Surfing Waves

Thanks for reading, if you have any advice... I am all ears!

Been surfing for six months. Everything is going great, strong paddling, comfortable in all aspects except one. At one point I develeoped a bad and expensive habit I just can not break for the life of me.

When popping up (I am goofy) I slid my back/left foot up and plant that knee, then I push up on my arms (basically at this point I am only on my knee and practically knee boarding!!) then, I "swing" my right /front leg out to the side, along the rail (almost dragging through the water!) then it goes out in front of me. I then proceed to stand.

Problems with this:
*takes too long to pop up
*tired of spending time and money replacing dings, holes and de lams along the stringer due to my back knee plants
*super frustrated becuase I can't seem to get past the stupid, careless, mental obstacle!!!!!

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. -training techniques? mental/physical exercises? products? anything?????

Cheers!

Try practicing your pop up on your floor at home. If it helps you can cut out some cardboard in the shape of your board. Do 50 pop ups a day you will be amazed on how easy it will become. Good luck.

Sounds like a case kneeitis Like oldguyrules said it is pretty handy to have a card board cut out of ya board and practise, thats what i did. But going to your knees is a bad habbit you developed but the good news is its curable. Just try practising going straigght to ya feet in one smooth motion popping up literally means hopping up without sliding your feet or anything. So attempt that from now on - smooth one motion - you may get even more frustrated but that will pass. It is all about familiarity unfortunatly that knee thing is a bit of a bugger to overcome particually as you ahve been doing it like that for so long but no mater practise and it it will all come right

Good Luck

I found this above diagram, dunno if it helps. I've never tried it myself. It seems more intuitive to me to push up and swing both the legs from underneath, but far more difficult. -__- But there is more than one way to pop up...I hear the knee thing is a way to "help" train the body with the movement , throwing in an extra step. I'm still working on it myself...I think it's true, according to other surfer's opinions, that having a strong core, abdominal strength helps in your ability to swing your legs up from underneath in a smooth movement. if only i could paddle out everyday, i think i'd be made...

you should never use your knee to pop up, i know the surf schools teach you too but im pretty sure thats just a tactic to get people on slow foam boards standing up on whitewater as quick as possible so they can seem to be doing a good job (even if the bad habits they teach are a hinderance later on).

GowerCharger wrote:you should never use your knee to pop up, i know the surf schools teach you too but im pretty sure thats just a tactic to get people on slow foam boards standing up on whitewater as quick as possible so they can seem to be doing a good job (even if the bad habits they teach are a hinderance later on).

thats so true!
they taught me to go in one movement and it realyl helped. My bad habit of going on one knee before got wiped away early thanks to surf teachers.
its like smoking, once you start its hard to stop and just gets harder the more you smoke.

Popping up problems get worse when you think about them too much - it should all be one instinctive movement where you cant even really describe what/how you do it.

So go into the water on a smallish day and just pop up again and again and again until you stop thinking about it. And make sure, right from the start, that you're not using the knee, even if it means you're getting up real slow or not making it at first. Then repeat until you're quick, instinctive... and not using your knee!!

i had that same problem for a while, its hard to break the habbit you have to keep telling your self as your paddling for the wave to just pop up stright to your feet or you just instinctivly use your knees, youll break the habbit eventualy just takes time

I found I am lazy on a longboard coz it's stable enough to pop up slowly. I had a go on my mate's 6"2 board (tiny for me since I'm 6"1 tall) and I had to do my pop ups in half the time of the longboard, otherwise the board would be out of control before I was up.

Long story short, try riding a really small board for an afternoon and you'll be forced to break the bad habit!

Yep like everyone says its practice, when i first started i used to put my board on the bed to practice, it really helps as your feet are over the edge of the bed as it kinda mimmicks been in the sea as you haven't got anything solid beneath you.

Been out today and the supprising thing I found was the extra weight. The North sea requires boots and the extra mass made the easy popping up on the lounge floor so much harder. Managed a couple of times but the waves weren't all that big and swept past me before I could fully take advantage.

Don't now if this will help, but it seemed to work for me.

I found that when i was trying to pop up, my knees would drag So i worked on the 'snap' where you pop straight to your feet quickly, but kept very low in a squat position. You'll straighten up with the drop in...and it feels amazing!

that practicing on the floor really does work. i remember my uncle told me to do that and the next time we went out my pop ups were a lot quicker and smoother

OK, it may be that I am on too smal of a board. It is my brothers shortboard, he took the longer board with him to university.

I am 6'4", adn the board is 6'6". When I go to popup, my feet drag for a second, and it slows me down, and i miss alot of waves.

When I practice poping up in my house, I catchmyself using my feet on the floor to pop up, and it is hard to not do this, that is why I think that i am pushing my feet down into the water.

How do you popup when your feet overhang? Is it the same just using your knees to thrust you up from the prone position.

I Find i literally pop-up if you get what i mean. My legs sorta come up from underneath me. But then again i dont really pay much attention to what im doing