Surfing Waves

I know there are countless shortboard pop up threads on the web. And after years of watching elite surfers I know they pretty much all use the method of popping up in one motion and landing either with both feet at the same time or with their back foot a hair earlier.

But give me your thoughts on these 2 videos. One is a pro surfer popping up using the far inferior "chicken wing" method and the other is Bethany Hamilton who cannot pop up normally for obvious reasons. I really don't even know quite how she does it as I can't see her feet. What are your guys' thoughts?

TrentTown wrote: One... is Bethany Hamilton who cannot pop up normally for obvious reasons. I really don't even know quite how she does it as I can't see her feet.

Bethany has amazing core strength and flexibility. She barely lifts her backside above the pushup position when getting to her feet and does a great job of timing her popup just when the board drops down the gravity shute.

There are many different ways to surf. If you have one arm then maybe you should copy Bethany. If you have trouble doing the single move popup then do the chicken wing or some other multiple step popup. Not every one is Kelly Slater or Bethany Hamilton or John John Florence or Gabriel Medina or....

oldmansurfer wrote:There are many different ways to surf. If you have one arm then maybe you should copy Bethany. If you have trouble doing the single move popup then do the chicken wing or some other multiple step popup. Not every one is Kelly Slater or Bethany Hamilton or John John Florence or Gabriel Medina or....

Thank you for the reply Oldmansurfer. My point was more that I have never seen any elite surfer use anything but the "one motion" pop up and I was curious why the guy in the first video uses the chicken wing method (when I'm assuming he doesn't need to) and how Bethany is able to do the step up method so quickly and effectively when I have never seen anyone do it effectively on a shortboard.

There is a thread somewhere that compares a lot of the pro surfers popups. They all seem to do slightly different popups. Whatever popup you use you can improve on it with practice and training. If it works for you then it doesn't matter whatever type of popup it is. However I guess if you want to operate on the elite scale then you need to do a one maneuver popup or become so good at whatever else you do so that it's just as fast as a one motion popup. Bethany is highly motivated and not willing to let her lack of an arm get in the way of her performing well. I am fairly sure she did a popup more similar to everyone else prior to losing her arm. And now she has trained and trained and trained to get to where her popup doesn't impede her in any situation......well it may impede her a bit but not nearly as much as you might expect. She has worked at every aspect of surfing to get to where she is now. There may be a reason the other surfer did a chicken wing like old habit or goofing around or maybe they have physical limitations and can't do a more explosive popup or never learned? I don't know who that surfer is and really I can't even tell what he is doing to popup. I never did a chicken wing popup.

I do not see the “chicken wing” crawl up in the first video. Maybe a bit of drag foot, drop rail to back off the other competitor on his outside.

waikikikichan wrote:I do not see the “chicken wing” crawl up in the first video. Maybe a bit of drag foot, drop rail to back off the other competitor on his outside.

I agree the chicken wing may not be the best way to describe it. It's more of a deliberate planting of the back foot first then moving the front foot forward. Still, it is different than the conventional "one motion with both feet in the air at the same time" method almost all elite surfers use.

here is the video https://youtu.be/XYZ46bGfZ08

You will see in the video that Old Man linked that most of the surfers do have their back foot land just before the front foot. Its very close at times; but Jordy Smith (first guy) its pretty clear (noting that this appears more pronounced because its in slow mo). I think the guy in your first video just did it a bit slower than normal, maybe being lazy or because of the nature of the wave or just because thats his way of doing it.

The pop up technique is arguably irrelevant so long as you (a) pop up and are balanced (b) consistently land your feet in the correct place and (c) its quick. How you achieve those outcomes is neither here nor there - its like a golf swing. There is the perfect swing and then there are pro golfers who can hit the ball better than all of us with technically 'terrible' style.

Sure, absolutely, the perfect swing is what you aim for as a learner and is the 'baseline' to copy; but if you achieve the right outcome doing something slightly different, then congratulations. You are up and now actually surfing.

what is the chickenwing popup? sorry, I'm from a Spanish speaking country

Lola wrote:what is the chickenwing popup?

See pic:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TFhQ6kdDmfE/maxresdefault.jpg