Surfing Waves

Hey Genuineillusion

First start with this question: what board do you have?
Because as a beginner the best thing you can do is begin on a longboard, which is balanced and it is very easy to get up on a longboard, so if you have a shortboard, sell or save it but get a longboard.
The second thing to do is search for google or get a surfing teacher:


Don't practice your pop up on your board out of the water. You will be probably either ding your board or snap a fin off. We know you are keen on practising, but do try to use some common sense!

Have fun and good luck
Btw. where do you live??

xxxZandvoortsurfertje

wow! thanks a lot (: I've just been using a foam beginner board and they're quite long, but i'll try out a longboard and see how that goes. I live in Victoria, Australia, about 4 hours away from any beach ): will pushups help me?

Hi Genuineillusion, let's help you out here, keep the foamy at this stage, let's get a few things sorted out.
Starting push ups help a little, but it's better to practice going straight from the lying down paddle position to standing in the crouch surfing position. (I do not recommend the going to one knee position as an interim position, it will become a hard to shake unworking step).
Practice your pop ups at home on the sand there is an excellent exercise called a burpee which will give you strength, speed and balance in doing this. Get your sports teacher at school to show you a burpee and your Dad to show you.
Hey any Dad who is really into surfing would be so glad to have one of his kids to surf with ( more father daughter time)
Why no one knee semi stand up? If you go to one knee it is almost impossible to get from there to standing by putting equal pressure on your hands and feet as you get up one of them will put on more pressure as you rise and the board will screw around in a sharp turn and you will fall off.
Another thing for learners that will help is to spend some time just actually learning to fully catch waves first, don't even worry about standing up just get to the stage where you recognise that you have fully caught the wave.
Why? because in surfing getting wave speed means stabilisation and easier balance.

Hey you are in the beginnings be kind to your self think about how you were when you first started dancing and how you are now, same applies to surfing. Keep your eyes open for Girls' Day Out surfing events in Victoria.

PS have a read through the rest of the forum for other tips too, and keep in mind that if your Dad is a good surfer get your tips there. Have fun

Hi Genuineillusion,
I had the same problem as you when I started. Through practice I was able to popup ok but as soon as I got to my feet I would unbalance and fall. I think its the act of jumping to your feet that causes the problem and because you cant stay up you dont get any practice at balancing on the board!

Get hold of the Andy Irons "Learn to Surf" dvd. He demonstrates a really simple way of getting to your feet without jumping and therefor you are much more stable when you do get up. If you surf this way for a while you will suddenly find that you are naturally springing to your feet with a normal popup. It worked for me anyway. I completely agree with Jaffa - do not start to use your knees.

Hope this helps.

your welcome genuineillusion

I like to try to keep it simple. Yes practice your pop ups in your living room and here are a few tips:
1. Put a strip of masking tape on the floor in a straight line. When you do your pop ups try to land with your feet on the tape. This helps you to practice doing the pop ups correctly by getting your feet in the middle of the board along the stringer, otherwise you are telling the board to turn by putting pressure on the rails. It is never good to practice doing it wrong!
2. Try to be smooth and concentrate on getting your front foot forward. You do not want it to close to your back foot.
3. Build muscle memory by doing these every night till you do not have to think about it.
4. As you go to your feet try to stand in an athletic position with your back straight and not hunching over. It should kind of look like defensive stants in basketball or football. You also want to be looking where you want to go.
I had my brother in law do these a few weeks before I took him surfing and he poped up on nearly every wave his first time surfing. Good Luck!

just a couple more tips - don't hold onto the side of your board - its an easy habit to get into - particularly when you are learning in white water and getting an buffeting.

Secondly make sure you hands are not too far forward - your hands are a pivot point when you pop so if they are too far foward you will not be able to rotate up - I'm not explaining this very well - but you will see what I mean if you watch a video or other surfers


thirdly - don't worry about being able to do loads of pressups -the pop up is as much about core/torso muscle strength as it is abour arms - so good general upper body conditioning is the thing