Surfing Waves

Whats up everyone? I'm new to the forum and surfing as well. I live out here in south Florida and am basically trying to teach myself how to surf. I had a quick question, I've gotten up a couple of times, but yesterday while surfing something that had never happened before left me with a bruised shoulder so I was wondering how it happened. As I was swimming to catch the wave the board sort of just gave out from under me and I know it happens if I'm too close to the front but in my opinion I was perfectly balanced in the center. But I ended up hitting the sand shoulder first. Any help would be appreciated. Hopefully this isn't a stupid question.

Hey Jboogie,

I'm amazed that you try to teach yourself how to surf!
That is a very good start.
Well to answer you question; there are a few reasons why the board gave out from under you:
Reason 1: did you wax the board? you should use wax to get more grip on your board.
Reason 2: where you to much on the back of the board? you don't need to be to much in the front to slide off your board, it can also happen when you are to much on the back of the board
Reason 3: Was there to much water on the board? It can happen that if you take a wave that there is too much water flowing on the board due to the fact that you aren't completely on top of the board.

I hope I could help you
Good luck,
ZVS

Zandvoorsurfertje,

Thank you for the quick response. I'm not sure how exactly it happened but I will for sure try to take notice of the things you listed there. Another problem I'm having though is when to pop up. My board is 5'11" and sometimes when I'm swimming with the wave that I'm at the top catching momentum I'm afraid that if I pop up at that point the board will just drop down forward, but when I pop up a second later it's already too late. Any tips?

Jboogie,

So you actually mean that if you stand up that your nose will go down into the water?
To prevent this you need to put more pressure on your back foot or slightly lift your front foot.
Another thing to prevent your board from dropping down forward is to grab and hold onto your board until you are standing, like when you do pushups put your arms in the same spot on the sides of your board.

ZVS

Perfect, this is exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks again for the great advice. Hopefully I can hurry this shoulder pain away for this weekend, and I'll let you know how it goes when I go back out. Thank you.

Always welcome have fun this weekend i'm probably going to surf as well

I lied, looks like I won't be surfing for a while. It ended up I tore my labrum.

Jboogie wrote:I lied, looks like I won't be surfing for a while. It ended up I tore my labrum.

Jboogie there are several types of labrum tears and they differ in treatment, rehabilitation and how you should go about getting your surfing back again.
I would talk to your doctor about which sort of tear you have and what physical therapy would be good for its rehabilitation.

Depending on his answer you might need to be doing things that help prevent your shoulder from becoming prone to dislocation, or from nerve entrapment and damage.
exercise ( of the right sort will be vital), this should be designed for your injury and be planned through a qualified Physiotherapist, or movement physiologist.
( the names, qualifications and abilities will vary from country to country) I'd see a Sports medicine specialist ( hopefully one who understands the requirements of surfing).

Good luck , speedy recovery