Why do you regularly get wiped out while other surfers always seem to find the right gap to make it through the surf zone in one piece? When is it worth holding on tightly to your equipment and when is it better to let everything float and take a break? Surfing in the waves has a lot to do with experience. Here are three basic tips for the right behaviour in the surf zone so that you don't have to painfully gather it first.
Manuel Vogel, surf tester: "If you follow a few basic rules, you can minimise your material loss regardless of your strength or riding ability."
Tip 1: Accelerate or brake?
If you are a less experienced waver and simply jump on your board at a spot with solid surf and speed off, it is not uncommon for you to be swimming back towards the beach a minute later in search of your equipment. When travelling through the breaker zone, the aim is not to be as fast as possible, but to adapt to the waves. With wave heights of over 1.5 metres, you want to avoid a wave breaking directly on you at all costs - then there is a risk to your equipment and health. The path through the surf is therefore an interplay of accelerating and decelerating. The following applies: If you are heading towards round wave shoulders, accelerate to cross the waves before they break. If you are not sure whether you will be able to cross the wave before it breaks, or if there are already other set waves piling up in front of you, take the speed out early and let the waves break in front of you in a controlled manner: Once the wave has broken, it loses power with every second.
Tip 2: Serpentine line when crossing waves
When crossing white water, the aim is always to hit it as head-on as possible. This is easiest with sideshore or even diagonally offshore sideoffshore winds, as you usually get the wave directly from the front on a half-wind course anyway.
The stronger the white water hits you from the side, the more difficult it is to cross - which is why big waves in combination with flat onshore winds are extremely challenging to surf. Anyone who has ever watched the best windsurfers in the world struggle in onshore winds on Sylt knows what is meant.
On the water, this means that you have to adjust your course before hitting the white water, depending on the wind direction. In cross-onshore wind conditions, as is usually the case in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, a serpentine tactic is recommended:
- Pick up speed on space wind (parallel to the wave)
- Luffing clearly before you hit the white water and want to cross it. This way you hit the white water as head-on as possible
- After crossing the wave, drop back down and pick up speed again
How well you make it over the white water depends on the power and height of the wave, but also on how much sail pull you have at the time. The following always applies: Shift your body weight over the tail before hitting the white water (photo top right). This causes the bow to rise slightly and the wave to pass under the board. Immediately after crossing the crest of the wave, bring your weight forwards again (photo top left).
Tip 3: Hold on? Dive away? Or take flight after all?
Crashes in the surf are part and parcel, regardless of your riding ability - whether you're riding the waves or on the way out. How much time you have to get back on the board after a crash depends on the wave period: While this can sometimes be ten to 20 seconds in solid ocean swell, the waves break at a higher frequency on smaller ocean surfaces - on the North Sea and Baltic Sea it is often only three to nine seconds. This means that there is often not enough time to get on the board before the next wave hits. This raises the question of when it makes sense to hold on to your equipment and when it is better to let it float. This aspect also has a lot to do with experience, strength and, of course, wave height. Nevertheless, there are some basic rules that apply to wave beginners and pros alike:
Hold on
You can usually hold on to the material if you have made it to the water start position and the wave is not yet breaking immediately (photo below). Even if the wave has already broken and the board is lying with the bow towards the wave, it can make sense to hold on. However, push the material far forwards towards the wave and away from you so that the wave doesn't hit you in the face.
Dive down
In large, powerful waves, you can only hold on to your equipment if you manage to push the rig under water before the wave hits. Ideally, the top of the sail should point towards the wave, but if necessary it is also possible if the mast is orientated at right angles to the wave. Peter grips the mast with one hand and the front piece of the boom with the other and pushes the sail under water with his body weight (photo below). If necessary, it can also help to push with your feet - the deeper the masthead is under water, the greater the chance of being able to hold on to it. When holding on, make sure you keep one hand on the mast and the other hand on the front piece of the boom. Let yourself be pulled along and keep your body to the side of the rig to avoid damaging the sail with harness hooks, knees or elbows.
When I hold the material during a wash, I always grab the boom head and the mast. - Peter Garzke
Escape to the side
If the material lies between you and the approaching wave after a fall, there is a considerable risk of injury even with moderate wave heights! If it is foreseeable that you will neither be able to turn the sail with the masthead towards the wave nor get it into the water start position before the next wave rolls in, you should clear the field quickly. Swim away to the side and let the material drift (photo below). If necessary, you can also dive down and let the wave wash over you.
