Going out in bigger surf

[marty_n]

This is what i do, and had to do it frequently yesterday

Drive your board as deep as you can using your body weight with you arms straight out

If you can get one knee onto the tail and drive it down deep too

Grab hold of your board like your going to die and just keep it pinned on a angle downwards

then when you feel the wash above go almost vertically up and you'll pop up like a submarine

Works for me first time everytime!

Also try and do it a little before the wave hits as usually the white wash or explosion is mainly at the top

and its the part you want to avoid at all costs!

IMHO ditching your board is like suicide unless its like 10ft and you can get down right to the bottom and lay flat so you won't even feel the wave

and you can boost yourself back to the top!

[Lidwarrior808]

Sounds good guys thanks for all your advice now i just have to wait for some swell to come so i can get my duck dives up to scratch

[kc_bodyboard]

i know this thread is old but,
My limits are
the opens: 3-4ft, opens are scary when there big
points: 3-6ft depending on where i am, pot would be 3ft cos its so close to the rocks, natio's/first 6ft.

[yutziy]

Yeh beaches my max is about 5ft just because ours close out after 4-5ft so getting caught inside is a real problem reefs about 8ft really depends what reef it is 8ft meanos yes 8ft lunas no!.

[Conjob v1.1]

Depends where but ive surfed some maxed out beachies at about 6ft, catching waves etc.

Biggest beachie would be DY after surfing point on a big south swell. The point was about 6ft and kinda crowded so went on a solo mission paddling up the beach after seeing a few nice ones come through. When i got there it was way bigger than i thought. Probably paddled over some solid 8ft bombs, fairly heavy and LOTS of water movement. Was way out of my depth and didnt want to paddle inside quickly to get one incase a set came where i would truly have been f##ked. No way my leash would have survived and zero hope of duck diving these waves. Honestly not sure i would have made it in if i got caught inside a set. Couldnt really paddle back to the point with all the water movement i would have just worn myself out and been in real danger. Ended up getting onto a really big full left, rode it comfortably in until it hit the inside where i had to choose to go or pull off. Pulling off would have meant being in the impact zone of crunching 4-6ft closeouts so i went, out ran the closeout and got the f@k out of there with my tail between my legs. If i got caught there i would have made it in, but on the end of a massive beating. Ended up walking out of the water bit north of the club house thinking that was a really really dumb move on my part. No one else even thinking of going out at the beach and all the surrounding ones were complete washing machines. One of the sketchiest moments ive had in the water.

Reefs about 6-8 depending where again. 6ft ill be in there hassling, towards the 8ft ill be shoulder hopping and dodging sets

[captain_awesome]

i'm around 4ft for the opens, get so edgy anything over this, and its scary, have surfed a 6-8ft beachie and i shat my self
reefs i'm happy going a bit bigger if they have a bit of water on them and i'd probably say 6ft would be my limit there, plus you have the channel so you can take a breather if you get pwned
points i'm happy going bigger as well probably up to 6ft also, but that sweep at noosa when its big doesn't make it appeal to me

[kc_bodyboard]

reef probably 2-3ft depending. ive only surfed 1 reef but, wish i could surf more of them, so consistent.

[caspian]

it just depends on the sort of break. Biggest waves I've currently surfed was a certain bombie near Esperance in May, I don't really want to give a size as I was the only one out but I'd say a wave face was perhaps 6 odd metres, so 10 foot? And I've hit a few points up near Dongara on an absolutely massive swell last year that was probably the same size, although they were just big fast crumblers but no worries.

But yeah, defining a "what's big" thing is silly. 10 foot was fine at this bombie, I could deal with it at booj if booj held that much, it would not be fine at box, it would absolutely not be fine at cyclops. Depends.

[ScottyT]

Was out today, 4-5ft closeout beachies. Just practice duckdiving as deep as possible and you should be fine

[caspian]

4-5 ft? really. Unless if the swell has got massively bigger there's nowhere in the SW that'd be that big right now.

[Wonderbread]

it just depends on the sort of break. Biggest waves I've currently surfed was a certain bombie near Esperance in May, I don't really want to give a size as I was the only one out but I'd say a wave face was perhaps 6 odd metres, so 10 foot? And I've hit a few points up near Dongara on an absolutely massive swell last year that was probably the same size, although they were just big fast crumblers but no worries.

But yeah, defining a "what's big" thing is silly. 10 foot was fine at this bombie, I could deal with it at booj if booj held that much, it would not be fine at box, it would absolutely not be fine at cyclops. Depends.

Riding giant bombies is heaps fun, I love lifting my fins out of the water and just absolutely flying down the line as fast as I can then just gouging into the face and seeing how far I can watch my spray go.

[Conjob v1.1]

4-5 ft? really. Unless if the swell has got massively bigger there's nowhere in the SW that'd be that big right now.

multiply by half.

[caspian]

it just depends on the sort of break. Biggest waves I've currently surfed was a certain bombie near Esperance in May, I don't really want to give a size as I was the only one out but I'd say a wave face was perhaps 6 odd metres, so 10 foot? And I've hit a few points up near Dongara on an absolutely massive swell last year that was probably the same size, although they were just big fast crumblers but no worries.

But yeah, defining a "what's big" thing is silly. 10 foot was fine at this bombie, I could deal with it at booj if booj held that much, it would not be fine at box, it would absolutely not be fine at cyclops. Depends.

Riding giant bombies is heaps fun, I love lifting my fins out of the water and just absolutely flying down the line as fast as I can then just gouging into the face and seeing how far I can watch my spray go.

This was a hollow bombie Albeit one of very little consequence, the reef is a small one, isn't super shallow and goes straight back out into deep water, some long holddowns but if you get a breath before you get smashed you're ok. Perhaps not something to surf on a massive swell though.

Con, I know, I know

[Wonderbread]

it just depends on the sort of break. Biggest waves I've currently surfed was a certain bombie near Esperance in May, I don't really want to give a size as I was the only one out but I'd say a wave face was perhaps 6 odd metres, so 10 foot? And I've hit a few points up near Dongara on an absolutely massive swell last year that was probably the same size, although they were just big fast crumblers but no worries.

But yeah, defining a "what's big" thing is silly. 10 foot was fine at this bombie, I could deal with it at booj if booj held that much, it would not be fine at box, it would absolutely not be fine at cyclops. Depends.

Riding giant bombies is heaps fun, I love lifting my fins out of the water and just absolutely flying down the line as fast as I can then just gouging into the face and seeing how far I can watch my spray go.

This was a hollow bombie Albeit one of very little consequence, the reef is a small one, isn't super shallow and goes straight back out into deep water, some long holddowns but if you get a breath before you get smashed you're ok. Perhaps not something to surf on a massive swell though.

Con, I know, I know

Kingsy bombie is pretty much the same save for the fact it doesn't hold up in the bigger swells that much, usually just turns into huge ramps unless the wind is just perfect.

[ScottyT]

[quote="caspian"]4-5 ft? really. Unless if the swell has got massively bigger there's nowhere in the SW that'd be that big right no
Well it was bigger then 3 ft, Im not the best at wave sizes but the bigger waves were 1.5-1.8m