Surfing Waves

Hi everyone, so I need your help with this. I've been surfing for a few years now, and I have not improved as much as I could. The main reason, I think, is that every time I pop up, my back foot (right since I'm regular) it's not on the grip, but before it. Then I try to bring it back but that time I'm losing to set on the wave, do turns, etc. Also I end up with a bad position of my feet because of this. My home wave is a point break that you have to catch the whitewater and then get up in it, I think this is probably one of the reasons, because it pushes me forward when I'm getting up on my board. But then, when I try to get up in regular waves, I have this problem too, not as often, but I still have it.
So if anyone can give me some advices on how to improve this it would be HUGE help for me.

Thank you! and sorry if my writing is not that good, english is not my mother tongue

Most of the time you dont want your foot all the way back, even on a shortboard (except maybe in big surf). Watch some pros surf, say J Bay or Snapper Rock (where they do a lot of turns) and watch their back foot - its constantly shifting forward and then right back onto the kickpad when they are doing hard turns. You only need your foot way back when you need to swing the nose around. So make sure the back foot is actually the problems - it might be that your pop up is too slow or your turns just arent quite there yet

However, if you are saying that your problem is you need to set your foot all the way back right from the start (or even though you dont want your foot all the way back, you feel its too far forward) then all you can really do is practice. What happens with the pop up is that you get 'muscle memory' - your muscles automatically do things the way they are trained. You need to train them to pop up perhaps with a slightly wider stance, back foot more back; or maybe front foot not as far forward. Either way - re build that muscle memory. The best way is probably to create an outline of your board on the floor (use wool threads or a rope or something) and mark where you want your feet to land. Then practice.

Another option, or in addition - if you are being pushed forward by the white water then think about pushing your board slightly forward as you pop up. This is fairly hard to get right but presumably the white water will push the board forward a little bit anyway, so it may not need a big movement

Alvarosta2 wrote: every time I pop up, my back foot (right since I'm regular) it's not on the grip, but before it.

Question: How do you know your back foot is before the grip ?

Who told you your feet should be planted where they land when you pop up? You should be in a balanced relatively neutral spot due to thats where you were lying no matter the size board....then you unstick those glue feet and move forward or back as much as needed.

First, thank for all the answers

dtc wrote:Most of the time you dont want your foot all the way back, even on a shortboard (except maybe in big surf). Watch some pros surf, say J Bay or Snapper Rock (where they do a lot of turns) and watch their back foot - its constantly shifting forward and then right back onto the kickpad when they are doing hard turns. You only need your foot way back when you need to swing the nose around. So make sure the back foot is actually the problems - it might be that your pop up is too slow or your turns just arent quite there yet

However, if you are saying that your problem is you need to set your foot all the way back right from the start (or even though you dont want your foot all the way back, you feel its too far forward) then all you can really do is practice. What happens with the pop up is that you get 'muscle memory' - your muscles automatically do things the way they are trained. You need to train them to pop up perhaps with a slightly wider stance, back foot more back; or maybe front foot not as far forward. Either way - re build that muscle memory. The best way is probably to create an outline of your board on the floor (use wool threads or a rope or something) and mark where you want your feet to land. Then practice.

Another option, or in addition - if you are being pushed forward by the white water then think about pushing your board slightly forward as you pop up. This is fairly hard to get right but presumably the white water will push the board forward a little bit anyway, so it may not need a big movement

Actually I watch a lot of pro surfing(every event if I'm home and is not at crazy times since I live in the Canary Islands and there is a huge time gap most of the time) so I will keep my eye on this. As for the muscle memory, I'll try that thanks for the tip.

waikikikichan wrote:

Alvarosta2 wrote: every time I pop up, my back foot (right since I'm regular) it's not on the grip, but before it.

Question: How do you know your back foot is before the grip ?

Because when I bought this board( 8 months ago) the guy in the store, who was a experienced surfer, waxed it and sticked the pad for me. He left like a gap between the waxed part of the board and the pad, so it's pretty slippery there, also even if it was waxed I feel the difference under my foot between having the grip or the board. I actually liked this decision he made of not waxing that part because I thought it would kind of "force" me to place my foot on the pad and not where it was really slippery.

