Surfing Waves

Hey all,

I have something of an odd problem. I haven't any trouble popping up, but it seems my back foot is too far up the board when I do rather than over the fins. Was wondering if there was a solution for this. I think it has something to do with where I place my hands (i.e. up near my chest or further down towards my rib-cage). Any guesses?

That's not an odd problem, that's a standard one!
You're right - you need to move your hands back to about the bottom of your rib cage. This means you're further back on the board, and also you kinda shunt the board forward as you pop up.

One more thing - if you're taking off in the whitewater, you'll end up with your feet too far forward because the board doesn't drop down below you as you pop up, so make sure you're onto a really clean face and then it tends to self-correct.

Hi holly577, welcome to Surfing Waves!

Keep your foot placement in mind every time you pop up. Concentrate on getting it far enough back every time and it'll you'll soon form into a good habit.

Let us know how you get on.

Will do! Time for some living-room practice before the next swell it seems.

great stuff!

This has been a recurring issue for me too, and one that few people seem to focus on when discussing what you should do as a beginner. Getting that back foot over the fins is critical in terms of being able to make bottom turns and work the face of the wave. Marking out the dimensions of my board and working on landing with my feet in the right place has really helped.

tonylamont wrote:This has been a recurring issue for me too, and one that few people seem to focus on when discussing what you should do as a beginner. Getting that back foot over the fins is critical in terms of being able to make bottom turns and work the face of the wave. Marking out the dimensions of my board and working on landing with my feet in the right place has really helped.

I could use some clarification on the "over the fins" rule. Does it apply equally to all types of board?

Reason I ask - I ride a 9' longboard, single fin. The fin is pretty darned close to the tail of the board. If I were to put my back foot directly over it, I would be pretty much standing on the tail. My turns aren't great but I do have a halfway consistent frontside bottom turn working, and while that turn works best when my rear foot is towards the back of the board, it's never "right over the fin".

Just trying to figure out how much walking I should be doing

RonG wrote:

tonylamont wrote:This has been a recurring issue for me too, and one that few people seem to focus on when discussing what you should do as a beginner. Getting that back foot over the fins is critical in terms of being able to make bottom turns and work the face of the wave. Marking out the dimensions of my board and working on landing with my feet in the right place has really helped.

I could use some clarification on the "over the fins" rule. Does it apply equally to all types of board?

Reason I ask - I ride a 9' longboard, single fin. The fin is pretty darned close to the tail of the board. If I were to put my back foot directly over it, I would be pretty much standing on the tail. My turns aren't great but I do have a halfway consistent frontside bottom turn working, and while that turn works best when my rear foot is towards the back of the board, it's never "right over the fin".

Just trying to figure out how much walking I should be doing

I'm not an expert on ideal foot positioning, but what I meant is "close enough to the tail that you can execute a carving turn." I ride a 9'4" longboard, and for me, this seems to be somewhere in the last 1.5 ft of the tail.

I kept finding that I was popping up with my back foot two feet or more from the tail. In that position, I could only turn by leaning into the rail. And if I tried to walk back down to the tail, by the time I "corrected" the problem I was too far down the face to effectively harness the speed of the wave in a turn. To me the big difference is a timing issue - if you land correctly you have the ability to immediately turn the board as needed to set up the ride.

If someone with more experience than me has a better explanation, please chime in.

tonylamont wrote:

RonG wrote:

tonylamont wrote:I'm not an expert on ideal foot positioning, but what I meant is "close enough to the tail that you can execute a carving turn." I ride a 9'4" longboard, and for me, this seems to be somewhere in the last 1.5 ft of the tail.

I kept finding that I was popping up with my back foot two feet or more from the tail. In that position, I could only turn by leaning into the rail. And if I tried to walk back down to the tail, by the time I "corrected" the problem I was too far down the face to effectively harness the speed of the wave in a turn. To me the big difference is a timing issue - if you land correctly you have the ability to immediately turn the board as needed to set up the ride.

If someone with more experience than me has a better explanation, please chime in.

That all sounds about right to me. I also have recurring problem with my feet landing too far forward, but when I plant the back foot in the right place (probably between 1 and 2 feet from the tail) it's amazing how much control I have even coming down a relatively steep drop, and how easy it is to set my line across the face.

The problem of course is landing in that spot more often...

Even after 53 years of surfing there are days when I cannot put my foot right, and I have to correct somewhere in the process, fortunately the longer the board the less critical this is

For years, my foot has been a bit too far forward (on a 6'3 board) and I had to kinda surf around that, and then all of a sudden it starts landing in exactly the right place... if I knew what I'd started doing differently I'd tell you and this post would be much more helpful

I'm consistently putting my back foot too far forward, I can tell because the wax over the fins looks practically brand new. My foot is consistently about 1 foot too far forward and I'm finding that I'm losing the ability to control the board like I could. I ride a 7'1 "short board" and on the rare occasion that my foot actually gets over the fins, I find I have more control than I know what to do with!

will a grip over the fins help with this matter? help me to feel where the tail is and maybe give me time to correct my foot before I lose the wave?

drowningbitbybit wrote:you need to move your hands back to about the bottom of your rib cage. This means you're further back on the board, and also you kinda shunt the board forward as you pop up.

I will try moving my hands a little farther back on the board, but this might not be an easy behavior to implement considering my brain is pretty stubborn about where it's "supposed" to do a standard push-up and it's kinda hard-wired.

Its not just your back foot at fault. Remember your front foot is also leading so unless you are surfing like a crab you need to keep an eye on that as well. Try placing the board on the floor and stand next to it in the surf stance. Now tape off the back foot area and where the front foot should be. If you put a tail pad on then leave a nice gap of unwaxed area between the front foot area and the tail pad. The idea is that your back foot will slide into place. If your front foot is way off your marker or u look like a crab you know its all wrong.

But but but In all honesty it comes down to instict and experience. everything else is just academics and only serves to help you visualise and get it stuck into your head