Proper Technique For Pitching Boards

[SooLoo]

I'm going to post this here in hopes for some answers before for going to Swaylocks for a scientific take (attention holdown).
Sometimes you just have to swim to the bottom to save yourself a beating and reef drag. I had this thought today (way to many times) as I was out of position during a real solid set with way to much whitewater to consider a duck. So I bail the big bail and I'm wondering whether it matters if the board is upside or down during impact. Even as I type this it sounds stupid but I had a lot of time to think about it and wondered if someone could shed some light on this so I can think about something else while holding my breath forever.

[Doc]

You just want the board behind or to the side...
Although until you duck dive you'll never know what's impossible.

Doc

[buoyhead]

Just go to Oswald West and observe. Be it 2 ft. or 8 ft. , a veritable plethora of board pitching techniques on display for your viewing pleasure.

[holddown]

I would never ditch my board, but if I did, I would point the board parallel to the wave face so the incoming wave would hit it broadside. If the board was orthogonal (note scientific term) to the lip, the chance of breakage would be greater. I would also say deck side down is best since most boards are glassed thicker on the deck. Assuming the wave impact hits the bottom, the thicker glass on the deck should have more strength as it stretches.

[wanty]

I would never ditch my board,

What board?

I have tried too many times to safely hold onto my 9'8" log on overhead sets....i have reverted to ditching while holding the leash a few feet from the tail--deck up.

[Gazsurf]

I would never ditch my board, but if I did, I would point the board parallel to the wave face so the incoming wave would hit it broadside. If the board was orthogonal (note scientific term) to the lip, the chance of breakage would be greater. I would also say deck side down is best since most boards are glassed thicker on the deck. Assuming the wave impact hits the bottom, the thicker glass on the deck should have more strength as it stretches.

I will try to remember this.....

[Doc]

I usually opt out of longboards in OH surf...
Not always, I usually don't ditch if I can avoid it...
I usually just let the wave take the board out of my hands...
Which seems to happen almost magically.

Doc

[redalert]

Im not sure if there is a proper technique but sometimes it is prudent.
I had not surfed in 3 weeks when I decided to go out for a surf one night after work last week.
NW swell, bouys 8ft 10 seconds.
Outer bars. About one hour before low tide. wonderful waves with some push.
I got slotted on two waves right away. Caught a couple more solid waves and was feeling good too.
I was wondering if the board was magic, or if I was just getting lucky. Wave after wave.
Everything was working, I couldnt believe it really. I hadnt surfed this board in over a year. 7'0", four fins.
Maybe all you really have to do is drool over a barrelfest chopes webcast over and over in your head and then go out and have a great surf.

A set came that caught everyone. I was catching waves farthest out and took it right on the head.
Duckdived pretty deep but it was churning on the low tide. The board was still under me when it was forced straight up out of my hands and into my face, got held down long enough want air.
Lucky for my nose, my teeth got in the way.
Walked up the beach spitting blood.
Great sesh.
Should have ditched.

[Qurph]

i don't purposefully surf waves over 3xoh so almost never let go of my board - even longboards (*caveat: when i can't get my sh1t back together after a wipeout and the next wave pummels me before i can get foreward momentum). but i've found that turtle-ing works better than you would expect in most any conditions you would paddle a bonglord into.

surfing a-list waves with a/b-list surfers will discipline you from ditching.

[stinky]

First note the wind direction, use caution if the wind is off shore and in your face the board may come back to bite you. Make sure you dig in your front foot securely into the mound and flick your wrist towards the ground as you release. The board should travel in a slight curve across the outside of the plate. Hope that helps So Low?

[Friend Of The Hawk]

I find it hard to believe someone would never find themself in heavy surf and not bail when caught inside the impact zone...
At 60 and years of rotator cuff problems from surfing sometimes I just have let go of my pride and bail and dive deep...

[speelyei]