Big H wrote:Who told you your feet should be planted where they land when you pop up? You should be in a balanced relatively neutral spot due to thats where you were lying no matter the size board....then you unstick those glue feet and move forward or back as much as needed.

Actually, lately I've been trying to move my feet(my back foot most of the time) a lot more due to this. So, I'm actually supposed to do it? I should move my feet depending on what I want to do right? For example, if I want to gain speed I should place my feet a bit more forward, and if I want to do a turn I should place my back foot all the way back. Is that right?

Alvarosta, how long is your board?

You mentioned that you had to catch the waves in the white water, do the other surfers catch waves the same way as you, or in the same spot?

What kind of boards do the other surfers use at your break?

This isn't related, but how often do you wax your board?

Alvarosta2 wrote:
Because when I bought this board( 8 months ago) the guy in the store, who was a experienced surfer, waxed it and sticked the pad for me. He left like a gap between the waxed part of the board and the pad, so it's pretty slippery there, also even if it was waxed I feel the difference under my foot between having the grip or the board. I actually liked this decision he made of not waxing that part because I thought it would kind of "force" me to place my foot on the pad and not where it was really slippery.

Actually, lately I've been trying to move my feet(my back foot most of the time) a lot more due to this. So, I'm actually supposed to do it? I should move my feet depending on what I want to do right? For example, if I want to gain speed I should place my feet a bit more forward, and if I want to do a turn I should place my back foot all the way back. Is that right?

Firstly, keep in mind that the guy in the surf store isnt you. He may be taller, surf a shorter board, have a different stance - he might even be more of a front or back foot surfer than you etc. IF (and its a yet to be determined 'if') you should have your foot on the pad then not waxing just in front is fine. However, if you dont need your foot on the pad except when turning etc then just wax the area. Simply because the surf store guy surfs differently to you doesnt mean you should copy him.

Secondly, re moving feet - yes, exactly, that is what you should be doing. Most of the time (on a shortboard) your front foot stays roughly in the same place and your back foot moves, but its not really a 'movement of feet' thing, its a weight distribution thing. And keep in mind that the closer to the end of the board your weighting is, the bigger the effect on the board (due to leverage - its easier to push down a see saw from the end than from the middle)

So if you want to gain speed then more weight on the front foot, and no point having your back foot push the tail down at the same time (slows the board - like pushing the brake and the accelerator - and its also an unbalanced stance). So your back foot comes forward to a 'normal' stance with weight on front foot. If you want to do a hard turn, you want to get the nose of the board out and swing it around, so you want to weight the tail. Best way to do that - foot back as far as you can, weight on the back foot, lift nose up and swing around, Want to do more of a wider turn - still need weight on the back foot but maybe not as far back, not as much weight. Want to cruise along the line - a 'neutral' weighting (equal both feet).

(plus, of course, side to side / heel to toe weighting is involved)

Watch some longboarders and see how they walk up and down the board all the time when they are turning and surfing. Its weight distribution, just that on a longboard you need to physically move both feet because of the longer board. On a shortboard, you probably only need to move your back foot (or your front foot only a few inches).

As long you are experiencing with foot positioning, I would wax the whole board. It's better to experience your feet in the wrong position and then change it, than slip and fall off..
Later when you know exactly where you use your feet on the board you can save some wax..

Alvarosta2 wrote:My home wave is a point break that you have to catch the whitewater

That's probably a major part of the problem. If you're on a shortboard on whitewater, the board doesn't tip down and accelerate away like on a clean wave The board gets bounced up (rather than forward) so you end up centred on the board with your backfoot (actually, it's quite likely to be both feet) too far forward.

Ways around it...
Catch a clean wave.
Make sure you're elbows are even further back than normal and shunt the board forward as you pop up.
Pausing for a fraction of a second and letting the board start to accelerate sometimes works, but will depend on the shape of the wave.
Chicken wing pop-up. Cock your knee and put your backfoot on (or near) the tailpad before you pop up.

Namu wrote:Alvarosta, how long is your board?

You mentioned that you had to catch the waves in the white water, do the other surfers catch waves the same way as you, or in the same spot?

What kind of boards do the other surfers use at your break?

