Surfing Waves

went for a surf at my local beach break today, it was about 2 foot and reasonably clean, im out the back, paddling onto un broken waves like everyone else. problem is when i catch the waves i try to pop up i must be leaning to far back and im falling off the back of the board. its like stepping on a moving skateboard and it scoots out from under your feet.

thinking i need to harden up and commit more and lean forward.a few times i tried to pop up and ended in the "drop knee" position (damn body boarding habits).

suppose to be 4 foot swell tomorrow so ill be there 6am trying again. maybe slightly bigger waves will give me the thrust i need to stand tall and proud. i feel like im making progress but its only my 3rd time on a surfboard.

one other thing i noticed was youtube vids tell me when popping up to place hands flat on top of board and pop up, they say "dont hold the rails to pop up". when i have my hands flat on the board it seems to feel unstable but if i have my hands on top of board with my 2 outside fingers on each hand hanging over rail it seems abit more stable.

is their a right and wrong way of this? or just whatever is more comfortable.

sorry for the long winded posts im just full of questions and i have a thirst knowledge

Don't apologise for wanting to learn, 3 surfs you are running about normal in learning.
You have some advantages, knowing surf, spotting where to paddle out except for the old drop knee bit (let go of body board days) the pop up is a skill that one day/one surf just gels. stick at it push down on your hands to pop up drives the board into the gravity groove that makes it run.
share your surfs and wipeouts, a surfing family is a great thing

i seem to have the paddling power (not so much endurance though) for catching waves. im thinking i need more flexability for the pop up. ill keep practicing my pop up between surfs and things will fall into place eventually. i need to buy my daughter a new board as hers seems abit nimble for a learner so i might chuck her on a foamy just to get her paddling and catching waves. then she can go back to her 5`8 shorty

Well the predicted 4 foot swell never turned up but i was pleased to get very clean 2 - 3 foot waves. still cant work out why im falling backwards off the board on the pop up. i tried to commit more and lean forward but it didnt help. maybe when i push up with my hands im pushing the board forward..... maybe

went to go for another surf this arvo but there was about 20 people in the same spot i had 3 others out at 6:30am so i let the kids have a splash and went home.

bring on tomorrow

i was out in the surf this morning (good grief, Im out of practise and need to get fit again) and was thinking about this thread for some reason, and was trying to work out why someone would fall off the back of the board. Not sure I could come up with a definite reason, but the possibilities that occurred to me...

You're taking off too late, and so the board rockets away from you down the face. Try to take off earlier.

You're popping back rather than up. A good pop-up involves pushing yourself up and bringing your legs underneath you, rather than pushing yourself up and backwards to land over your feet.

You're popping all the way up. Only pop as far as a crouch position and have your back foot kinda trailing behind you as you pop up.


So the end result of all that is to catch the wave early, and keep your weight low and centred. Grabbing the rail might help too - it'll get your weight where it needs to be, and help your balance,


Don't know how much that will help, but all things to think about.

i think im doing both of these things. im pretty sure im pushing back slightly rather than straight up and i also think the bodyboarding habit of taking off late as the wave curls over is giving me too steep of a wall, i need to take off earlier before it peaks.

There are several ways to look at this. If you keep at the steep takeoffs eventually you will nail them. But you might get discouraged before that happens so make sure you enjoy your surfing. Very likely it will eventually be easier for you to take off near the peak when it is really steep but not if you give up. I was a very persistent surfer and a body boarder and knee boarder before I stood up. You have to commit to the drop. If you want to take off over from the peak you may need a longer board to make it easier. That is the way lots of people learn is on a big long board with lots of flotation and weight so it gets into waves quicker and easier than a short board which generally needs a steeper wave to take off.