when I pitch a board, usually I'm drunk. Sometimes it's cause I didn't surf well, but uusually it's cause I haven't surfed at all.
Don't rush pitching that board, savor it. Drag it out over an evening. Start with a few beers, sit around the burn pile, and wax poetic about the salad days out at the coast. Mull over the good times, laugh, and then fade into a slow buzzy burn over some old stuff that will never be resolved. Bemoan the lack of surf inland. Complain generally about your job and lot in life. Regroup, and look over the blessings, but move into hard alcohol and discard that in favor of a sense of betrayal. Blame your job, and intimate that it's your wife's fault that you haven't been surfing. Don't let up, we're getting into it now. Look at your board and feel mixed feelings over the good memories it stirs up, but temper that with the taunt of good times that will never be. Yes, things are going swimmingly. You're ranting now. Move into shots with no mixer. people are leaving you to your own raving. The floor tilts, vision becomes blurred and myopic. it's board pitching time. Look at the board, th freakin goddamn useless thing with it's hollow memeories of last summer, waves forgotten, and the thing is just laughing at yo now. you'll never get what you paid for it, and why should you give such a nice thing to some other jerkoff anyway? Drinking, we're feeling physical now. Just go with it. Move some stuff around, knock over some crap in the garage. The lights are on up at the house, the blind moves. Kicking stuff, we're talking about work and surfing and the economy, and looking at the board. What the f@#K good is it anyway? All dusty and pathetic, stupid a surfboard on a farm. f@#K it. It doesn't control me, I'm the master of my own destiny. Stupid shite, just material shite. Better to just smash it and quit living a lie. I work, and that's it. Choose, bitch, Your family and your job and your commitments, or your youth and all those places yo longed to see? Huh? Which is it gonna be, Peter Pan? Man enough to leave? Not man enough to stay? There's booze in our beard and we may have peed. This is it. This is the crescendo! I know what to do.... Pitch the board! Yeah!! When White rabbit peaks, throw the radio into the tub!! Knock the board onto the floor, and stomp it impotently. Fall down as you do so. Another ineffectual kick, and we're overcome with emotion. Get up, and slam the board on the wall, injuring your fingers in the process. That's good, picking up steam. Steam. Smoke. Where there's smoke there's gonna be a fire. The burnpile. Out the barn doors, quickly, a pyre! Oh you drunken fool, you've rushed headlong out the door, catching the nose and tail on the sides and snapped the poor board in half. wo pieces, not one. Half the spectacle. Crying now, the thing didn't even break cleanly, it's still held by the fiberglass that's cutting you, blood smeared on th ruined deck, fibeglass strands under the skin you may carry for months. Throw it onto the coals. It doesn't flare up. No explosion. Just a drunken idiot on the verge of 40 who's ruined a board he can't afford to replace and scared his wife in the process and despite it all, you will punch the clock for another 60 hour workweek like a wageslave pump dummy robot cause that's what it comes down to, man, that's what it comes down to. Now slump in the chair, before you go in the house. Cause God knows a real man would sleep it off here in the lawn chair and drizzle and your gonna tuck your tail and saunter back to the house, cause there's work tomorrow.

and that's how you pitch a board.

[Doc]

Speelyei

You can borrow a board from me...
As long as you don't pitch it.

Doc

[nm]

when I pitch a board, usually I'm drunk. Sometimes it's cause I didn't surf well, but uusually it's cause I haven't surfed at all.
Don't rush pitching that board, savor it. Drag it out over an evening. Start with a few beers, sit around the burn pile, and wax poetic about the salad days out at the coast. Mull over the good times, laugh, and then fade into a slow buzzy burn over some old stuff that will never be resolved. Bemoan the lack of surf inland. Complain generally about your job and lot in life. Regroup, and look over the blessings, but move into hard alcohol and discard that in favor of a sense of betrayal. Blame your job, and intimate that it's your wife's fault that you haven't been surfing. Don't let up, we're getting into it now. Look at your board and feel mixed feelings over the good memories it stirs up, but temper that with the taunt of good times that will never be. Yes, things are going swimmingly. You're ranting now. Move into shots with no mixer. people are leaving you to your own raving. The floor tilts, vision becomes blurred and myopic. it's board pitching time. Look at the board, th freakin goddamn useless thing with it's hollow memeories of last summer, waves forgotten, and the thing is just laughing at yo now. you'll never get what you paid for it, and why should you give such a nice thing to some other jerkoff anyway? Drinking, we're feeling physical now. Just go with it. Move some stuff around, knock over some crap in the garage. The lights are on up at the house, the blind moves. Kicking stuff, we're talking about work and surfing and the economy, and looking at the board. What the f@#K good is it anyway? All dusty and pathetic, stupid a surfboard on a farm. f@#K it. It doesn't control me, I'm the master of my own destiny. Stupid shite, just material shite. Better to just smash it and quit living a lie. I work, and that's it. Choose, bitch, Your family and your job and your commitments, or your youth and all those places yo longed to see? Huh? Which is it gonna be, Peter Pan? Man enough to leave? Not man enough to stay? There's booze in our beard and we may have peed. This is it. This is the crescendo! I know what to do.... Pitch the board! Yeah!! When White rabbit peaks, throw the radio into the tub!! Knock the board onto the floor, and stomp it impotently. Fall down as you do so. Another ineffectual kick, and we're overcome with emotion. Get up, and slam the board on the wall, injuring your fingers in the process. That's good, picking up steam. Steam. Smoke. Where there's smoke there's gonna be a fire. The burnpile. Out the barn doors, quickly, a pyre! Oh you drunken fool, you've rushed headlong out the door, catching the nose and tail on the sides and snapped the poor board in half. wo pieces, not one. Half the spectacle. Crying now, the thing didn't even break cleanly, it's still held by the fiberglass that's cutting you, blood smeared on th ruined deck, fibeglass strands under the skin you may carry for months. Throw it onto the coals. It doesn't flare up. No explosion. Just a drunken idiot on the verge of 40 who's ruined a board he can't afford to replace and scared his wife in the process and despite it all, you will punch the clock for another 60 hour workweek like a wageslave pump dummy robot cause that's what it comes down to, man, that's what it comes down to. Now slump in the chair, before you go in the house. Cause God knows a real man would sleep it off here in the lawn chair and drizzle and your gonna tuck your tail and saunter back to the house, cause there's work tomorrow.

and that's how you pitch a board.

Welcome Home Spiel.........

(we missed you @ the Rogue....)

[speelyei]

Hi NM! Yeah, that wouldve been fun. I may end up back on the coast yet.

My prior post was a work of fiction.