This isn't related, but how often do you wax your board?

My board is 5' 7''. Yes they do, it's kind of a weird spot I think, but is the peak where the wave is longer so I go surf that one most of the time. Most of them use shortboards like me. I found a youtube video of the spot so you all can see what I mean

Next to the dock, that's where I surf. This one is less choppy so you can see it better:

Also, I wax my board every time I go surfing right before I get in the water, and use that thing like a hair comb( I don't really know the name) most of the times. Is that right?

dtc wrote:
Firstly, keep in mind that the guy in the surf store isnt you. He may be taller, surf a shorter board, have a different stance - he might even be more of a front or back foot surfer than you etc. IF (and its a yet to be determined 'if') you should have your foot on the pad then not waxing just in front is fine. However, if you dont need your foot on the pad except when turning etc then just wax the area. Simply because the surf store guy surfs differently to you doesnt mean you should copy him.

Secondly, re moving feet - yes, exactly, that is what you should be doing. Most of the time (on a shortboard) your front foot stays roughly in the same place and your back foot moves, but its not really a 'movement of feet' thing, its a weight distribution thing. And keep in mind that the closer to the end of the board your weighting is, the bigger the effect on the board (due to leverage - its easier to push down a see saw from the end than from the middle)

So if you want to gain speed then more weight on the front foot, and no point having your back foot push the tail down at the same time (slows the board - like pushing the brake and the accelerator - and its also an unbalanced stance). So your back foot comes forward to a 'normal' stance with weight on front foot. If you want to do a hard turn, you want to get the nose of the board out and swing it around, so you want to weight the tail. Best way to do that - foot back as far as you can, weight on the back foot, lift nose up and swing around, Want to do more of a wider turn - still need weight on the back foot but maybe not as far back, not as much weight. Want to cruise along the line - a 'neutral' weighting (equal both feet).

(plus, of course, side to side / heel to toe weighting is involved)

Watch some longboarders and see how they walk up and down the board all the time when they are turning and surfing. Its weight distribution, just that on a longboard you need to physically move both feet because of the longer board. On a shortboard, you probably only need to move your back foot (or your front foot only a few inches).

Tudeo wrote:As long you are experiencing with foot positioning, I would wax the whole board. It's better to experience your feet in the wrong position and then change it, than slip and fall off..
Later when you know exactly where you use your feet on the board you can save some wax..

Thanks for both your answers! I think I'll just wax that part of the board too so I can experiment as you said. I think I understand the weight distribution thing, so I'll try to place my feet in different places until I find what is more comfortable to me in every situation.

drowningbitbybit wrote:

Alvarosta2 wrote:My home wave is a point break that you have to catch the whitewater

That's probably a major part of the problem. If you're on a shortboard on whitewater, the board doesn't tip down and accelerate away like on a clean wave The board gets bounced up (rather than forward) so you end up centred on the board with your backfoot (actually, it's quite likely to be both feet) too far forward.

Ways around it...
Catch a clean wave.
Make sure you're elbows are even further back than normal and shunt the board forward as you pop up.
Pausing for a fraction of a second and letting the board start to accelerate sometimes works, but will depend on the shape of the wave.
Chicken wing pop-up. Cock your knee and put your backfoot on (or near) the tailpad before you pop up.

The bouncing happens a LOT actually to me, also another thing that happens to me a lot is that I gain so much speed and then, when the wave catches up to me, the whitewater hits me and it's hard to keep my balanced if there is a nice swell that day.

I still do this, it's not really a problem, sometimes you do need to be forward on your board to drop down the wave or else you get hung up or lose the wave, my advice is don't worry about it too much and just slide your back foot when you get to the bottom of the wave to the tail of your board

Alvarosta2 wrote:The bouncing happens a LOT actually to me, also another thing that happens to me a lot is that I gain so much speed and then, when the wave catches up to me, the whitewater hits me and it's hard to keep my balanced if there is a nice swell that day.

