How to Swim Through the Waves

Swimming through waves begins by running with high knees into the water and doing shallow dives under the waves until you're chest deep. Here you'll find details on how to go about doing that, as well as what to do next.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Swimming Trunks
• Swimsuits
• Fins
• Swimming Caps
• Swimming Goggles
• Swimsuits

1. Begin running from the beach into the ocean, perpendicular to the shore. If you have fins, slip your hands through the ankle straps and wait to put them on until you get into deep water.

2. Run with knees high to keep your feet out of the water as you move forward.

3. Dive forward in a shallow dive when the water is too deep to continue running.

4. Plant your feet and immediately do another shallow dive. Try to dive up and out of the water to get maximum distance with each dive. Time your dives so you're able to glide under incoming waves.

5. Grab sand with your hands to pull yourself forward on each dive. Continue doing shallow dives until you're chest deep.

6. Hold your breath and put your fins on underwater.

7. Swim crawl stroke, lifting your head every third stroke to watch for incoming waves.

8. Dive underneath each wave of whitewash just before you reach it. The bigger the whitewash, the deeper you should dive to avoid being pushed back toward the shore. If the wave hasn't broken yet, dive straight through the face and continue swimming out the back.

9. Continue until the waves no longer break ahead of you.

Tips & Warnings

• Never slow down for an incoming wave. Always charge straight into it.
• Swimming out through rip currents, which pull you seaward, is faster, but make sure you know how to get out of them when you want to go back to shore. Rip currents can be very dangerous for inexperienced ocean swimmers. Only strong swimmers should swim in the ocean.
• Swimming is an inherently dangerous activity that can result in serious injury or death. We recommend that you seek proper training and equipment before attempting this activity.

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[awolf]

on 8/1/2008 Don't listen to that comment about using a body board to go over the waves. Whether you are just swimming, or with a body board, or with a surfboard, you must always go UNDER the waves if they are breaking - otherwise you will get slammed backwards as a wave crashes onto you.

on 11/22/2005 if you are a beginner or you don't just want to swim use a body board and you can jump to the top of the wave and you will go right over