Surfing Waves

I just read an article that says many surfers try to popup with their arms too forward and this results in a nose dive before they can get to their feet or shortly after? I don't recall ever having that problem. Now I never tried to ride whitewater and was going for the green waves from day one. I recall popping up then dropping down then pearling, then on the next wave the same thing or fall at the bottom instead of pearling. I would repeat these mistakes over and over and then suddenly I am riding the wave and then I would try to turn and fall or go over the back of the wave. Then repeat for 10 or so waves then I would suddenly be riding the wave again. I was catching waves with about a 3 to 4 foot face. The article talked about popping up from the superman position, this is the position that superman flys in with arms forward. I can see how that might put pressure on the nose of the board and make you stand too far forward and make the board pearl but it is something I don't think I ever did. So my question is have any of you had this problem or have you seen others with this problem?

You've never seen a beginner pearl when popping up? You should come to Kuta or Batu Bolong.....nothing but forward rolls there.....surfing two days ago at Kuta there was one wave where three attempted drop ins that I shouted off ended in pearl diving/board explosions....my turns on that wave were dictated by flying boards rather than the wave itself.

To understand the "arms/hand too forward" problem, look at it from a different view........ Up side Down. If you lay down to do a bench press, you align your arms to be able to push straight up. It would be very difficult to start with the bar way past the top of your head. Same for the pop up. If your arms start too far up near the nose, your body automatically tries to move up to do a straight push up. You may have started nicely balanced but once you push up your weight gets thrown forward. ( it also causes the crawling pop up )

I got this on my feed....is this the article?
http://www.theinertia.com/surf/tips-for ... -nosedive/

I nose dived many times, now mostly after the pop up in a stance position.

It's more a long board issue. And I have never done this "superman position". Hands. Always at the chest level but it did save me from pearling. I used to do push ups on a regular basis. So, superman position looks super unnatural for me

Speaking from a Kook point of view, (my own) I suspect it's not so much popping up with arms out front, but it's the stoppage of paddling, and then the arms go out front as an involuntary reaction (aaahhhh!) and then the back of the board get tossed up and the nose gets buried in. Kind of a parade of errors.

It took me a bit to get the nerve to put my arms back and lead with my face. Once I get my hands back by my lower ribs, I kind of thrust my upper body forward a bit to get the board sliding down the wave. As soon as the board angles down and starts to accelerate, I use that momentum to get my feet in the air and under my body. well...

...that is the part I am working on. I have a bit of a hard time letting go of the board with my lower body, and crawl up instead of hop up. Nasty psychological problem. I can do it (snap to my feet not using my feet from cobra) on dry land wearing 3 layers of clothes, rubber boots and rain gear, so I know the only thing that stops me is a mental block.

I can do it on small surf, but waves of any size, I tend to "chicken" crawl up the board, not getting fully up till the flats, and miss the juiciest part of the wave.

I just need lots of practise to gain confidence.

Anyway, I suspect at least some of the beginners putting their arms in front of them are actually going into "Holy Crap" mode.

Yeah, I can see that if your arms are out front you are weighting the nose and that wont help, but I dont think thats the main cause of perling. its still a good pop up technique.

Big H wrote:I got this on my feed....is this the article?
http://www.theinertia.com/surf/tips-for ... -nosedive/

That looks like it

I never surfed where there were lessons until recently and even then I am usually working hard to catch waves during my 30 minutes so I don't observe them much. I only look when they all cheer as someone rides a wave in with a wide stance and arms stretched out wide. LOL I love that. So much stoke there in just riding a wave in

One of the problems I had with pearling was when I tried to move into bigger waves after learning to pop up in the small crumbly stuff, I just moved into bigger crumbly stuff that was already pitching - without knowing any better. As most of us know (but maybe this will help a beginner), even small waves can throw the back of your board up too fast if they are already pitching and breaking.

My advice to raw beginners is this, learn to get to your feet in the really small stuff. As in, the wave is already broken and not really pitching anymore, just rolling over the backwash. But really learn to get to your feet fast - work on it so it's smooth, one motion (your gonna need it). Once you got it, get out of the whitewater altogether and go right out back on smaller days.

That transition zone between the backwash and "out back" is pearl city. Don't think." I can ride the smaller whitewater, now I'll try bigger whitewater." Getting the nose of your board shoved into a shallow sandbar is a broken neck waiting to happen.

You've got to start working on timing and reading waves anyway, so don't waste too much time in the shore pound. It's not safe anyway.

I'm still a beginner myself, but this stage is still fresh in my mind.

I really think that most beginners (with pearling problems) just have a tough time learning:

A - when to get into a wave

B - how to get paddle speed to catch it

and

C - how to distribute your weight on the board to get into the wave properly.

The "Hands in front" thing is just a ramification of getting A,B, &C out of whack, but not a direct cause of the nose dive itself. After all - you do need to have some weight forward to get down the wave (but from your upper body) , we just need to be tracking with the wave and popping up quickly. No?

That Kookslams video that The Intertia "borrowed" is a good example of just horrid timing and no speed.

When I learned I was trying to catch green waves but if whitewater came by I would catch it and belly board it over to the unbroken face and then stand up. In those cases I was in the superman position but instead of pushing down the nose I was puling up on it.

G'day , yeap, never understood learning by catching the fizzy stuff, always seemed way too hard and turbulent to learn in/on …. I started on the green from day one and learnt on that, also watching novices either catching straight ahead close out dumpers or lying far far too back on their boards with the nose poking holes in the sky , I will paddle over and offer some kindly advice, hopefully making it safer and more enjoyable experience, but still fun to watch in a good way . thank goodness for softbards and modern leggies …. I still have scars on my right ankle when the old leg ropes were called dog collars , and they were real leather dog collars , a hole in the fin and a length of nylon clothes line , aghhh themz was the days … please don't bring those back ...

While we are on the subject. I pearl a few times on my new board on Saturday. After surfing Sat + Sunday, I'm still not 100% on where I should be on this board. It has a lot of volume and I feel like the nose is sticking out the water too much so I lean too far forward sometimes and the tail actually lift of the water.

Sunday was a lot better as the waves were much bigger and cleaner so I didn't need to paddle as hard to catch the wave.

I was also hurting my back as the waves were hard to catch so I had to jump a lot more forward to get the board to go down the wave.

You know what waikikichan is going to say...

OP: if you are riding backside make sure to bend your knees in order to keep the weight low and toward the tail.

And look where you want to go... if you look down, you’d go down, especially with a flatter rocker board.

saltydog wrote:And look where you want to go... if you look down, you’d go down, especially with a flatter rocker board.

thats what wkk would have said!

dtc wrote:

saltydog wrote:And look where you want to go... if you look down, you’d go down, especially with a flatter rocker board.

thats what wkk would have said!

thanks, dtc! Finally I’m sorting my stuff out correctly

JJGreenberg wrote:That Kookslams video that The Intertia "borrowed" is a good example of just horrid timing and no speed.

So true! When I pearl it's usually at the end of a session when I'm tired. Big waves move faster than the small ones and break a little more outside. I'm guilty of being out of position or not paddling hard enough to catch them.

dtc wrote:You know what waikikichan is going to say...

Damn, that's a lot of birds !

But notice in the first photo the nose IS "pearling". Most beginners looking at the nose would death grab the rails and arch back in an effort to pull up the nose. But that kills momentum.

In the 2nd photo, as Banz stands up, the important transfer of weight to the rear of the board happens. And in conjunction of the wave standing up / getting more vertical, the nose "pop" back up.

Knowledge of the wave and what it's doing and working with it, leads to a more assured pop up and confidence.
So let it go, let it flow.