Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

Simon,more injuries in smaller instead of bigger waves is dead on with me also.
Every injury I have had surfing Wedge (77-present) has come in surf 5' and under,don't get me wrong ,I have seen some terrible injuries and worse when it was huge,but it is just not as easy to get away from the board when it is smaller.
And yes,probably 95% of the time, the barrel is the safest place to be.
Sure there are exceptions ,but when you watch a board after someone bails in a barrel,if the board is still in the swweet spot it pops up behind the wave after it passes.The compression just spits it out the back.
The hardest thing is fighting the urge to get the hell out of Dodge when the lip is coming down.
If you want to try it in a safer way first get on a boogie pull in to a close out stay put and ride it out,you will get a different perspective and veiw of the situation.
Max

CaptKneemo wrote:how far should my knees be apart when exiting or dodging a barrel?

just far enough so that with a really good pucker you can still kiss your a$$ goodbye
if i want to end my ride in a barrel (and there is time) i like to intentionally pearl my board so it stops and i keep going forward and get a little seperation. either bodysurf on or try to dive under. this is the point where having a leash kinda sucks.
trying to pull through the back of the wave when it's pitching, board and all always ends badly for me.

If anyone is keen to help the Captain locate his sack and advise him on how far apart his knees should be then my considered advice is to proceed discretely via a PM.

Mr Broadminded

Simon, all my worst injuries have happened in smaller surf, especially low tide. leg fracture, stitches, lots of knocks on the noggin, fin punctures, broken ear drum and way more board damage.

My thoughts are smaller waves contain less water volume = shallower = less cushion between the bottom, board and you no room to evade. Larger waves contain more water volume = deeper = more room to evade even at low tide.

Also think I tend to not respect the smaller surf as much. I tend to pay way more attention in serious surf.



Or, I could be completely full of crap

Shelfbreak wrote:If anyone is keen to help the Captain locate his sack and advise him on how far apart his knees should be

this thread is going in a bad direction

Just pull my finger cuz

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http://kingwakaskorner.blogspot.com/

Interesting to hear the techniques and nuances of barrel bailouts. Over the years I've keenly watched other riders, to improve my own cutbacks, off the lips, bottom turns ect., but this is something that for the most part takes place "behind the curtain", and the learning curve can be brutal. Simon and Max (and anyone else) when your'e riding the tube onward until it collapses on/around you are you still trying to stay locked onto the board ? Also would you consider this a viable method in larger tubes...? I would think the increased space and deeper water would maybe favor a dive over the front .

Hi Fossil,
I encourage any person to stay in on there boards as long as possible if there is some chance you might make the barrel
but
if its just a nasty straight closeout that is going no where fast, then maybe your just putting yourself or/& board at risk. I use to take on big closeouts to test my nerve in heavy situations which did have an effect, less fear when it came down to it but the end of the day a close out is a close out and the end result is not in your hands. Pushing out through the back, jumping over the nose of your board, staying on for as long as you can will all have different results at different times. If the barrel shows a chance of travelling for a while then hold on, glide, pump, weave and you just may be surprised

priceless Waka

Hey Fossil, what I didn't include in my earlier post on this was that the forward dive off the board only ever comes right at the last possible second, when everything has shut down. Until there's no hope of getting out of the barrel, there's always a chance that you will make it. Another thing I forgot to mention is that I usually only do it on waves over about 4 ft. It seems to be about that size that the fear of getting worked becomes a factor. Where I surf a lot of the barrelling waves are happening at low tide, and that means shallow water. The last-second dive is, I think, simply a reflex that stems from one too many beatings. OK, we surf mostly sand-bottom points here, but it's very shallow at times and very hard-packed sand: it will do as much damage as rock if you hit it the wrong way.

I like Max's comment about the bodyboard in the closeout as training for "closeout" wipeouts. It occurs to me that my long-gone days of youthful disregard for personal safety were a lot closer to the time before I rode a board at all and just used to bodysurf waves as big as I could swim out in. In those days I think I was pretty familiar with the inside of chunky closeouts and how they work. I think sometimes we forget, to our cost, that what happens during and after a wipeout is just as much part of the act of surfing as actually riding the wave. The skill lies in finding how to negotiate a path around or through those forces that are much more powerful than we are. Simon is spot on when he says there are times when you must just accept the situation you're in and understand that it's going to pass. I also believe that this is one of those things that you can think about too much. Surfing fast, hollow waves has always seemed to me to be an instinctive, reactive thing. The more you try to control what's happening instead of just going with it, the harder it becomes. I hope you get my drift here ...

Interesting and unnerving topic ... I must agree with the small wave injuries ... especially small hollow beach breaks.

Because of my penchant for switching between riding stand-ups and kneeboards over the years my outlook may differ slightly to some.

Whilst riding either a longer or shorter stand-up in hollow waves ... and finding the eye diminishing into the distance ... my usual option is to flick the board forward through the tube whilst falling / diving backwards into and through the back of the wave ...

Back in the day ... before my kneeboarding sabbatical I had a similar system of avoiding wipeout disaster ... by simply using my feet to flick-off ... propelling the board forward and disappearing out the back.

I would never leap forward from a surfboard ... unless I had caught a rail

different strokes for different blokes ...

The diving forward method is great when you have a bit of speed.
Example:Look at old shots of Ron Romanosky pushing the eject button at Wedge. He made it look easy but he always had speed. No speed no forward momentum to clear the board.
Try getting on your knees on the living room floor and see how far you can dive while stationaryand you will see what I mean.
purposely digging the outside rail works also,but timing is everything,too soon and you go over,too late and splat on your board.
Try the bodyboard in a few closeouts to get ideas and formulate your own plan.
My best veiws have been from the inside of unmakable barrels.
Max

Sparrow wrote: but the end of the day a close out is a close out and the end result is not in your hands. Pushing out through the back, jumping over the nose of your board, staying on for as long as you can will all have different results at different times.

bailouts and closeouts are definitely like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get

I ride inside for a long as possible & dive forward by burying the nose at the very last second while there is still just enough space for my body to fit!

I also have had a few super shallow barrels that have gone dry [on sand]..... in these I have held on tight to my board, rolled onto my back to impact the sand & let my board go as the wave surges up the beach & takes it away from me.
I've also had waves where the sand has been dry in front of me whilst in the barrel but still made it out of them not that I plan these things....just react.

While a long time user of the diving forward method, i think that considering Toms recent accident, advocating that someone else use it as a method of avoiding injury is pretty scary. Even divng as shallow as possible has had horrible consequences(luckily all are still walking and surfing) for at least 3 guys i know, you just dont know how shallow the water is!

Hanging on till the end takes the most courage IMHO, but seems to be the safest.

all methods carry a risk. i was out out Rockpiles on the North Shore of Oahu and tried to ride one out but the nose got caught by the lip and driven down only to fly right back at me full force. one of the fins hatcheted my forearm (which was covering mt head in a defensive position) which led to a ER visit where i got approx 30+ stitches, 15 of those to repair the muscle which was sliced all the way to the bone. who knows what it woud have done to my head or neck. for me i want the board as far away as possible.
personally i advocate everyone staying away from dangerous hollow surf....especially here in Hawaii. Lighthouse and 69's are the worst and should be avoided at all cost. specifically on mondays, thursdays and some weekends which i usualyy have off