Surfing Waves

I started surfing recently and am interested in getting feedback on my popup and stance. So far I had a total of 5 sessions. Here is a video of my popup in the whitewater (successes and failures) and on land.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3hxwuetv04ot ... f.mp4?dl=0

I'm 5'9"/65kg and I ride a 8ft/75L foamboard.

My stand up success rate on whitewater is about 60% now. Should I continue to practice in whitewater till I have 100% success rate?

Thank you all in advance.

It’s not terrible. Your main problem is looking down at the nose. This puts your head in front of your hips and puts all your weight onto your front foot and gives you that unbalanced position. Even the pop ups on land, there is a time when you are looking straight down

So look up/at the beach. The board won’t disappear if you aren’t looking at it! You want your head over your butt, basically.

Try it on the floor - get into a balanced surfing stance/squat and see where everything is lined up.

Because you are in weak white water the board is less stable- the faster it goes the more stable; so it’s actually a little harder.

So don’t be afraid of trying for unbroken waves; yes it adds several additional layers of complexity and, yes, you will probably fall off 80% of the time at the start. But you generally have the basics of the pop up in place, so go for it

But look up!

Thank you, dtc. I will work on the head position.

Your second ride was the most successful in part because the board was in trim while you were standing. The nose of the board was at a similar height after your popup as it was while you were paddling for the wave. If you feel the nose coming up and the board slowing, lean or step a little forward to bring the board back into trim. The speed will increase and you'll enjoy a longer ride.

That said, keep DTC's advice in mind. Do this without looking at your feet.

Agree with dtc - may as well start getting into unbroken waves. You can get to your feet fine, now you to figure out positioning, paddling, and learning which waves are rideable.

Be careful that you go out past the impact zone, the area where the wave crashes over in the shallow water, also called the shore-pound. You can get slammed into the bottom easily. Pick a day when the waves are 2-3 ft high.

FulongSurfer wrote:My stand up success rate on whitewater is about 60% now. Should I continue to practice in whitewater till I have 100% success rate?

It looks like you got up to your feet each time in the video. You need to approach this with the mind of being in nature, which is ever changing. Even the pros fall off and make mistakes sometimes.

FulongSurfer wrote: I will work on the head position.

No, you work on the basics and your head will follow. If I tell you what ever you do, don't think about pink elephants, you can't help but keep your mind on pink elephants. If you concentrate on your head, you'll lose focus on the rest of your body. Paralysis by Analysis.

Speaking of which, you are frozen riding straight. I think DTC alluding to it before on other post about beginners not wanting to move out of their safe stance. You got to be loose, you got to move to react. Imagine riding a skateboard or bicycle in a frozen stance. Bruce Lee said " Be like Water my friend ". So true especially for surfers.


Notice your fingers face inwards or pointed straight. I would have them face more outwards. My pinky finger wraps the rails. Different muscle will be used, so if you like to place your hands that way, whatever feels best to you.


Your hands mainly let go of the deck. You should really push off the deck. Explode to get you upright faster and take less strain on your back. Also notice your front foot is pointed to the rail at 3 o'clock position. Your front foot should be more 1-2 o'clock. ( this will come in later for turning front and backside )


Look at your back foot. Do you think it's in a very stable position ? Would it be more stable if it was firmly planted down using the whole bottom of the foot ? Right now it's rolled forward onto the inside arch. This creates the "forward V" between your legs. Not a good distribution of body weight. When you do start catching green waves, after the take off and pop up, you'll need to bottom turn. You turn of the the tail and fins. If you're stuck in the "forward V" stance, you'll either pearl, or have shift your weight awkwardly suddenly. Not good.

Lastly, going straight is not "surfing" it's just "riding". If someone told you they can ride a bike, but only go straight, can't turn, or stop, can they truly ride a bike ? Get out to those unbroken green waves. Or at least have a qualified surf instructor set you up to catch the reforms.

Thanks, everyone for the feedback.

waikikikichan wrote:No, you work on the basics and your head will follow.

