Another pop up question PLEASE HELP

[aaron1987]

G'day

I am having trouble with my pop-up. I don't really understand how you pop up and land with both feet at the same time. With my feet touching the ground it is easy however when i am on the board they are off the back. How do i do it???

Cheers,
aaron

[isaluteyou]

practise makes perfect. (bet you sick of hearing that but its true)

Popping up on land although its a good thing to do and even when you got popping up sinched you should always still do it. However its not quite the same thing as popping up on a wave. There are three things to consider.

Body position - how are you lying on the board. Incoorect position i.e slightly too far forward or too far back will just make it harder to pop-up. also if you are unbalanced to begin with your pop-up will also be unbalanced

Hand position and power - your hands to begin with should be be grasping the rails later you will probably use the deck. Also popping up is not a violent motion its a smooth progression that does not rely on strength. Your arms should be doing a push up motion and simul...(sp) your legs should move forward into position.

Wave type - You should be practising catching foamies and popping up on them let the wave grab you and dont rush it take your time to complete the motion. When you get used to that you should start concentrating on getting quick. On a foamie you have all the time in the world well as long as it takes to ht sand.

One thing you should avoid doing is going to the knees however it can be advantageous as you can popup in two stages first to the knees then to the feet. I would try and avoid this as it can turn into a nasty habbit. That said i see a lot of people learning that way with good success rate.

I hope at least some of that made sense

[aaron1987]

I just don't get the way to actually pop up properly on a short board. I feel i am doing something wrong. Does anyone know of a slow motion video showing the pop up at all???

Cheers

[btard]

I just don't get the way to actually pop up properly on a short board. I feel i am doing something wrong. Does anyone know of a slow motion video showing the pop up at all???

Cheers

like this?
http://www.wavelust.com/real/stand101.wmv

[Midnight Rider]

Is that the right way to do it, planting the rear foot 1st and then swining the front in.

I tend to just lift my upper body and then swing both legs together at the same time, well with the front foot flying forward obviously. But then I don't ride a shortboard!

[Sar]

If that video is right then thank you sooooo much!!

I have practiced again and again but couldnt get it smooth on the living room floor and couldnt do it at all in the water- and now I know why. Ive watched the vid on the SW site over and over again and it does look like the guy puts the back foot on the board first (sort of, Im still not sure) - but any confirmation would be great.

Now if you dont mind excusing me I need to practice!

[rich r]

One thing - if you concentrate on placing your feet, and which one hits the board first, you will never be able to pop up, given the short window you have to do it.

One way is to pop up in a crouch, with your fingers still touching, or at least near, where they started for your push-up.

It really needs to end up being a blind 'feeling' sort of motion.. a second nature. You don't think about lifting your foot, or even look where the step is most of the time when you climb stairs, right? Do you think - "hmm.. raise my foot 12 inches, then 4 inches forward, at the same time my back foot is on the balls of my foot..."

And if you do trip, you usually recover without looking, as well, adjusting from experience. You don't try to calculate where in motion you are and which foot has tripped, etc.

Of course not. Popping up is sort of the same way.

[GowerCharger]

im not convinced about that video, its pretty different from the way i pop up. I dont get my arms as straight as that and i spring off them and land gently as possible with both feet at once (i think, its hard to remeber cos its pretty much done by muscle memory)

[Broosta]

No that video is bollox. Really if you want to get pedantic about it the front foot should have weight on first so as not to stall - unless you are taking off straight into the barrel and need to stall.
I straighten my arms with my back arched before my feet move, then the feet come really quickly afterwards with the front foot first. And I only grip the rails if its a sketchy/late drop, otherwise I have my palms flat near the edge of the deck.

[Hopupu]

The video is obviously crap.

I pop-up with both hands flat on the board and with a (little) kick movement of my legs (= swing legs up just before popping and then down fast). That's how I learned it many summers ago in Australia from a guy named Doug.

You should practise your biceps power in the gym or do press-ups. Actually, you should train all your surfmuscles.

