Bruised feet

[barber87]

I have been surfing 2 years. I ride a 6'8 hybrid/funboard. I have generally been progressing nicely however theres something bugging me that will not go away.

Maybe 2 out of 10 pop ups, as i throw my ass in the air and extend my knees from their bent position i smash the top of my feet into the tail edge of my board, right against the rail at the hear. My board is just at the size where the end of the tail meets the top of my feet when im in prime paddling position. This also happens if i try to give a little kicking action to aid my speed on a smaller wave.

After I have done this 2 or 3 times in a session I start to subconsciously chicken out and start using my back leg knee to do a crappy slow pop up. Ive confirmed this pattern of behaviour via gopro videos.

So do i:

Not kick my knees out so hard when i pop up?

Get a shorter board as I have been considering this anyway?

Wear booties all the freakin time?

Its so frustrating coz when i dont clatter my feet my pop up is pretty good but i dont know what im doing differently. I cant analyse my foot movements on gopro as it is nose mounted and i cant see my feet at this stage.

Thanks

[waikikikichan]

as i throw my ass in the air and extend my knees from their bent position i smash the top of my feet into the tail edge of my board,

The problem is........ the BENT KNEE ( or what some call the Periscope paddling ). Look at it as using a axe to break logs. Raise it up high in the air, the axe gains a lot of momentum. But if it hardly off the log, it will not even dent the log. I would advice to keep the leg down ( especially when you get on a shortboard and begin to kick and paddle ).

The reason I suspect your keep your knee bent is to put a forward bias to push the nose down on the paddle. you probably are too far back on the board and unconsciously bend the knee to make up for that. To solve that, all you need to do is move you chest up 1 cm. Then you would be slamming down you foot and save the energy to pop up instead of down then up.

[barber87]

I think maybe youre right about avoiding the bent knees. Thanks for the tip.

Howevee something odd i have noticed, im sure im not to far back, i sometimes half lose my nose in the water before i take off. However i tested the bent knees when paddling on the flat and rather than shifting weight forward, bending my knees brings the nose of my board higher out of the water?! Anyone else experience this?

Mike

[dtc]

You are probably adjusting some other part of your body without noticing; if you bring your feet up your weight is going forward - it's just 'physics'. Maybe you lift your shoulder or head a bit more for balance this taking weight off the front of the board. Try it with your chin on the board at all times just to confirm gravity is working for you

[waikikikichan]

Oh Oh, when you paddle are you hips pressed against the deck and relaxed ? Or is your buttocks Clenched tight and up in the air ?

ME5-03-207.jpg (17.58 KiB) Viewed 1001 times

A lot of surfers are not aware that they are in that position. It's like the Yoga Astangasana position.

[barber87]

Lol i hope i dony do that! No im pretty certain my hips are down, i think the gopro would pick that up, and im not totally simple.

Actually dtc thats quite interesting point you raised. I havr a degree in physics and the reason the bending you knees up actually shifts your weight backward is to do with weight distribution...

The same as wearung bigger shoes or snow shoes will make u sink less into the snow even though you weigh the same. Think about you body as your footprint, bending your knees up makes your footprint smaller and more of the weight is focused over the knees which are on the rear hal of the board.

Also with the type of board I have which tend to have their widest point pushed forward, the wide nose and mid section puts up more of a fight against being submerged. The relatively thin and narrow rear end with much less volume gets pressed into the water, and the nose comes up. My mate also tried in on my board and the same happened. I'll try to post a quick side on video next time. But im guessing my board isnt the only one that does this. Although I am beginning to question the shape a little.

[barber87]

I know it sounds counter intuitive but i think i found a better way to explain it.. Imagine lying prone on your board in the water with a belt on around your wetsuit.

Imagine two pieces of string tied around your belt, each piece stretching down to one ankle which it is tied around. If you relax your legs the string isnt long enough to allow your feet to touch the board or your knees to fully extend. So they are pulling hard at your belt..

Do you think the nose of your board would move up or down in this situation relative to normal flat prone lying??

[Big H]

You have learned something.....streamline when paddling out back, legs together and just on the surface of the water....position your body on the board so that the board is in the correct trim when your feet are in this position....now out back, when you go for a wave, you can position your body so that when you have your legs up the board is in good paddling trim....catch the wave and put your legs down like Wchan said and you drop your nose which will help you get into the wave when you kick....experiment with raising and lowering your head and chest as well....plus minus positioning and head and leg positions as needed for different situations. Shorter boards respond faster and more drastically than longer boards...... Good times!

[saltydog]

I think maybe youre right about avoiding the bent knees. Thanks for the tip.

Howevee something odd i have noticed, im sure im not to far back, i sometimes half lose my nose in the water before i take off. However i tested the bent knees when paddling on the flat and rather than shifting weight forward, bending my knees brings the nose of my board higher out of the water?! Anyone else experience this?

Mike

Yup, I've noticed the same thing, and I'm on my longboard. My thinking is, when I keep my knees straight but I'm lifting the most of the length of the legs off the board so the center of gravity is between my stomach and the hips. But as soon as I bend my knees I unconsciously relax my legs and let the thighs and knees rest on the board hence my center of gravity shifts to be between the stomach and the knees which pushes the tail down and the nose up. Now I try to keep my thighs in tension and unweight them even when I bend my knees.

[IB_Surfer]

try putting your back foot first, and I mean withing half a second. What happens with many beginners is that they think both feed forward together is the right way, but it is actually back foot first then front, just it takes slo-mo to really see it. Try it, it should eliminate the dragging foot.

[icetime]

Just before popping up, raise your feet in the air as if you're trying to get the nose down while riding a wave to shore, then do the popup motion so you'll have a bit more space to work with (crunch your abdomen faster and harder than normal it helps your feet get under you quicker before you fall down and slap your foot), the kicking part to catch waves I never do so I can't give much advice.

[oldmansurfer]

I am not even sure what I do when I popup but I have a fairly quick one if I am not getting hit by the lip as I takeoff in which case I delay my popup and try to time it between bounces. So my uneducated guess is that you need to work at making your popup one smooth motion. If you are still thinking about throwing your rear end up you are probably still doing stages of popups and most likely getting the timing off on the stages and you need to work at making it one smooth motion. BigH had a nice video of a guy who did the smoothest popup. It was really remarkable but that is what I would strive for. Besides practicing on land I would work at strengthening core and arms. Work at getting more force from your arms pushing you up and not so much of throwing your rear end in the air or kicking your legs. Just my uneducated guess added to the diversity of opinions here