The only way to get good at getting thru white water?

[stoneaxe]

It depends....the nose of my 9er is wide and thick but if you hit it just right like TW mentioned earlier and get the nose under the lip the water weight keeps it down. You have to get the nose as parallel to the energy of the wave as possible though so you have to kind of push the nose in and then unweight the tail a bit. I've made it through some pretty good sized waves doing it. Of course the price of failure can be steep though, I get slammed more than I make it. Getting the lip in the nuts isn't good either....

[PonoBill]

I surf both pointed nose and rounded nose boards. The method for getting over whitewater depends on the size of the boil coming at you and the nose of the boards. Pointy noses, get up some speed. ollie a little and go for it. Rounded nose, focus on getting the nose down and keeping it down.

My Foote board blast through stuff so steep that I'm just startled to be standing afterwards. I swear I fall more often with the little stuff than the big stuff. The Ku Nalu I have on Maui is so light, that my attention is all focused on keeping it out of my face.

[Caribsurf]

Practice , practice , practice...also when riding a wave, peek over the shoulder to see what's coming behind the wave you are on.  Sometimes the best way to avoid paddling out thru whitewater is to kick out earlier than you might want to allowing for an easier paddle back out.

If you are battling white water, paddle as hard as you can into it and step back on the tail a bit.attack the whitewater....Also don't bail, I see many people just give up and bail on the wave not even trying.  You'd be surprised how many times you can get through or over some big whitewater with little effort.   Once you break through or over the wave, the confused, chaotic water in the wave's aftermath is another story...just paddle like hell and get out of the turbulence

[Kaihoe]

There's a couple of things to pay attention to. If you're falling on your paddle side--most newbs do) it's because you're pulling yourself off balance. People forget a proper stroke as soon as they get excited. You see the same thing in catching waves. Reach way out, over the edge, Plant your paddle and give a sharp pull. Unweight your feet (ollie) but be ready to brace your front foot is the board kicks. Also be ready to block the board with your forearm if that isn't enough. Make sure you are not pulling past your feet. The turbulence is bad enough without shoveling water and yanking yourself sideways. It's fine to brace back or to the side, but don't apply power aiming to push yourself forward. Reach way out and stroke short again.

The toughest part is the turbulence after the wave passes. Bend your knees, stay low, and brace. Then reach and go.

Having lost 3 months paddling this year to a board tip in the ribs I can attest to the importance of this.  Do commit everything to that paddle be ready to drop and cover
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[RunningBull]

I have stepped back on the tail in a surfers stance with some success but also really hurt myself doing this landing on the board with my knees when the wave hit me and board flying back and hitting me so caveat emptor. For beginners you will rarely get hurt paddling out on knees or jumping off and living to see another day.

[magentawave]

I was thinking yesterday while out there on my 8'er that one of the main keys to being able to punch through whitewater is speed. The challenge here is that you can't paddle a short sinky board as quickly as a big high-volume board. So when people give examples of how they do this it would be interesting to know the weight of their body and volume of their board.

[standuped]

when riding a wave, peek over the shoulder to see what's coming behind the wave you are on.  Sometimes the best way to avoid paddling out thru whitewater is to kick out earlier than you might want to allowing for an easier paddle back out.

I was thinking yesterday while out there on my 8'er that one of the main keys to being able to punch through whitewater is speed. The challenge here is that you can't paddle a short sinky board as quickly as a big high-volume board. So when people give examples of how they do this it would be interesting to know the weight of their body and volume of their board.

I base my entire SUS approach to these two principals.  Because I am not trying to get sponsored by Quicksilver I don't ride all slashy and inside.  Keep your speed, get while the gettin's good, then start paddling for your life back out.  I've seen plenty get a good drubbing getting lured inside when it's big,  then finally they make it back out, markedly whipped.  Work smarter not harder.  People have been doging me to go down in size but I absolutely love the boards I have.  I'll buy my own board shorts I guess.

[Biggreen]

I ride one of the wide, square nosed boards. I've found I can either do as TW says and keep the board flat and just push through, or step back and bounce over. I have discovered that if I'm in between the two I mostly get destroyed.  Most often I opt for the bounce over, but then again I'm not surfing large waves on a regular basis.

[stoneaxe]

I base my entire SUS approach to these two principals.  Because I am not trying to get sponsored by Quicksilver I don't ride all slashy and inside.  Keep your speed, get while the gettin's good, then start paddling for your life back out.  I've seen plenty get a good drubbing getting lured inside when it's big,  then finally they make it back out, markedly whipped.  Work smarter not harder.  People have been doging me to go down in size but I absolutely love the boards I have.  I'll buy my own board shorts I guess.

I'm always getting caught by riding too far inside. You would think I'd learn.....I've had 3 hour sessions that were 2 hours of trying to get back out...

[jeffrey11]

A key thing that I have found is when I am ollieing up onto the whitewater I get a good reach forward with my paddle on my strong side and then pull about a half stroke, leaving my paddle engaged in the whitewater rather than taking it out to get another stroke.  The added stability of leaving the paddle in the water for a little longer until the worst of the turbulence has passed has helped a lot in keeping me standing.

[eastbound]

when it's crowded, it's hard to pull out early, and it's often crowded.
when alone on a nice wave, i usually go the distance.

last saturday, 40 degrees, 20-25 knot offshore, 3-4 feet, we were alone from dawn for an hour and ahalf--no need to pull early when the wind did the work on the paddle out!

[standuped]

A key thing that I have found is when I am ollieing up onto the whitewater I get a good reach forward with my paddle on my strong side and then pull about a half stroke, leaving my paddle engaged in the whitewater rather than taking it out to get another stroke.  The added stability of leaving the paddle in the water for a little longer until the worst of the turbulence has passed has helped a lot in keeping me standing.

Agree 100%  major key. The power half stroke. More and more I thrust the board forward as hard as I can as well.  But that half stroke followed by the stab brace works awesome.

[stoneaxe]

Absolutely....a quick brace on the backside and then put the pedal down to get ready for (or hopefully beyond) the next one..