Bodyboarding: Take Off

Step 1: You will need

Step 2: Catch a wave

The first thing you need to do is choose your wave and paddle towards it. Then turn around to face shore and kick for your life.

As you kick you may choose to paddle with either two arms or just the one. A lot of people find it easier to paddle with one hand and use the other to steady the board, while putting a little downward pressure on its nose.

But choosing which arm does what depends on your desired direction. Put more simply, if you want to go right, put your right hand on the nose while your left arm paddles. And if you want to go left, do the reverse.

Step 3: Take off

If you've done everything right so far, you should now feel the wave pushing you down its face. In this case, stop paddling and grab the outside rail with your paddling arm about a third of the board length back from the nose.

If you perhaps haven't got the right amount of speed to stay with the wave, then grab the front of the board with both hands, shift a bit of your weight to its front, and push it down the wave.

Step 4: Start the trim

Now slide back a touch and angle your board in the direction you want to go. If it's a steep drop, you might find pulling up on the nose helpful to stop the board from "pearling", basically taking you head over heels.

Once you've made it to the bottom, you're now ready to set up for a bottom turn or maybe even a trim line. And to learn how to do that, you need to take a look at our other movies right here on Videojug.