Surfing Waves

When ever i take out my shortboard which i got recently i can never really catch the wave and when i do i eat it everytime. i know im supposed to sit in deeper than a longboard but not to deep. i ussally surf a long board at San Onofre and i have no trouble with that at all. i can walk it decently turn on the wave go up and down. I think maybe my problem is when i surf shortboard its at newport and the wave pitch more instead of kinda roll. It would be a huge help if i could get any tips on how to take off on a shortboard and on a wave that pitches more. Also any tips about practice i could do hear at home to help would be great.

thanks,
-john

On shortboards you need to take off later and steeper, which means having to pop up quickly to your feet. You shouldn't stand up as up right as on a long board. Bend at the knees (not at the waist) and stay low on your board to lower your center of gravity. Try comparing videos of longboarding and shortboarding so you can see the difference in stance as well as take offs. Perhaps you should try transitioning to a funboard shape before shortboarding if having difficulty catching waves. I'm not familiar with the breaks in your area but maybe try a bunch of different spots as some breaks are easier to surf than others and watch where the other shortboarders are sitting. Try not to get frustrated. Sometimes on a new board AND at a new break it just takes practice and experience. Good luck!

my dad has a old herbie fletcher which is a 7'6'' i think and i can surf that pretty well. I think it is probably just the different type of wave and needing to be quicker.
thank you for your help

smallwavegrovellerchick wrote:On shortboards you need to take off later and steeper, which means having to pop up quickly to your feet. You shouldn't stand up as up right as on a long board. Bend at the knees (not at the waist) and stay low on your board to lower your center of gravity. Try comparing videos of longboarding and shortboarding so you can see the difference in stance as well as take offs. Perhaps you should try transitioning to a funboard shape before shortboarding if having difficulty catching waves. I'm not familiar with the breaks in your area but maybe try a bunch of different spots as some breaks are easier to surf than others and watch where the other shortboarders are sitting. Try not to get frustrated. Sometimes on a new board AND at a new break it just takes practice and experience. Good luck!

There are actually many different ways of popping up on shortboards, there's the kneeling up method as you mentions, there's also the kick the deck grip method (the oriented method of popping up on longboard/minimals), and there's the hop on method. These are the three methods I know, but there should be more out there, and it's just a matter of personal preferences.
I started surfing about 3 months ago, took 5 lessons at the local surf school, they use longboards, and I bought a hybrid and surfed about 2 or 3 days a week. Sold my hybrid and bought a 6'4" shortboard 3 weeks ago surfed almost everyday, couldn't pop up for the first 2 weeks trying the first 2 methods. To me, hop on method was the one easiest and most comfortable for me, I was able to stand in white water on the first day trying this method, and now I'm beginning to turn and trying to do cutbacks.