Surfing Waves

This is a really requested topic.

When I pop up I do the right movement, a quick one go poping movement, but when I get to my feet one comes up short and I have to keep
readjusting it.

Any tips for making a smoother pop up.

Thanks !

Theriderdotcom wrote:When I pop up I do the right movement, but when I get to my feet one comes up short and I have to keep
readjusting it.

Then you're not doing the right movement. Can you describe in detail the steps your hands, feet, back take and what position they start and end up at.

Does you back foot end up on your tippy toes ?

Theriderdotcom wrote:Any tips for making a smoother pop up.

For me the shortboard popup differs by the dynamics of the wave. On a low energy, crumbly, fat wave I do a chicken wing popup by first setting my backfoot on the tailpad and next stepping through with the frontfoot.

On a steeper more powerful wave the nose of the board drops down at takeoff and in that moment I do a jump popup where I use the momentum of the pushing wave and the dropping nose to bring my legs in one movement in position.

If u practise the jump popup on land u need a lot of energy to jump up from the board to ur feet but in the actual situation on a steep wave u don't really need to jump up because the board will drop down, all u need to do is pull ur legs under ur body in the right moment and practise until ur feet land in the right position.

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waikikikichan wrote:

Theriderdotcom wrote:When I pop up I do the right movement, but when I get to my feet one comes up short and I have to keep
readjusting it.

Then you're not doing the right movement. Can you describe in detail the steps your hands, feet, back take and what position they start and end up at.

Do you back foot end up on your tippy toes?

when I pop up my front foot doesn't come all the way forward, I come up and my back foot is good bu my front foot is too close to the back foot.

My movement is: paddle, look up, arms on rail and closer to the lower rib, springing movement up, both my feet come under me.

Yes, sometimes when I get up I do end up on my tip toes, also sometimes I end up too close to the rail. I have been practising a lot on land, and it has been really tiring. I think I will have to increase my flexibility - I'm really bad at stretching. I need to get my feet under my body quicker

My biggest problem with my popups comes from my lack of leg strength as well my leg flexibility. The only remedy for me in that regard is to strengthen my legs by doing popup after popup after popup on dry land and in the water. I do some other strength training as well.
I would say my most common error is that I watch my popup form during my popup. This causes me to go where my sight is directed which is down at my legs and that leads me straight into the water. Now when I takeoff I consciously have to tell myself to look where I want to go. It has made a huge difference. Anyway, when my popups go wrong I can usually trace my error back to one of errors in the following video. Your narrow stance error is in it. I know the video kind of spoon feeds you, but I found it useful for diagnosing my errors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN9Hm2CPzJg

I've seen that video...what I don't like about it is that they address the error but not too much about how not to do it.....also don't necessarily agree with #10 and #2....defo #10 uneven hands while not beginner technique creates a little more space and facilitates turning the hips on the way up....

Watch the hands in both vids....







#2 OMS went into some detail a while back with a video showing specific intentional off center foot placements to facilitate turns esp. on bigger and wider boards....I was actually practicing that the other day so that I could get tighter to the wave face from the get go....

Curious to hear W-chan's comments for the OP; I don't know the why's behind common errors....learning those why's helps me connect the dots on what I ought to be doing, right and wrong.

Theriderdotcom wrote:when I pop up my front foot doesn't come all the way forward, I come up and my back foot is good bu my front foot is too close to the back foot.

You say your movement is good and your back foot is good. But therein might be the problems. Questions:
1) how far apart are your feet ?( should be about shoulders width )

2) what directions are your toes pointed ? ( I suspect your belly button is facing the nose, when it should be the leading hip bone )

3) what foot lands first ? The back or the front ?

4) is the "springing up action from your back ?

Theriderdotcom wrote:think I will have to increase my flexibility - I'm really bad at stretching. I need to get my feet under my body quicker

I am one of the tightest inflexible person on the planet. I can not touch my toes. There's a lot of beer belly over-weight out of shape surfers that pop up just fine. You can do it, just gotta learn the right way.