Biffa: Try to keep the board planing in the water - lying too far back will stall the board in the water and make it more difficult. If you lie too far forward, you'll bury the nose. You'll find the sweet spot to lie on By trial and error.
Cup your hands or keep fingers together when paddling and make sure your hand enters the water flat against the water, so you're pushing down and not sideways. And lastly paddle as hard and fast as you can.
Usual stuff applies - judge a lull in sets to paddle out on, and a good duck dive can work wonders - I'm pants at them so tend to paddle fast, then stretch my one arm out to hold the nose and try ploughing through the smaller waves.
I came down from a mini mal before winter, my shortboard is a 6'8" fat boy flyer, and hard to duck dive due to the bouyancy of it - but I was out back at Gennith, bank holiday weekend with it being huge.
Hope this helps and good luck - swim regurlarly to build up paddle power and stamina.
Topcat: From one kook to another, I struggled with duck diving for years, until one day it just clicked. I now tend to use my foot almost all the time (if it isn't worth using the foot it isn't worth duck-diving in my experience).
This is my take on duck-diving: Push down near the nose of the board (not completely at the end, and hold the side of the rails) as hard as you can from a sort of raised press-up, then, just after bring your back foot down onto the tail, so your bum sticks into the air.
Once you're under deep enough push through with your foot and bring the board up towards the surface at about a 30-40 degree angle. To me, it is almost like standing up on the end of the board under water after nose diving.
Gull: After you've been hit by a largish set, don't flounder inside as you'll get washed into the beach.
Get straight back on the board and paddle like a demon. Always get on your board as fast as you can. Don't hang around inside.
Aim to get so far out and stay there, that way when the lull finally comes, you're halfway out already, otherwise you're starting from scratch each time and will tire quickly.
monkeystyle: Kiran, get fit. Swim front crawl, do push-ups, surf more. Watch for rips and paddle out in them, read the surf, stretch and watch for 5 mins before you paddle out so you don;t try and paddle against the whitewater.
Don't try and walk out too far, jump over waves and then paddle out instead of getting dragged back walking, after you duck dive come up fighting, keep paddling even though you can't see, they are precious seconds where you get dragged back.
Paddle slowly and consistantly with bursts of speed, don't try and go full bore the whole way out. Surf more and more and more, you'll eventually get to a stage where you can paddle out through pure skill and will power alone even if you haven't surfed for months and have arms like spaghetti and a belly like jabba the hut.
nick flack out the back: Hard work. Got to get your positioning right, you should be able to hold the front of your board with an outstretched arm and make sure you get your chest and shoulders off the deck.
Keep your knees and feet together. You will develop backache though and also your abs will come on a treat. paddle with your arms, not just your hands.