What would be the basics at my level? I read all the sticky posts on this sub-forum but I'm not quite sure which ones apply to me.

waikikikichan wrote:Speaking of which, you are frozen riding straight. I think DTC alluding to it before on other post about beginners not wanting to move out of their safe stance. You got to be loose, you got to move to react. Imagine riding a skateboard or bicycle in a frozen stance. Bruce Lee said " Be like Water my friend ". So true especially for surfers.

I took a class on my first day. My instructor also mentioned I'm too stiff. I guess I'm nervous about messing it up. I probably should make it a habit to make some small deliberate movements just to get comfortable. Should I try to compress and decompress? I tried leaning/trimming a few times which immediately results in me falling down. I thought that might be because there wasn't enough speed.

waikikikichan wrote:Look at your back foot. Do you think it's in a very stable position ? Would it be more stable if it was firmly planted down using the whole bottom of the foot ? Right now it's rolled forward onto the inside arch. This creates the "forward V" between your legs. Not a good distribution of body weight. When you do start catching green waves, after the take off and pop up, you'll need to bottom turn. You turn of the the tail and fins. If you're stuck in the "forward V" stance, you'll either pearl, or have shift your weight awkwardly suddenly. Not good.

For the first 4 sessions, I was heavy on the back foot which was raising the nose and stalling me. So now I'm just practicing to intentionally put more weight on the front foot.

FulongSurfer wrote: My instructor also mentioned I'm too stiff. I guess I'm nervous about messing it up.

Messing what up ? Falling off your board ? Sooner or later the ride ends for everyone.

FulongSurfer wrote: Should I try to compress and decompress?

And what will that do ? You can't really pump the board going straight in the soup to gain speed. Getting your body/torso lower just squatting up and down to the board, will result in what ?

I'm not asking these question to troll you or be a butt head, I want you to think about cause and effect. A lot of thing beginners do to stay on the board ( or not pearl ) causes them TO fall off ( and pearl ).

FulongSurfer wrote:For the first 4 sessions, I was heavy on the back foot which was raising the nose and stalling me. So now I'm just practicing to intentionally put more weight on the front foot.

So too far back was not good. Too far forward is not good either. You should learn something from Goldilocks and the three bears story.

As wkk says, you cant plan to 'do something', all you can do is put have your body prepared so that when something comes along, you are ready for it. So in terms of being stiff, you need soft knees and ankles (like a skiier) and be willing to move around and change weight, go with the flow instead of pushing against it. You may be up or down or whatever at any particular time. Its hard at first, because you feel that if you move you will lose balance and fall off. But you pick it up slowly as you gain confidence and accept that a bit of movement in the joints helps, not hinders.

Thanks, everyone for the feedback. I stopped looking down while popping up and it helped a lot. I was able to ride more waves in the sea and even surfed some small unbroken waves. Here is the updated video of my dryland popup.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eab9idh8p6w4d ... d.mp4?dl=0

Anything else I can improve with my popup?

1) Front foot positioning is much better
2) Back foot is now landing flat - good. but now pointed at 4 o'clock - Not good.
3) I know you are focusing on your feet, but your front hand is just hanging out. Get it in position to direct where you want to go.
4) Biggest problem - You are holding your breath. You can not be smooth and fluid, if your neck and shoulders are tight. Breathe.

Looks a lot better and more balanced. Some points to work on as wkk has pointed out (the front arm hanging and the back arm ‘flailing’ is a pretty common beginner issue). But it’s certainly good enough and fast enough to start focusing on wave catching and not spending too much time focusing on popping up

I went surfing again. I noticed when the waves are stronger, sometimes my board is turning left and I’m being flipped by the wave. My guess is that my paddling is uneven (right hand stronger than left??). Any other possibilities?

Are you centred on the board?
Pushing down more with one hand, or wider with one hand, or at different times?
Too much at an angle to the wave?
Are you stopping paddling too early?

Could be lots of things

You are dealing with Nature. Nature doesn't really like to deal in 90 degree angles. Waves don't break exactly straight ahead. You may be set up to catch your waves with the peak to your right, which flips you over left. The bigger waves you're now trying to dealing with have more speed and steepness. You might be trying to fight against the inertia and trying to keep the board straight. Don't fight it, go with the flow.

