Surfing Waves

Can somebody help me improve my takeoff? I have been surfing for 5+ years and I think at some point I didn't do this but now I'm hitting the board all the time with my right knee and so I can't sell my old boards because they have a crater done by the knee. Take a close look at the video, by watching it I think the problem is that I am not rotating my hip on the pop up but only after standing up, perhaps I'm getting up with my body too facing forward when I should be doing it sideways and so that drags my back leg? Don't know, what do you think? I just saw this video today.

Nice wave!

I'm 67 and have become weaker and less flexible, so I work every day on stretching, toe touches, pushups (150) and situps (100). I also practice popups on the floor. It notice the difference when I'm consistent and when I'm not!

I think if you try to lift your butt up (right before/as you swing your legs) you will create more space to swing your legs underneath you.

Try it on land, it helped me when I practice popping up. It gives me a little clearance so I don't end up dragging my knees on the ground (which probably makes for faster pop up as well.)

Is it preventing you from the surfing you like to do? Or is it just affecting the resale value of your surfboards? In the grand scheme of things, does it matter? If you're enjoying your surfing and this quirk isn't stopping you from the kind of surfing you want to do, then I'd say to ignore it. If you're concerned about getting a faster popup and taking off on more critical wave sections, then I'd say you need to work on getting rid of it by doing land popups regularly.

How often do you go surfing? Can you actually go down the line. The pop-up is a bit different when you go along the line and just straigforward as you did in th video.

Hi guys, just wanted to let you know that after years of surfing making craters on my surfboards due to hitting them with my knee, I discovered the problem was that I was grabbing the rails. Once I realized this I started putting my hands flat on the board on the takeoff and problem solved plus much better take off, balance, speed. etc.

Don't grab the rails!