I always try to make sure I hit the whitewater instead of vice versa. What you are describing is stalling where you get in front of the wave and slow down. Work at initiating a turn before you slow down so you can translate the force you get from dropping down a wave into lateral motion. Your break seems to have a lot of double waves. That is how the break I surf most often is very often but it makes it more tricky to learn in.

oldmansurfer wrote: Work at initiating a turn before you slow down so you can translate the force you get from dropping down a wave into lateral motion. Your break seems to have a lot of double waves. That is how the break I surf most often is very often but it makes it more tricky to learn in.

Thanks for the advice. By double waves you mean like there is one little wave followed really close by a bigger one right? Yeah that happens a lot in the choppy days( which are many, sadly). I usually just pass them since it's just a wasted wave and maybe I could use that time to paddle for a better one.

Yeah exactly. At least one of those surfers knows how to deal with those double waves and is getting fun rides out of them. I once caught a front wave that was about 8 foot face and the back wave was being ridden by another surfer. It broke only at the top where the back wave was so it left the front wave still unbroken. It was a crowded day so I figured I would try it and I got a really good ride. Some of the other surfers were getting upset thinking the guy in front had dropped in on me or that I dropped in on him. They were so confused but in that instance even though they were touching and a double wave they behaved like separate waves. I guess if it's like that a lot it would be good to learn to ride them since it would up your wave count.

Thanks for posting the videos, you live in a very beautiful place. Those waves look like they are very challenging to surf given that they are breaking, fading, reforming, jacking-up and merging all over the place with flat sections in between. Sometimes the waves are like that where I live and it is very frustrating on those days.

5'7" is a very short board for a beginner, it makes sense that you mostly catch the whitewater to takeoff, since the green waves crumble on top, fade, and reform before they break hard. Have you tried surfing a longer, bigger board?

A bigger board will help float you through those flat sections, or keep you on the wave when it starts to fade before it reforms. It will also let you catch the green waves before they break so you can get longer rides which will allow you to work on your footwork and turning.

Surfing is a hard sport to learn, especially surfing those waves in the video, and it is even harder with such a small board. You can make it easier on yourself.

Namu wrote:Thanks for posting the videos, you live in a very beautiful place. Those waves look like they are very challenging to surf given that they are breaking, fading, reforming, jacking-up and merging all over the place with flat sections in between. Sometimes the waves are like that where I live and it is very frustrating on those days.

5'7" is a very short board for a beginner, it makes sense that you mostly catch the whitewater to takeoff, since the green waves crumble on top, fade, and reform before they break hard. Have you tried surfing a longer, bigger board?

A bigger board will help float you through those flat sections, or keep you on the wave when it starts to fade before it reforms. It will also let you catch the green waves before they break so you can get longer rides which will allow you to work on your footwork and turning.

Surfing is a hard sport to learn, especially surfing those waves in the video, and it is even harder with such a small board. You can make it easier on yourself.

Glad you like where I live, it's in Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. It's a tricky wave most of the time but I still have fun. Also, I'm not a beginner, I've been surfing for 3 years now, but since I have no one who surfs that I know I have this little problems that are difficult to solve for me. Thanks for your advice though.
I surfed yesterday there and applied many of the advices you gave me and I really saw and improvement, had some really nice waves, I was actually proud of myself, thank you all!

One of the things I have done in the past to change my stance was to make a cardboard cutout of my board. I made it with a big box and I disassembled the box then placed the board on the cardboard and traced the outline and cut it out. Then I would place that on the floor and practice popping up placing my feet in the exact spot and direction that I wanted to place them. The board was only a little wider than my foot was long in that area and I wanted a foot placement that was 90 degrees to the stringer. I shoved it under my bed when I wasn't practicing. I did successfully change my stance . there is another option for you

oldmansurfer wrote:One of the things I have done in the past to change my stance was to make a cardboard cutout of my board. I made it with a big box and I disassembled the box then placed the board on the cardboard and traced the outline and cut it out. Then I would place that on the floor and practice popping up placing my feet in the exact spot and direction that I wanted to place them. The board was only a little wider than my foot was long in that area and I wanted a foot placement that was 90 degrees to the stringer. I shoved it under my bed when I wasn't practicing. I did successfully change my stance . there is another option for you

Awesome idea, I'll definitely give it a try. Thanks!

Make sure you have your feet in the same relationship to the end of the cardboard cutout as they are to your board when you paddle