Punching whitewater

[stoneaxe]

Wish I had taken some pics of todays attempt. Chest to head high+, 6 sec period, and sloppy. It was like trying to do the high hurdles of whitewater with ball bearings on the track....NFW. Only once did I manage to do more than one on my feet and I was happy to have accomplished that.

[Paddle-Plappe]

One time I tried to jump over the front of the board as the peaking wave hit me and my board went vert and SMASHED me like a brick wall-that hurt   I always jump to the side now if I am going to get creamed, but usually I will just dig hard and try to bust over it. 

It happened the same thing to me: the board hit my abdominals and hurt my hip toward the wetsuit. I've understood the lesson now  and i will jump to the side.
You can look (but it's hard to see) at it at the very begining of this video:

[linter]

pp: great vid!  and i love the music, esp the hacking.  sounds just like me!

[wavehobbit]

Great thead !!!  The reoccuring theme that anyone new to the sport should get is to switch to the surf stance or at least stagger your stance....at the last second as this prevents the foam from making you look silly falling foward or backward.  Just think of standing on a skateboard and someone pushes it from under you...you wouldn't have a chance balance wise in the normal stance. 

Second great point it keep the board level and keep your speed up.  You learn this on a windsurfer going out thru whitewater.  If you sink the tail you present more surface area for force of the whitewater to take you with it and backwards.....

Third and finer point is called the POP.  Also learned if you windsurf in the waves alot.  You push down right before the wave hits to get a slight but helpful pop on the spring back. 

I've also found that I keep paddling in the foam to keep my speed if any............just like a sail would. 

As for top to bottom closeouts......Um I haven't perfect the chicken jibe like I can on a windsurfer so I just bail and pray. 

[river]

With more and more luck getting through whitewater i find that it is VERY VERY important to reach out and place the paddle into the oncoming foam and hold the paddle in it until the wave subsides a bit.  Often times its the turbulence behind the wave that knocks me down so keeping my blade in the water makes a huge difference.  Slicing the blade forward by feathering it through the water helps if you find yourself in the recovery phase of the stroke and need to bring it forward again before the wave subsides.  So much fun getting through the foam that it becomes a major part of my experience while out SUPin' lately. 

STOKED

[Admin]

On surf stance going out, it is helpful at times for sure, but I don't use it on every wave.  I actually think it is better (on my boards) for broken piles than it is for breaking waves.  Most of the time, I would rather take a steeper one square (a little staggered).

Pic from Gong:

[alap]

this is nice picture of course. but its not a most difficult moment IMHO.

Would he be able to make it if he would be positioned 10 feet closer to the shore, when the wave would break and close on him? for me this is the most frustrating part...

[Admin]

this is nice picture of course. but its not a most difficult moment IMHO.

Would he be able to make it if he would be positioned 10 feet closer to the shore, when the wave would break and close on him? for me this is the most frustrating part...

Getting closed out on is tough regardless of your stance.  That is more a matter of timing, although no one avoids it entirely.  For piercing the nose through on a smaller board, paralell works better for me than surf stance.  Surf stance works great when you need to hop up and then get weight forward to flatten the board.

[stoneaxe]

I was happy to make this one at Kanaha...... celebrated and fell in.....



My last couple of times out have just been 3-4 ft waves but its been 5-6 sec period, choppy and breaking all over the place in random directions. I'm having more and more fun fighting those conditions on the way out. As river mentions paddle in the wave is what does it. I try to really power my way up and through the wave, dig as deep as I can into the back and heave myself over. Last time out it was almost like small to mid moguls on an intermediate slope. A real sense of bobbing and leg and hip movement. Seems to give me the most stability to really be cranking on the paddle and gets me over the worst part quickly. Like planting your poles for the next hop over a buried vw beetle.

[PonoBill]

Wavehobbit--you can indeed do a chicken jibe on a SUP board, one of the biggest advantages of a SUP over a prone board. You can run down the face and paddle like hell to get away from the lip. Can't do that on a longboard, the lip will fall on you.

I call it the "whitewater flail" in this article http://www.kenalu.com/2008/03/handling-a-close-out-wave/