[GowerCharger]

umm, you could practice your bicep muscles like that guy said, but as biceps are "pull" muscles thats not really gonna help you pop up, itll just make you look like a curl jockey, biceps play little or no part in surfing (or in anyrthing else apart from flexing in a mirror).
Better would be to train your push muscles (chest, front shoulders, triceps etc.) that will help your duckdiving too. best practice is just doing dry popups on your floor at home when you cant surf.

[dondiemand]

the way i do it is i do it as quickly as possible, it probably only takes like 1 second for me to pop up..then i dont stand right away..i crouch until i get my balance, then that's the time i start pumping or turning or whatver..just my 2 cents

[cj]

Are you having trouble popping up? or standing up and riding on the surf board?

There is a little bit of a difference.

When I first started I could pop up alright, but that didn't mean that I was stable once I was up, and I would lose balance almost as soon as I stood up, and I thought it was because my foot positioning.

Which was hard for me to swallow, since I was pretty damn good on a long skateboard.

What I figured out was it had nothing to do with my pop up, it was the stability of the board I was popping up on.

So I started paddling for waves and once I would catch one, I would wait just a few extra moments before popping up.

During these couple extra seconds, I would use my arms and body weight to make sure the board was stable BEFORE I popped up, then I would do my pop up.

Seeing as how you can pretty much put your feet anywhere on the board (within reason) when it is flying down the line and you aren't going to have any problems. I don't think it might not be your pop up that is the problem, you might need to work on board stability before you stand up.

Try giving yourself a couple extra seconds after you catch the wave before you pop up.

If you ARE actually having trouble with the pop up itself, than you just have to practice it on the beach a lot, eventually your muscles will adapt and allow you to do it easily, but I think your problem is you are trying to pop up before the board is even stable.

Staying low at first helps for some people, but if you are already a skateboarder or have that type of balance it won't make much of a difference, in my experience.

The main muscles involved in the pop up are the chest, side and front deltoids (read deltoids do the paddling though) and more imortantly the abs and entire mid-section.

If your abs are strong you can pretty much do anything. Ask the ladies. Hope I didn't just repeat stuff that everyone else already said.

[dougirwin13]

Take your time a little. Your pop up doesn't have to be instantaneous. If it happens over a second or so that's fine. It's not a race (air-dropping aside). Just makes sure it's smooth and stable.

As CJ said, make sure you are stable. And practicing on land can help - it's one of the very few things you can do at home to help your surfing.

-doug

[gdude335]

time to write a little how to.
step one:
get on board, grab the rails (sides) and be in push up position (feet on board).

step 2:
do a push up as hard as you can. you will now be up in the push up position.

step 3:
slide or hop to get your feet on the board in the middle of the line.
step 4:
balance and bend your knees (helps alot)

[aaron1987]

yeah the main problem i have is not being able to have both feet in the air and then land them at the same time. I just can't get my front foot in the right position

[Hopupu]

umm, you could practice your bicep muscles like that guy said, but as biceps are "pull" muscles thats not really gonna help you pop up, itll just make you look like a curl jockey, biceps play little or no part in surfing (or in anyrthing else apart from flexing in a mirror).
Better would be to train your push muscles (chest, front shoulders, triceps etc.) that will help your duckdiving too. best practice is just doing dry popups on your floor at home when you cant surf.

It was always said to me that press-ups helped popping, but of course it could be wrong.

I don't ever practise "surfmuscles", except for swimming, which helps alot I think.

[GowerCharger]

they do, because press ups and push ups work chest and triceps not biceps.

[rich r]

If it's a matter of getting your front foot in the right place, then it's all about practice.

Go into the whitewater or the way side shoulders and practice, practice, practice.

Don't think about it. If you think about anything, just think about keeping your feet apart and knees bent. Don't worry about where you are putting your feet. If your feet are spread out the right distance, they'll be in the right spot.

[Hopupu]

they do, because press ups and push ups work chest and triceps not biceps.

Oh ok, my bad. Thanks for the info.