Horrified by videos of my surfing: HELP my popup

[waikikikichan]

3) Right before you get to the oncoming section,  you SQUAT down ( or I suspect you went to paddle the wave ).  Why / what reason for doing the SQUAT ?  

By recollection I think I was trying to get more forward momentum to push the board forward.  I felt the wave was catching up.  Maybe I was thinking I was too high on the wave, needed to go to the bottom then back up to hit.  Good, bad?

You have a bad habit of paddling the wave, thinking it will give you speed. On the other videos were you paddle the wave to make sections, you go to that go-to squat.
Creating speed ( well, one of many ) comes from displacing water. Some pump up and down, some carve and weave. ( there's even a crazy technique of slowing down so that you can speed up )
You have to learn what the fin and tail are used for. And where those things are located ....... at the back.

[ConcreteVitamin]

Got it!! Muchas gracias.

[alex_k]

Your initial posture looks like it could be improved. I agree with your initial assessment, though others disagree so take my comments with a grain of salt. Try to get your knees, both of them, more towards your chest during your standing motion before you are upright. And keep that back knee more towards the stringer, almost inside your back elbow.

This video shows the smooth pop ups in slow motion of some top surfers. Florence, for example at 1:46, gets his front knee nearly touching his chest as it plants, and brings the back knee almost inside his back elbow, also in the direction of his chest but not quite as high. There's an instant (1:53) where he looks almost like a track sprinter popping forward out of the starting blocks. It helped me a lot to try to mimic this.
https://youtu.be/XYZ46bGfZ08?t=106

Some good surfers use the wide knee power stance (Apia, as mentioned above), but for me that only really works in a top turn surfing frontside. Otherwise I turn way better with my knees more neutral or a little knocked. Also depends on how much speed you have -- more speed allows more lean, less pivot off the fins, more weight front foot to do a larger radius turn off the rail.

[waikikikichan]

Video analysis for Peak wave #3

Beautiful, just beautiful line. At first I thought you could've tried a cutback on the face ( at 00:13 you started the roll from inside rail onto the flat bottom but then you stopped ) , but I realized you know the break and in a few moments you hit a flat spot and the wave catches up to you.

Multiple shuffles back and forth and little hip jive scoots when you get to the boils section.

Hand paddles to make the soft sections ( I hope you were going into the beach on this wave )

Shot in the chest jump off the board. You need to be in CONTROL of your board from take off to pull out. You need to surf like there isn't a leash attached to your ankle.

[ConcreteVitamin]

Your initial posture looks like it could be improved. I agree with your initial assessment, though others disagree so take my comments with a grain of salt. Try to get your knees, both of them, more towards your chest during your standing motion before you are upright. And keep that back knee more towards the stringer, almost inside your back elbow.

This video shows the smooth pop ups in slow motion of some top surfers. Florence, for example at 1:46, gets his front knee nearly touching his chest as it plants, and brings the back knee almost inside his back elbow, also in the direction of his chest but not quite as high. There's an instant (1:53) where he looks almost like a track sprinter popping forward out of the starting blocks. It helped me a lot to try to mimic this.
https://youtu.be/XYZ46bGfZ08?t=106

Some good surfers use the wide knee power stance (Apia, as mentioned above), but for me that only really works in a top turn surfing frontside. Otherwise I turn way better with my knees more neutral or a little knocked. Also depends on how much speed you have -- more speed allows more lean, less pivot off the fins, more weight front foot to do a larger radius turn off the rail.

Thanks alex_k! I agree with your assessment

This is good advice and the video is a treat.

[ConcreteVitamin]

Video analysis for Peak wave #3

Beautiful, just beautiful line. At first I thought you could've tried a cutback on the face ( at 00:13 you started the roll from inside rail onto the flat bottom but then you stopped ) , but I realized you know the break and in a few moments you hit a flat spot and the wave catches up to you.

Multiple shuffles back and forth and little hip jive scoots when you get to the boils section.

Hand paddles to make the soft sections ( I hope you were going into the beach on this wave )

Shot in the chest jump off the board. You need to be in CONTROL of your board from take off to pull out. You need to surf like there isn't a leash attached to your ankle.

Thank you! I think the "little hip jive scoots" were due to hitting a bunch of kelp -- the darker spots in the water were all kelp. This spot sometimes equals kelp surfing. Hitting them is like hitting speed bumps.

I'll work on controlling the board as if leashless. In the past year, I do find that I can execute kickouts better (in terms of angle; timing; criticality of the wave) although mostly with speed. For flat sections I need to pay more attention to not catch rail.

[pmcaero]

hello me from a few years ago, down to the same color hat.

Right now it looks to me like you are not staying in the pocket because you aren't leveraging motions in the vertical plane to increase your speed or to cutback.

It took me lots of practice to improve my backside turns from mere trimming to actually changing the board's direction with a rate that allows control over the wave.

As others have said, your upper body is not moving enough, and you should really step on that tail.
Focus on backside carving. What I do, when a ride is about to end in whitewater, is throw in a tight turn backside. (it is now an ingrained reflex).

Also work more on your frontside turns, they feel too shallow.

[jaffa1949]

Good to see you back PM, glad you keep the stoke

[Naeco78]

Wave #3: Friendly suggestion about the squat paddle at the end of the wave.. I used to do that too when the wave looked like it might reform.. but my friend says its a bad look.. she calls it the paw paddle kinda like a cat in a litter box haha. That ended it for me

[oldmansurfer]

I wouldn't worry too much about the squat but if you want an effective way to stay on a wave like that it is positioning yourself on the board. Probably a little forward of where you are will result in a longer ride. Generally when I ride waves I am looking for maneuvers to do and working on my skills but if the waves don't offer that I will try to see how far I can ride a wave. If I am on my 8 foot board it can be quite a way. That board seems to have an easy time matching the speed of the wave but it requires me being in the exactly right place on the board. But moving forward and back as needed are also part of long ride repertoire as waves change shape as you ride in on them.