Struggling with shortboard

[Irishsea1]

Hey I’m a 15 year old female Irish surfer and I’ve been surfing since I was 10. I’m able to surf twice a week for 2/3 hours and more often in the holidays. I’d been using a 6ft5 softboard for a few years and advanced on it until I felt I was ready for a new challenge when I upgraded to my 5ft10 shortboard. Every time I’ve been going out on it’s like I have forgotten to surf and it’s quite frustrating. I’m especially struggling with being able to pop up and get standing. Any advice? I would really really appreciate it. Im 5’6 and athletic. The wave conditions are 3-7 feet on a normal day^^

[oldmansurfer]

How many times have you gone out with the new board? It might be just more time trying and you’ll get it. Or get a longer board

[waikikikichan]

Is your 5'10" a hard board or a soft board ?

[alex_k]

Here are a few things to try:

Surf the board in very easy beach break conditions a few times, waist high with a little push, and paddle for everything. Get a ton of waves without worrying about getting good ones, get close outs, white water, go down the line for a couple seconds, whatever. Just practice getting up and surfing over and over without worrying about surfing well or making difficult waves. Best to do on an unremarkable day, because if it's good you'd have much more fun on equipment you are already comfortable on.

Strengthen your shoulders and core. One good exercise is this: lie on an exercise ball with it under your chest, hands on the ground shoulder width apart, walk forward on your hands and lift them up when you move, don't drag them. Walk forward on your hands until the ball is under your feet, then walk back until the ball is again under your chest. Once you can do this easily, do a push up when your feet reach the ball. Keep hands about shoulder width and elbows by your ribs to use your triceps and lower center shoulder muscles (rather than your upper traps and biceps, which get engaged if your hands are far apart). Your torso and legs should stay straight and stable like doing a plank the whole time. It's challenging! Really helped me with stability in pop ups and otherwise balancing with weight on your hands.

If your new board has a pointy narrow nose, get a board with a wider, more blunt nose. This will give you more stability and easier wave catching. Consider more width and more volume overall and mellow rocker. There are hybrid boards that are easier to surf than a high performance short board but still short and still definitely have more performance than your foam board.