's great news!! congrats on the 8' ride i woulda been stoked to see you carve that one up

p.s. glad to know you came outta those freakish sets ok