How to Catch a Wave in Open Water Swimming

There’s no feeling like catching a wave into shore and surging onto the beach.

I learned how to catch waves when my family went to the Jersey Shore for a week each summer. I’d spend all day playing in the water and learned how to time wave sets and launch myself.

I’m lucky I had that experience. Today, when I compete in open water events in the ocean, I have an advantage coming into shore. If I time it just right, I might be able to scoot ahead of the person in front of me.

But not everyone had the same privilege, and for you, learning to catch a wave might seem impossible. But rest assured—it’s not. It’s a skill like any other you can learn. With a little practice, you can be zipping along like I did as a 10-year-old in Avalon.

10 Steps to Catching a Wave

Catching a wave while body surfing or swimming feels like flying. You soar over the sand at an unimaginable pace, and if you do it right, you’ll be deposited gently into the shallows by the receding wave. The following steps can help you learn how to capitalize on the water’s energy to push you forward faster.

Before You Go

1. Read the waves. Before you even enter the water, look at how the shore break is rolling in and how big the waves are. Assess how the water is moving—consider the direction waves are pulling toward and how closely together they’re arriving. Waves typically move in sets of three, so watch for a few minutes to see what the pattern is.
2. Steer clear of rip currents. During your assessment, look for rip currents—these are columns of water that pull from the shore directly out to sea, and if you get caught in one of them, you’ll be deposited well outside the surf zone and defeat your purposes of learning to ride waves. Rip currents can be very dangerous for less experienced swimmers who don’t know how to get out of them.
3. Stay out if it’s too big. Are the waves really big? Maybe come back on a calmer day to start out smaller. More energy means bigger waves, and there may be times when it’s just plain unsafe to enter the water. Know the conditions before you go, and if you’re new to riding waves, wait for a day where there are smaller waves so you can get your bearings before having to cope with a massive shore break that could pound you into the sand when you least expect it.

In the Water

1. Time it right. The key to catching a wave lies in impeccable timing. When you swim out to where the waves are starting to break, hang tight and watch—better yet, feel—the rhythm for a few sets until you’re able to anticipate when the next set will come.
2. Pick your wave. When you see the wave you want, get moving. You need to be moving at a good clip for the wave to be able to pick you up with it as it travels—if you’re moving too slowly, it’s more likely the wave will just break around you and not scoop you up. This means an all-out sprint for a few strokes until you feel yourself drop into the wave. You’ll know it when you feel it—it’s like clicking into your seatbelt as your plane takes off.
3. Use your legs. Don’t forget to kick! Small, tight kicks can help pull your body into the appropriate position and provide some propulsion to match the wave speed.
4. Accelerate. As you feel the wave lifting you, increase your stroke rate to accelerate and match the speed of the wave. This burst of speed will help you catch the wave's crest and ride it forward. Focus on powerful, efficient strokes to propel yourself forward while maintaining control.
5. Tuck in. Once you’ve caught the wave, get into a tight streamline with arms up and close to your ears. Keep that body position to minimize resistance. This means keeping your head low and hips high to reduce drag as you’re pull into the wave.
6. Avoid obstacles. You may need to breathe and it’s also a good idea to keep an eye on what’s ahead of you, so you can avoid an obstacles. You can do both of those things by quickly lifting your head as you move forward, just like you might if you were sighting for a buoy. If you look forward and see that you’re headed for another swimmer or a surfer, you can angle your now-streamlined arms to one side or the other help pull you in that direction, avoiding a collision. You can also pull out of the wave by dropping your hips and legs and popping your head up to break your streamline. If the wave is big, you may get rolled if you drop out of it suddenly like that, but that’s generally preferable to plowing into another person or some rocks.
7. Practice. As with any skill, catching waves requires practice. Spend time in the ocean honing your technique and familiarize yourself with different wave patterns. Experiment with timing, body positioning, and stroke technique to find what works best for you.

Catching a wave in open water swimming is as much an art as it is a skill. It requires patience, timing, and a good understanding of the water's dynamics and how your body moves with and through the water. It’s also important to keep an eye to safety while learning to catch waves. Be mindful of your surroundings, including other swimmers, boats, surfers, rocks, sandbars, and other potential hazards in the water.

With a little practice, you too can master the art of catching waves and borrow some free energy from the ocean to propel you faster toward the finish line of your next open ocean event.