Nothing ruins a great wave like a nose dive off your surfboard. You waited, paddled in, caught the wave, and stood up.
It was a good couple seconds and then you realize your nose tucked under the water and you’re flying over your board. Now you got a face full of salt water.
Nose dives happen to everyone from time to time, but they’re pretty common when you’re learning to surf. So how do you prevent a nosedive?
Well first, you have to look at why it’s happening. The most common causes of the nose dive wipeout have to do with positioning on your board, paddling and popping up.
A nose dive, or pearling as it’s affectionately referred to, is when the front of your surfboard dips down under your wave and subsequently catapults you from your board.
It’s a common occurrence for new surfers learning to stand up on a wave. The reasons can be varying, but most often have to do with body position, paddling, and popping up.
Nosedives happen because the weight on the board is disproportionately placed towards the front. This can be due to where you have yourself positioned while paddling or standing up on the wave.
Body position is important in preventing a nosedive.
It can also be due to paddling and popping up. When you paddle or pop up too slowly, the force of the wave pushes around you and causes the front of your board to head down and your tail to fling you up.
Correcting all these points will go a long way to preventing nose dives in the future.
Body Position
The first and most obvious point to avoiding a nose dive is by paying attention to your body position when you’re paddling on your board.
Is your nose sticking way out, meaning your tail is under and dragging you down? Or is your nose dipping down, causing the water to rush over it and cause a wipeout?
Too far forward or too far back and you’re headed for trouble. There’s a sweet spot to look for where you can stay level.
Since this sweet spot is different for every board, practice finding yours in calm water. Play around with your body position and see what it feels like.
You’re looking for where the nose barely tips out of the water, but not so far that the tail starts to go under.
Once you’ve found the right spot, you can mark it with tape or wax to better remember where it is. Or if you don’t want to, just remember the area of your board.
If you’re on a longboard the right body position will probably be further down from the nose. A long board is much heavier and has more volume so there is a little more room to find the right body position. On a shortboard you’re more likely to be closer to the nose.
Paddling
The next area that may be causing you to pearl is your paddling. You may be paddling too slow or simply not enough.
You want to make sure you’re paddling fast enough to match the speed of the wave. When you paddle too slowly, the speed of the wave overpowers you and your board. The force of that impact sends you flying, kind of like a car crash.
This is part of why paddling is such an important part of surfing. Practice yours as much as you can, both on and off your board to build strength and speed.
Go for deep strokes, like you’re pulling something out of the water versus shallow ones. This will move you forward better and help you gain speed.
The goal is for your speed to match that of the wave. Sort of like if you were running to jump on a train. You’d have to run fast enough to match the train before jumping into the car. The same goes for paddling.
If you’re going as fast as the wave it’ll scoop you up onto it, whereas too slow and it hurdles on over you.
You also may not be paddling enough. Make sure the wave fully has your board before you stop paddling. Once you feel it catch your tail, it’s not time to stop but rather go full force. Don’t move into your pop up until you feel the wave has you.
Decide early if you’re going for a wave or not. A common mistake that leads to pearling is trying to catch a wave too late. If you go out for the wave too late, the angle of the take off will be too steep, sending you hurtling into the water.
As soon as you see a wave forming, start paddling for it to give yourself enough time to get into position.
Popping Up
Finally, your pop up could be sabotaging you and resulting in a nose dive. You might need to pop up a little sooner or faster.
Once you’ve paddled out at the right speed and you’re coming down the wave, if you wait too long, you’ll start sliding down the face of the wave. Then your nose will tuck under and send you spilling.
Once you pop up, you can adjust yourself on the board to keep your balance level and your nose out of the water.
Feeling for the right time to pop up can take a while, but the key is to feel the wave pulling you in and the board riding the wave’s current.
Pop as quickly as you can. Popping up too slowly will cause you to lose your balance or miss the wave. Popping up quickly takes practice and strength.
Work on it out of the water to get the motion down smoothly. You can also work on exercises to strengthen your pop up muscles which will help you to get fast quick. Try burpees, pushups and switch lunges to work on speed and strength at the same time.
Once you pop up, the more weight you place in your back foot, the higher the nose, but also the slower your board goes. It’s essentially like the brakes. The pressure from the water holds you back.
The more weight you place in the front, obviously the more likely to nose dive. Just like with body positioning, look for the perfect spot on your board for balance. Your feet aren’t glued to the board so adjust as you need to, as long as you can stay balanced.
Once you pop up, be sure to stay low, keeping your knees bent and your arms out. Avoid standing up tall. There’s no stability to this and will cause the wave to slip right out from under you in a wipeout.
Instead, keep your knees bent in something more of a squat. This positioning gives you a lower center of gravity and better stability. Keep your arms out, one in front and one in back for balance. But make sure they aren’t flailing around causing more harm than good.
Bonus: Eyes
Watch where you’re looking. This could really fit with any part of this article, but is important enough to warrant its own section. Wherever your eyes go, your body and board will follow.
Keep your eyes up, whether you’re on your belly or standing up. Looking down at your board will only shift your weight down and cause your nose to go under. The exact opposite energy we’re looking for.
When paddling, keep your eyes on the wave, checking back in with it versus keeping your eyes on the shore.
Watching the beach will just make you head straight out whereas you need a little more of an angle to catch the wave right.
By checking in with the wave you’ll be better able to tell where your board needs to be and how fast you need to be moving. Watching the shore only won’t help with that.
Related Questions
Is wiping out dangerous?
Wiping out is part of the process in surfing. You want to avoid it at all costs, but it still happens. Not every wipeout is dangerous, if you’re just learning and on a nice whitewater wave, you’ll probably be fine.
But wipeouts can be dangerous depending on the size and speed of the wave. A bad wipeout can wreck your board, or hurt another surfer. Common hazards of a wipeout are cuts, neck injuries and drowning.
Know how to wipe out safely. Fall away from your board, don’t dive head first or feet first as you’ll hit the floor hard. Let yourself land on your butt. Cover your head as you come up to protect it from your board.
Is it easier to catch small or big waves?
In general the ease of catching waves has to do with your board, skill and what the waves are like. Waves of all sizes have varying speed and heaviness, as do boards.
If you’re just learning it’s a good idea to stick with smaller waves.
Why is it called pearling?
Nose diving is also called pearling. Pearling is short for pearl diving and comes from teasing one about “diving for pearls” Eventually this was shortened to just pearling and became part of the surfing lexicon.