I'm just starting to body board and am having trouble getting off a wave once I've caught it (before my knees are dragging in the sand). Could you please advise me on technique?

Thanks in advance!

I'm not a bodyboarder, but no one else has replied yet, soI'll give it a go. There are various ways to get off the wave.

1. If on the open face where its not too steep, just look over your shoulder dig in the inside rail and carve your way up and over the shoulder of the wave.

2. If the wave is steeper and about to close out, carve into the wave hard and punch through the face and out the back. You'll have to sink the board under the lip by 'ducking' with your head and forcing the front of the board into the water.

3. If surrounded by whitewater, I don't know the 'accepted' technique but you can probably just carve in and duck under the whitewater if its not too big or just roll off the board, let the board-leash do its job and use your body as an anchor under the wave until it passes over your head.

I'm sure some of the bodyboarders will be online soon to answer your questions from a perspective of personal experience though.

Al.

taa daaa.... i'm a body boarder...and i'm online.. so here it goes!

Its pretty much as Al has said... if your on a nice open clean faced wave and you want to get off (why?? hee hee) The only place you can go is behind the wave or in the "out to sea" direction. So you can either carve your way up to the top of the wave and "pop" over the top.
Or to make it a little bit easier you can blast your way along the wave to get away from the breaking shoulder of it and do the same... the wave should be a little bit smaller the further away from the shoulder you get... (in theory..but it doesn't always work like that).
Of course there is the tried and tested technique of just bailing off your board, holding your breath, swimming deep and waiting for the wave to pass technique as well!

If you find yourself in white water your gonna have to work it! As white water is mostly air bubbles, all the techniques you may have learnt won't work! You won't be able to turn very good as the rail on your board hasn't got anything of substance to "dig" into ie water! So your gonna have to use your knees to push the back of the board into the water whilst pulling the top of the board towards you. This will in effect sink your board and it will act as a huge break... once you feel something happening try and manoever the board so you can turn around.

Or again.... bail,bail,bail,bail...and hold your breath!


All this info is quite academic really and the only true way of learning is to get in your wave time in.
You'll find the best technique that suits you.

Keep at it and i'm sure it will all click into place soon!

Hi zanapple,

all the techniques used here are great...not so sure about the bails though

If you've ridden a wave and you end up in the whitewater there is another technique that i mostly use to turn around, get off the wave (whitewater) and start to paddle "out back" for the next set of waves. Its sort of made up by me but most of the time it works. What i do is lift my bottom part of my legs (down from the kneecap) up in the air and cross my flippers together at the ankles (like in the picture below). Once you get into that position, you then stick one hand in the water (left hand if your spinning left and visa versa) and pull/steady your board with your other hand. Then shift your weight so that the board spins around to face back out to sea. The whitewater should pass under you if you do the spin quickly and smoothly. And then you cam start paddling back out for another wave.

Hope this has helped. Good luck, keep spongin' and posting!

Sorry, i forgot the picture!

Here's the position you should take when you spin around in the whitewater:

Yes, just try and do as the picture shows. If you get there I'm sure getting off the wave will be the least of your worries