Galiciabound
Obviously I agree with the others but, that said, if you are only popping up to your knee then you have an issue. A longer board will not cure that, although it will be more forgiving. And if you are in the middle of an Indo trip, I’m guessing you probably aren’t going to by a new board no matter what we all say.
I’m no expert so see if these comments connect to your personal experience. I am a bit wordy...apologies
It seems to me that your rear leg isn’t coming through far enough, ie all you can manage is to get your knee through, not your foot. Chances are this is because your hips are not high enough during the pop up, which means there isn’t enough room for your leg to come forward and stand up (by ‘room’ I mean the distance between your hips and the board needs to be a certain distance, otherwise your whole leg just doesn’t fit )
Causes of this may be:
1. your initial push up isn’t strong enough/doesn’t get your hips high enough. Why – could be (a) you simply aren’t strong enough in the upper body (b) you aren’t pushing hard enough, being too hesitant (c) your hands are too far forward, so when you push up you just aren’t pushing your body up far enough to give enough room or (d) you aren’t pushing your hops back far enough/twisting your hips enough and bending your knee enough in order to give your leg some room and get it to fit in the space (could be related to core strength or, given your age, to a lack of flexibility in your hips and knees) (I’m not much younger than you, so this is not an insult, just a recognition of what happens to all of us)
2. you are not moving your feet forward to be under your body, rather you are moving your body back to be over your feet ie you rock your hips back to be over your knees.
3. possible but unlikely – you are pushing your hips up high enough, but you aren’t bringing your leg forward fast enough before your hips drop again. Possible causes: (a) lack of core strength, meaning you cant move your leg/knee fast enough forward in order to stand; or (b) just a timing issue, you get it wrong
4. Possible - you just aren’t catching the wave properly, so your board is all over the place and its impossible to stand on regardless of your technique.
As to feet being too close together – not sure what this could be. The only thing I could think of was that because your hips aren’t high enough, you are planting your front foot too early in order not to completely fall over, and then sometimes managing to get your rear foot through into the right place. But your front foot is too far back, so your feet are too close together. The cause is the same- your feet cant get to the right place because the rest of your body is in the wrong place.
My suggestions:
1. Try the pop up on the land as much as you can, until you can do it easily and properly.
2. On land, try slight variations in the pop up to see if it makes it easier. So twist your hips early or late, push one shoulder up higher than the other as you push up.
3. I found the easiest way (works on a longboard, not sure about your board) was to push up and, rather than jump and land on both feet at the same time, I step my back foot forward to just below my hip (looks a bit like spiderman climbing a building) and my front foot follows just a fraction later. Note that this could be called a ‘back foot pop up’ ie my back foot lands first and everything else follows. Described well here
http://members.shaw.ca/kevin_bartlett_1 ... _surf.htmlAs I said, may not be a viable shortboard method
4. When you pop up, commit. Don’t do it softly, softly means you fail. Push hard. Look ahead, not down.
5. At the end of the pop up, you should be low on the board. Low enough to touch your board with your hands. Bum below hips, knees pressing slightly toward each other, feet flat on the board (you may need to point your toes out to achieve this). This is the most solid stance – once you are stable, you can raise yourself up or whatever you want to do. I guess you could be trying to stand up too early and trying to rush everything.
