| The kick out is an important surfing maneuver to | | | | seen me. As he began to drop down into the |
| add to your surfing tool chest. The kick out is | | | | wave he saw me out of the corner of his eye. I |
| performed to escape a wave that is closing out in | | | | quickly did a kick out and avoided slamming into |
| front of you or to avoid a collision with another | | | | him or his surfboard. I lost a good ride, but for |
| surfer. Sometimes the decision to execute a kick | | | | the rest of the day, I gained 4 new friends. |
| out comes in a fraction of a second, you need to | | | | Here is a lesson in how to execute a kick out. |
| perform this maneuver quickly and forcefully. | | | | Start by forcefully shoving the tail of the |
| In the spring of 2010, I was surfing at a quiet | | | | surfboard down with your rear foot. This causes |
| break in Costa Rica. Yes there still are quiet | | | | the tail of the surfboard to sink into the water. |
| breaks to be found in Costa Rica. There were | | | | When the tail sinks, it stalls the surfboard. |
| only four other surfers out in the water. They | | | | At the same time that you are forcing the tail |
| were all locals and were pretty much ignoring me. | | | | down, rotate your body in the direction you want |
| This was fine by me, as there were plenty of | | | | to turn. This will help the surfboard to quickly turn. |
| waves and lots of room for the five of us. | | | | If the two parts of the maneuver are done |
| About an hour into the session, I was riding a | | | | together and with sufficient force the kick out will |
| wave and in a great position on it when one of | | | | be successful, and you will go out over the top of |
| the other surfers caught the wave and hadn't | | | | the wave avoiding the close-out or another surfer. |