BUT...... the problem might be as simple as those drivers who unconsciously steer the steering wheel left, when they look back over their left shoulder to check if the way is clear. Are you looking back to check the wave and unconsciously track / veer to the left ?

This usually happens while I'm still paddling. I started a habit to look back at the wave while paddling. But I try to look both left and right.

Another problem I am facing with unbroken waves is that sometimes my surfboard nosedives. This also happens while I'm still paddling. I know I'm not lying too far forward on the board. Its usually 1-2 inches above the water while I'm paddling. And I'm able to catch some waves with the exact same position. There is one type of wave where it nosedives like clockwork. Where I surf, even when there are hardly any waves there is often a wave near a sandbar. This wave rises suddenly and also falls suddenly. It's still only 1-2ft tall. I prefer not to surf this but unfortunately, sometimes there is nothing else to do. I don't know what's going on but my best guess is I should've popped up sooner. Am I right?

When I posted last week about board turning left and then being flipped, I thought that problem was different from the nose dive. But now I wonder if that's just a variation of the nosedive. I'll pay more attention next time this left turn happens.

Nose diving is also called 'perling' and if you do a search on this forum you will see a few posts discussing it. Basically its because you arent paddling fast enough, the wave hits the tail of your board and lifts it up (and the nose goes in). Its not a fault of the nose, its a consequence of the tail.

You need to ensure you are paddling efficiently, not too far back on the board (which causes drag and makes things worse) and continue to paddle. It may be related to your flipping thing - if you stop paddling too early or arent paddling hard enough and not entirely 90 deg to the wave, the same thing will happen - the wave will pick up the part of the board closest to it (so normally the tail but if you are side on then the side of the board/the side of the tail) and push it up. And over you go

So does sound to me likely to be a paddling issue. This is really common for people starting out, so dont get stressed; just read up on perling and how to overcome (mostly paddle harder, but there is an element of positioning that is involved which will only improve with experience). I think wkk says something like 'positioning, paddling and timing' - you need to get at least 2 of them right to catch a wave. Remember to keep paddling until the wave has caught you, remember that paddling and committing is essential - you cant slow things down or 'almost' do it - you either do it or not do it.

I know that break. It produce some of the longest ride in Taiwan when the swell is right. Most of the time it is flat though.

Yilan have better breaks during the summer

dtc broke it down pretty well- peeling can be caused by different things, often NOT due to popping up too late. Often it's caused by not paddling hard or long enough, which seems counterintuitive at first but makes sense after some experience.

When a wave steepens up behind you, water is moving up the face which can pull you up the wave face with it. At that point it often feels like you've caught the wave, but if you stop paddling at that moment you'll only get pulled up where the wave face is steeper, causing your nose to go into the water and then you wipe out. If you respond to this by trying to pop up earlier, you can see how this can make the problem even worse since you're now paddling less.

It's also possible to perl by not popping up soon enough, but in general the better you paddle the less likely you will perl regardless of your pop-up timing (surfing is really about 90% paddling, with a little bit of surfing as the occasional reward .)

One good habit to develop is to look at the wave face to the left or right (whichever way you want to go) as it reaches you, then you'll be able to judge if you've paddled enough to match the speed of the wave. Don't just look at your nose (what beginners due for fear of perling), doing that doesn't give you any information to judge what's happening with the wave.

Perling is actually good stage in a way for a beginner, it means you are catching the wave but just don't have the timing and technique yet to successfully pop up, but with some tips and repetition you will get it down. The worst stage for a beginner is when you're constantly paddling for waves but they keep passing you by, you avoid a wipeout but you're not really learning anything.

Thank you dtc and steveylang!

BaNZ wrote:I know that break. It produce some of the longest ride in Taiwan when the swell is right. Most of the time it is flat though.

Yes, Fulong supposedly has some nice 5-8ft waves after typhoons and in winter. I'm a beginner and am perfectly ok with the small 1-2ft waves now

BaNZ wrote:Yilan have better breaks during the summer

I've been wanting to try some other breaks in Yilan like Daxi and Waiao. Which ones have you surfed before and how were they?