(My Original Blog Post:
http://ping.fm/Jg2jW)
The swell blocks the howling wind at the bottom of each trough. You stroke hard, the tail of your board lifts, and you're looking into a pit nine feet deep, with a wall of water on the far side. Two short, sharp pulls of your paddle close to the nose and the board teeters in, dropping past the stall point and starting to fall. The steep face grips the board and accelerates it instantly to wave speed. Acceleration continues as the board starts it fall, and you stare at the swell ahead, looking for patterns that show the way to turn. Straight ahead into that wall is not an option. Far to the left is a low spot, and a dip in the face of the wave shows where a crossing swell moves. You cut towards the slot, cranking the rudder with your toe at the same time that you lean to the inner rail and slip your paddle across the wave face. Your seventeen foot board pivots smoothly and cuts the face, accelerating harder as vector forces press it. The nose patters across the wind chop on the face, you crank the rudder gently in the opposite direction to kill your turn and head for the slot. The nose is too low, so you step quickly back to the tail, giving a hard paddle stroke to maintain speed and lighten the board.The nose smashes into the wave, buries itself under a few inches of water, and pops free, sheeting water past your feet. You slide over the wave crest and see a long rippled sheet of smoother water curving off to the right and dropping into a trough. You reverse your turn, chatter across the sheet, gaining speed. Your board has a rooster tail spraying from it and the speed feels amazing--at the hairy edge of control. Only four more miles to go. Maybe there's enough daylight left for a second run... This article is a composite of swell-catching advice from numerous people, including Jeremey Riggs, Randy Strome, Chantelle Strome, Dave Kalama, Larry Risely, Jack Dyson, and other Maui downwind addicts. Of course none of them knew they were providing advice for publication, it's just talk from countless post-run bull sessions, shuttle rides, and other informal occasions where I try to soak up all I can from these far more experienced swellriders.
Downwind fanatics often say it's like surfing for ten miles, but that's not true, it's just not the same as Stand Up Paddle surfing--there's really nothing like a real swellride. For one thing you don't have the same kind of control you have with a surfboard, the board is bigger, the forces are more subtle, and the riding surface is unpredictable. Downwinding is almost as much a mind game as a physical challenge. Learning to read the swells is critical. The first time you go with a few experts, and they zoom away from you even when you're doing well catching swells, you realize there's a lot more to this than a few good rides.
Just like chess, you can learn the basics in fifteen minutes and then spend your life mastering the game. Let's get the basics down and then we'll talk about a few refinements.
Trim and Turning: You need to be comfortable moving around your board. Trim is critical in downwinding, and you are the trim ballast. If you're paddling a rudder board you'll likely feel anchored to the rudder. You can do a lot of trimming with one foot on the pedal, but in the early stages you shouldn't. Use the rudder when you can, but concentrate on learning to handle the board with it's rails and your paddle. Every board handles differently. A board with soft front rails or a displacement nose may not respond to rail pressure in the manner you'd expect. For example, don't assume a displacement board will turn to the inside when you press down a rail. If you are standing at the neutral center or forward it may well turn towards the outside in response to rail pressure, or it may not turn at all. Spend some time learning to turn your board from various positions: The neutral center, forward of center, aft of center, and at the tail.
Generally you trim forward to catch a swell, aft to ride it and further aft get the nose over the next swell. When you are swellriding well, you are going faster than the swells travel, so you catch the swell in front and have to ride over it without stalling or burying the nose so deep that the board stops or dumps you off. You can trim inelegantly by shuffling forward or back, elegantly by cross-stepping, or you may try to just shift your weight by stepping back into a deep surfing stance and shifting between your front or back leg.
Shuffling upsets the board at a critical time because you shift weight from rail to rail as you shuffle. Cross-stepping is far better, both because it looks great and because if you do it well the board remains weighted as you intend it instead of sloshing side to side. Weight shifting may not be enough. In big swells and high winds it will NOT be enough.
As soon as you catch a swell you need to start deciding where you want to turn. You almost always want to turn in a swell for the same reason that you turn in a wave on a surfboard. If you just run down to the bottom of the swell you will lose power and slow down, then the swell will run underneath you with no hope of staying in it. If you turn into the swell and ride its face the wave will be pushing you as long as you stay there. You will reach higher speed and sustain it longer, and you'll be able to swing up over the swell in front of you and start riding it.
The photo sequence below of Dave Kalama swellriding illustrates a turn in a swell that optimizes the ride. The helicopter camera angle and telephoto lens foreshortens the swells, which makes it hard to see what Dave sees, but you can still get a general picture.
Dropping into the swell with momentum, Dave sees both a larger swell to his left that should give a good ride, a low spot to his right to drop into, and a gap in the swell in front of him at far right
He turns right, dropping into the deeper pit as the swell to his left starts to push
The swell to his left is pressing hard as the nose of the board cuts a bit of chop in the trough
The chop helps lift the nose to get it through the gap in the next swell
Turn completed, starting to flatten
Aimed for the slot
Over and through, and looking for the next sequence
Trimmed back at high speedWhich direction you turn is depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to maximize speed you look for the deepest parts, or areas with no crossing swell to oppose you. Swells are almost always complex, with the biggest peaks being the intersection of two swells, often moving at opposite angles. Taking the larger one can increase speed.
On the other hand, you may have somewhere you want to go, like towards the shore if the wind is offshore. Turning in the swells is the way to get there. When you are paddling you're going perhaps four miles per hour. In a good sized swell you're going 10-15 MPH. Turning in a swell and riding it towards shore for twenty seconds is the same as paddling in the same direction for a minute. It's the best way to get where you want to go.
Next time, Catch That Swell.
