In this paper, the steady lift force acting on a slender body moving beneath regular wave systems of arbitrary wavelengths and directions of propagation is considered. The momentum conservation theorem and the strip method are used to obtain the hydrodynamic forces acting on the body and affecting its motions on the assumption that the body is slender. In order to obtain the vertical steady force acting on it, or the free surface suction force, the second-order hydrodynamic forces caused by mutual interactions between the components of the first-order hydrodynamic forces are averaged over time. The validity of the method is tested by comparison of the calculated results with experimental data and found to be satisfactory. Through some parametric calculations performed for a typical model, some useful results are obtained as to the depth of submergence of the body, wavelengths, directions, etc.