Surfing Waves

A few years ago I had back surgery. Since then my takeoff has not been the same.

I am not able to pop up as fast as I use to.

In addition, I have developed a bad habit of standing on my toes, on my back foot when I take off. Then my back foot is turned and my toes are pointing toward the nose of the board. This puts my body in an awkward position and I don't have as much power and balance until I correct the position of my back foot. Any ideas on how to correct the problem?

First is your doctor aware you are surfing and ok with it? Then the solution is practice, practice, practice. Popups are something you can practice when you are not surfing. This forum has a navigation bar at the top with information for beginners. There are numerous threads on pop up problems too which you can find by searching. What I used to do to fix my pop up is to make a cardboard cutout of my board and lay it on the ground then practice popping up and placing my feet exactly how I want them. To pop up you need core strength so doing exercises to strengthen your back and stomach are good for it but consult with your doctor or a physical therapist to start exercising to strengthen your back and stomach and chest and hips.

It is just practice and practice. Muscle memory - teach your body to do the right thing without thinking

A few weeks ago I was surfing some quite steep low tide waves and was making a hash of a few - going over the back too frequently. Paddled for another one - started late anyway - and as I paddled thought 'mmm, not going to make this either' and was just about to pull out; but somehow caught it. I was so surprised, it was totally unexpected. I actually popped up and turned down the line without even realising it - it was a bumpy wave and it was the bumps that brought my attention back from thinking 'how did i catch that?' to 'whoah, pay attention'.

Anyway, the point of the story is that my body was just 'trained' to pop up (after many years!) and it did it without me even thinking or actually even realising. The pop up is a mechanical movement, like a golf swing or throwing a frisbee or whatever - teach your body how to do it and it will just do it.

So practice right, practice again and you will just do it right.

I've had a back injury and I know that a lot of floor pop up practice makes it flare up, probably because you are doing 10 pop ups in 2 minutes rather than 10 in 1/2hr or whatever in the surf. If that doesnt cause an issue, then do floor pop ups. Oldmans's suggestion is great - no point doing practice unless you do it right

If you do get back pain, maybe break it down so you are doing part pop ups eg use a chair to get yourself into partial upright then pop up the rest of the way (if that makes sense) - anyway, your issue is your feet, not the initial push. so its the landing to practice

As to speed etc - yeah, you slow down. All you can do is go as fast as possible and make sure you arent doing a 2 or 3 point pop up (eg to knee first). If that is still too slow, a bigger board and catching the waves earlier...

btw, turning your back foot toward the nose is a great position for backside surfing - but you have to turn your front foot as well, chest front and you open up your body and can see the wave much better. You do have to make some other adjustments - heel turns arent much use - but the benefits are worth it.

Oh one other thing, paddling is really good for core strength so if you just go and paddle around from point a to point b for as long as you can and as fast as you can, then you will build core strength and paddle power all at the same time but it may be boring if there are waves. If there aren't waves then paddling is really good exercise and if there are waves then it depends on how much time is spent actually paddling.