I finally got my new (to me) Jive 8.10 into the surf this past weekend. Had alot of fun in it but did have some trouble on the larger waves.

Conditions of the day were 2-3 semi-choppy with a few clean wave sets. I mostly played in the soup getting a feel for the boat.

I tried to catch a few of the larger, clean waves. Set up, saw wave approaching and started paddling hard to get up to speed. The wave caught me and lifted the stern, the bow went under and I immediately endo'd.

As soon as the wave caught me and I started feeling the stern picked up I immediately leaned back as I do in my WS Kaos to keep the bow up. But in the Jive it seemed to cause the nose to drop into the water even further. I spoke with a friend at the local shop and he mentioned that leaning forward and lifting with your legs will control the bow better.

I was trying for a straight takeoff perpendicular to the wave and didnt' get far enough to start to carve a bottom turn. Is a slightly angled takeoff more appropriate to allow a faster bottom turn and prevent pearling?

Is a slightly angled takeoff more appropriate to allow a faster bottom turn and prevent pearling?

Yessir. The jive is probably faster than your kaos was, and that is why you are pearling. You could try catching it perpindicularly, then as soon as you are on the wave, angle your boat. There are a lot of threads on ocean surfing if you want any more tips or advice.

Yackity Yak wrote:

I was trying for a straight takeoff perpendicular to the wave and didnt' get far enough to start to carve a bottom turn. Is a slightly angled takeoff more
appropriate to allow a faster bottom turn and prevent pearling?

Congrats on your new toy!

Edging your boat sideways will help the bow to stay up. Edge your boat by lifting one knee. This is why you have to sit upright, like your friend said. In fact, leaning back causes you to press your legs down and making it worse. Similarly, if you want to raise the bow, lean forward and pull your legs towards you.

You can try this when paddling out: when you paddle onto a wave, aggressively lean forward and pull your legs towards you (bend double, so to speak). The bow will come up and you will pop through (if you have enough speed it is fun to fly through the air ). Now try to do the same leaning back

HTH,

Cheers,

Michiel

This is my first decked boat and i'm really enjoying the control it has. Even with thigh straps I never feel truely connected to the Kaos.

Thankfully I found the Jive for sale locally and after doing some review research it sounded like a classic kayak for not only the surf but any situation I may want to try in whitewater someday.

Thank you for the advice. Hopefully we'll see some nice surf this weekend and I can get it back out there again.

Put foam blocks under your knees and glue them to the side walls of the boat with some contact adhesive. This way, you can lift up with one knee and push down with the other giving far better edge control than if you only lift one knee at a time.. Edge control is one of the most important things in kayaking, I think. Have fun!

Try taking off pointing in the direction you want to surf (left or right) that way your nose should not dig and pearl on the steeper waves. If it does you can correct it by lifting a knee to unweight the deck but you will have to be quick, or just go with it for a loop

have fun glad your enjoying the surf

yea,

angle yourself away from the beach a bit (not too much)

also, don't take off on the wave to steep ... it requires abit more speed but try taking off a little further away from the pocket

goodluck and stick with it!