Surfing Waves

I often have the problem where I catch the wave..but then I hesitate to stand up and I ride the whitewater on my stomach. I reasoned this hesitation was caused by inexperience with the pop up and not knowing exactly what to do. so i started really thinking about what i'm doing and analyzing my tactics and practicing a ton. one thing i found when practicing on the beach or floor though was that i kept "cheating" by using the feet as balance points to help me get off the ground (unintentionally of course). then i'd get out in the surf and my feet were hanging off the back of the board and i'd hesitate and not stand up like i described before.

I really have 2 main questions. and fyi, i have a 7'0'' fish tail soft rail fun shape type board (not really sure what the official shape is, it's a Kane Garden)..so it's not big enough for my feet to be touching or anything.

1) I keep getting mixed messages about what to do with my hands. Place them firmly on the board and press up like a push up or grab the rails to steady the board (many argue this actually makes you more prone to fall over). Which is it? I've heard people say both--it depends on the board and the situation...can anyone give examples of this if that is true?

Also, Where do you guys place your hands in relation to your shoulders? One of the best pieces of advice i got was to move my hands farther back. This helped me a lot. I was putting my hands closer to perpendicular to my shoulders like I was doing a push-up before. After I started moving them farther back, like around my rib-cage, I felt like I could swing my hips much better and get my feet under me with less effort.

2) Some people have told me my feet should never touch anything when doing the pop up (talking about shortboarding of course). They say they just kind of "swing" their lower body under their chest and land in the surf stance in one fluid motion. Other people say that the use the "jackknife" method where they kind of slide their back leg up so their knee is pointing off the side of the board and use the inside edge of their toe as a point to help balance and pop up. Which of these do you guys do?

Thanks for your help guys...sorry for the long post.

1 - depends entirely on the surfer.

2 - over analysis. it should be a natural one motion. I couldnt quite say what i do. Analysing every little aspect will work against you just get out there and do what feels natural the rest will come.

Just my 2C

have a look round the forum theres loads of posts on this.

just had a better look at your post:

1) flat on the deck makes for a quicker pop up but its sometimes best off to grab rails while learning. its entirely up to you.

2) yes you've heard right it should be your feet swinging through without really touching anything. its fairly difficult to do on flat land. gets easier on a green wave face because theres some help from gravity.

thats how i do those bits of the pop up and i think i have a fairly quick smooth pop.

surferdude_scarborough wrote:just had a better look at your post:

1) flat on the deck makes for a quicker pop up but its sometimes best off to grab rails while learning. its entirely up to you.

2) yes you've heard right it should be your feet swinging through without really touching anything. its fairly difficult to do on flat land. gets easier on a green wave face because theres some help from gravity.

thats how i do those bits of the pop up and i think i have a fairly quick smooth pop.

Thanks for the reply. I felt bad posting the question...I PROMISE I looked at other threads (tried to search, but i think the terms were too common) but none of them seemed to go into much detail. I kinda like to analyze the crap out of stuff so I feel more prepared when I go out. It just helps me learn faster rather than trying to just feel it out. Plus it's flat in florida like all the time and there is nothing else to do but analyze technique lol.

I've been practicing on the floor by laying out towel at the top of the steps at my apartment...that way my legs hang out over the steps simulating what it's like in the water and to prevent me from "cheating" like i described in my first post. It seems to be helping.

I have never tried the "jackknife" method of popping up before...usually I just try to do it in one smooth motion without my knees or toes ever touching the board. I usually extend my arms strait out with my back arched and my pelvis more or less flat on the board. Then I just try to swing my hips and rotate into the typical stance...the problem ive been happening is just falling a lot from being off balance (i think i just need more practice on this board..so not a real issue) the other is that my back foot almost ALWAYS lands first. this seems bad because it will cause me to drag and miss the wave or screw up the drop...so I've been trying to work on this a lot..but I'm still having trouble...

You use the waves push to get you up.

Also popup before your sure you've caught the wave, typicaly, if you leave it late it'll go wrong.

I basicaly straighten my arms whilst holding the board and it dropping away from me, take the waves momentum & drag my feet under me.

Your not pushing youerself up so much as supporting yourself & helping the waves push.

Get your feet under you and planted right, doesnt have to be super quick just smoothe.

I have a little trick that has worked for me. When I'm paddling for the wave and feel it picking up my board I drop my upper body on the board, like rocking forward. At the same time I raise my legs bent at the knees to act as a counter weight. Next you rock back lifting your chest off the board and pop-up at the same time. Try it on the floor by rocking forward and when your body weight is mostly on your chest rock back a little and pop-up using the strength in your arms.

I've always felt it's a rhythm and timing thing. It feels very natural to rock back and forth to me.

I've been lurking for a while but joined to comment on this.

I've been surfing a while (learnt travelling in Oz) but haven't been doing it for past 2 years due to stuff (no wetsuit for ages).

I learnt on an 7'6 NSP and have only just moved to a shorterboard (6'8). I have a similar problem, on the NSP my feet didn't go off the end so I could pivot on those and you can 'spring' up much more easily.

On the shortboard you can't do that. I have managed to stand up, but don't really know how I did it, I sort of tried different things and it's certainly not particularly fast.

If you've only surfed your current board you could hire a longer board and practice standing up (on a wave) on that. It will be easier and once you get comfortable doing it you may stop thinking so much which can be a bad thing.

tomato3000 wrote:you may stop thinking so much which can be a bad thing.

erm i thought the idea of getting a good pop is to get it so you dont really think about it. ask a lot of experienced surfers or myself and they will find it hard to tell you exactly the stages of their pop up.

haha know what you mean i don't have a clue how i do it and don't care as long as i can do it

i too have had problems with my popup, i asked here and there what to do but the answer to this and 99% of surfing questions is: practice

your back foot gets on first because it has alot more room than your front to work with, same thing happened (and still does) to me and, well, you just have to rotate faster to get your front foot in position. get in to some good waves, on take off your lower body separates from the board a bit plus with gravity helping it shouldnt be much of a problem..

surferdude_scarborough wrote:

tomato3000 wrote:you may stop thinking so much which can be a bad thing.

erm i thought the idea of getting a good pop is to get it so you dont really think about it. ask a lot of experienced surfers or myself and they will find it hard to tell you exactly the stages of their pop up.

Oops. Grammar messed me up. I meant to say 'you may stop thinking so much.' and 'thinking too much can be a bad thing.'

I've been practicing pop ups on the floor and I think I've worked out something.

I should mention that I use my knees as the pivot point. What you need to do is keep your hands far back (by the bottom of your ribcage - as mentioned on other threads) but keep your pelvis as low as possible. Then spring your pelvis up as quickly as possible, this gives your body extra upward momentum getting you high enough to get your legs under.

surferdude_scarborough wrote:

tomato3000 wrote:you may stop thinking so much which can be a bad thing.

erm i thought the idea of getting a good pop is to get it so you dont really think about it. ask a lot of experienced surfers or myself and they will find it hard to tell you exactly the stages of their pop up.

it's taken me 2 weeks and a lot of waves, wipeouts and seasnotted noses to learn this lesson.

last night it all started to click and i was able to pop up on almost every wave with little effort.

practice practice and more practice. it must be a fluid movement without thought. i went totally nuts with time in the water to achieve this aim but it was all worth the effort when i rode a wave from the line up to the sand for the first time last night