Surfing Waves

Hey riders!

Lately, I noticed I'm having this issue at popping up, where when I jump, my feet are too close together towards the back of the board, so every time I have to do a small foot movement forward right after the pop up with the front foot (causing my board to move up awkwardly for a split second. I don't know why this is, but it is not ideal, throws me off and hinders me to do a bottom turn early enough to get down the line. It doesn't happen all the time. When I do a pop up on the sand, my feet are perfectly in place (front foot between hands, and feet little over shoulder width). Does anyone know what is causing this? Am I just not focusing enough on foot placement ? Or is popping up in the water a little harder than on the solid ground, thus do I need to jank it with a little more power ? Extra info: this happens mostly on smaller waves (avg Sydney conditions lets say). Hope anyone can help this half of a surfer out.
Info about me: I see myself as an intermediate, fit surfer being able to pop up swiftly, doing basic turns like cutties and carves and generating speed properly (not flapping but rail to rail) both backside and frontside.

Peace and thanks!

Question: what length/type of board are you riding ?

Hey man, hope you havin' a great day,

Just cruisin' along a 5'8" superbrand fling. So basically a funboard/fish. Ideal for chest high waves for my level. It feels, not longboard stable, but fairly stable when gliding in the wave initially,

Enjoy that new board feeling!

Sometimes feet too close can be caused by trying to stand up too quickly and not giving yourself enough time to get your feet into the right position. Or perhaps your hands are too far forward and your hips don’t get high enough to allow time to bring your feet under

Haha butter through knife of a board that you are right man!

And I'll try to put the focus on that. It's just weird that on the ground, I do bring my hips high enough and in the water I somehow don't manage to do that since my board feels a little less stable.

Focused wrote: where when I jump, my feet are too close together towards the back of the board, so every time I have to do a small foot movement forward right after the pop up with the front foot (causing my board to move up awkwardly for a split second. I don't know why this is, but it is not ideal, throws me off and hinders me to do a bottom turn early enough to get down the line. When I do a pop up on the sand, my feet are perfectly in place (front foot between hands, and feet little over shoulder width). Does anyone know what is causing this? Am I just not focusing enough on foot placement ? Or is popping up in the water a little harder than on the solid ground, thus do I need to jank it with a little more power ?

Question:
1) does your front foot land between your hands then your let go the deck ? Or your front foot lands in the area where your hands were ?

2) When you push up on the sand are you laying flat horizontal ?
When you go to push up in the ocean are you horizontal or angled down ?

Focused wrote:Am I just not focusing enough on foot placement ?

No, you're focused too much. You thinking too much and get paralysis by analysis. Let go let it flow.

Focused wrote:thus do I need to jank it with a little more power ?

Jank what ? The reason I asked you what board size you are riding is if it is a shortboard, you actually do a controlled jump back onto the board as it falls away from you on the drop.

Dude, what a problem bro, it's so like trippin'. Dude, all you gotta do is walk your feet, not jump like a kangaroo in heat! If you pull up some popups videos on youtube you will find some that actually tell you that your back foot goes first and the front foot 2nd, but the pros and awesome surfers make it look like a righteous jump up, when it's actually the back foot then the front foot. When kooks learn, they jump up on the board, which mean they are facing forward with their feet together. Dude, just think of back foot then front as you do it, you'll be stoked!