Surfing Waves

Howdy,

I have been surfing for about a year (often only once a month though). I am 6,2 height and ride a seven foot minimalish funboard. I can ride unbroken waves pretty easily and have just started trying to turn to ride them diagonally. While I can do this relatively easily, I find that when I pop up I am nearly always landing too far forward on my board. I don't have a back foot pad so the only way I can tell if I'm too far forward is if when I try to turn my nose digs into the water (which it usually does). I watched a really good video explaining where my feet should be. It said that my back foot should be landing over the back fins. Whilst this seems to be pretty sound advice, I can't seem to manage it. Do you have any tips that could help? Maybe I should put my hands further down towards my belly button when I pop up?

Thanks for any advice.

If you are riding a minimal you don't need a stomp pad, so it's not that in case you were wondering.

Part of the problem is your popup itself. Whn you do, it sould be back foot first then front second, although only for a split second. Begginers usually want to bring both feet up together, they end up landing their feet together, and close to each other. Make a consious effort to land the first then the front, that way you pop up with your feet apart and better placed.

Ahh cool. Thanks for the info

Here's another thought... are you taking off on the green face? Or are you taking off with a little whitewash push from the curl and then moving towards the face?
If you take off with the tail of the board in whitewash, your board will stall as you pop up (because it pops up as well, rather than forward) and you'll end up too far forward. If you're on a proper green face, your board will fall down away from you and you'll end up at the back of the board.
Another way around it is to shunt the board forward just as you pop up to make sure the board keeps on moving.