Surfing Waves

I just started surfing a week ago and have went out 3 times. I'm in southern florida. My problem is balancing on the board when i'm paddling. I have a 7'2 fun board and when I start paddling out sometimes my board starts pointing diagionally to the direction i am trying to go, instead of staying straight. This causes me to have to burn up energy just correcting my body position/board direction when paddling out.

I am also having problems standing up. Whenever I catch a way and try to pop up, either my board nose dives or when I try to put my feet down the board is too far out infront of me and I bail. I've been looking at the other posts and it may be that I am standing up too late..I tend to ride the wave for a couple seconds after it breaks before I try standing up.

Thanks for the help.

first part, basically you'll just get used to it, is it when you're going up the wave the board slips out to face a different way?

nose diving is caused due to bad positioning (too far forward) and the falling part is probably due to u putting too much weight on the back foot, try keeping weight on your front foot for the first part of the wave before adjusting slightly.

after a week, don't expect too much, you're still a complete beginner

Thanks sausage, that was helpful info. Regarding the first part, the board slips slightly to the left or the right of me when I am paddling through the whitewater trying to get past the break. I can usually correct it soon enough but it happens frequently.

At this stage you're basically doing everything wrong.
So it's hard to describe what to do to fix it.

Surfing is a long-term process, not something you'll pick up after a week.
So you need to put in the hours and find that balance on the board.

When you're paddling (either for a wave or just to get out back) remember that slow, rhythmic and powerful is a lot more effective and balanced than thrashing and splashing about paddling quickly but weakly.

some of this we covered on a different post, give it a once over:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12876