Pop-up Technique: Conclusion
The most important thing to remember with the pop-up, is that the technique becomes a habit. You should practice as much as you can on…
Pop up lesson catagory
The most important thing to remember with the pop-up, is that the technique becomes a habit. You should practice as much as you can on…
Cause & Effect If you are struggling to pop-up and to stand on the board, there is definitely a reason for it. We like to…
Pop-Up Positioning Being in the correct position on the board when paddling will make all the difference when popping-up. If your initial positioning is off…
Pop-Up Positioning
Being in the correct position on the board when paddling will make all the difference when popping-up. If your initial positioning is off when lying down, then, when you stand up, you will end up standing in the wrong place on the board. Weight distribution is important and is defined by where you are putting pressure. The most common mistake is having too much pressure on the back foot or standing too far back on the board.
You have more of the surfboard in front of you than behind you, so it is essential that the majority of your weight is on your front foot when standing on the surfboard. There is no exact ratio; your weight distribution should be dynamic when you start learning to maneuver the surfboard but for now your main focus is getting the pop-up down with the correct technique.
A bad pop-up is the root cause for most people's problems in surfing. I like to compare surfing to a math equation and the pop-up is equivalent to the process of substituting values into the equation. If you substitute the wrong values, you will never get to the right answer.
The following are the key points for correct pop-up positioning:
On the Board
When standing on the board, you should generally be in the same place on the board as you are when paddling; not too far forward or back.
Head
Your head should be up and looking where you want to go. Looking down when popping-up is a big no no!
Chest
Your chest should be raised off the board.
Back
Your back should be arched.
Hands and Arms
Your hands should be directly underneath your chest near the diaphragm. You arms should be tucked in to give maximum strength output.
Legs and Feet
Your legs and feet should be together. Do not apply too much pressure on the knees.
The Pop-Up Transition
The pop-up transition phase can be broken into four steps: sliding forward, twisting the body slightly, landing the front foot between the hands, and rising up. In the beginning, it's important to take these steps slowly to have an understanding of the body movement, but eventually you should be able to do this in one fluid movement.
There is only one correct method to stand up on the surfboard. You may have heard of other methods such as the crocodile (where you square up your leg first) or the knee method (where you get up on your knees first). These methods teach poor technique, and when you get better at surfing you will have bad habits which will slow your progression down. It is important for us to note here that the ocean dictates how you should be getting up, not us. Waves break quickly, and if you are not able to stand up in a quick, controlled movement, then you may find yourself encountering problems when you try to surf the open face of a wave such as falling early on the wave, getting left behind the breaking section of the wave, or getting stuck when trying to progress to turning the surfboard on the wave.
The method that we are teaching may seem difficult - everyone has a different body structure and this method isn’t very kind to those who have longer legs, tight hips, and/or little upper body strength. If you struggle with this method at the beginning, it isn’t a problem. However, to be brutally honest, if you never adopt a fluid pop-up, you will not be able to progress far with your surfing. This is because you will struggle to pop-up quickly enough to react to the rest of the wave. Specifically, slow pop-up methods are okay when just trying to go straight in whitewater. However, when you move on to surfing unbroken waves, you become limited by the amount of time you have to pop-up. If you cannot stand up swiftly in one fluid movement, you will struggle to surf on the face of the wave before it breaks. This is especially important if your goal is to surf a shortboard.
1. Sliding Forward
As you are lying on the board with hands in the push up position, start pushing the chest and upper torso up and sliding the body slightly forward. This will help create space between the hands and chest for the front leg to come forward underneath the body.
Head
Your head should be up and looking in the direction you want to go.
Chest
Your chest should rise up to give your body space to slide forward.
Back
Your back should be arched. Try not hunch over.
Hands and Arms
You should push up with straight arms to help the body get up and slide forward. Most of your body weight should be resting on your arms.
Hips
Your hips should be slightly raised up and should slide forward.
Legs and Feet
Your legs and feet should be together and should slide forward.
Essentially what you are doing in this part of the pop-up, is shifting your body forward to help bring your front and back foot to the right place on the surfboard.
Not sliding forward is one of the most common mistakes beginner surfers make and results in landing your front foot in the wrong place.
2. Twisting
In this phase, we focus on twisting our hips. Twisting the hips should be done as you slide forward, before you commit to standing up. Twisting your hips will help you land your front foot at a 45 degree angle and your back foot at a 90 degree angle. This ultimately helps us square our hips which makes turning the board much easier.
At this stage, maneuvering the board isn’t a main focus. However, we need to emphasize this part of the pop-up because it is a crucial part when learning to turn the surfboard. In my experience, many surfers tend to over-rotate when popping-up and this over-rotation causes your hips to face at a 90 degree angle to the centerline of the surfboard.
When your hips face at a 90 degree angle to the surfboard, it makes it really difficult to have any control over the board. This is because it causes your arms, which help you balance, to be over the center of the surfboard instead of having each hand over each rail. Rather, you should aim to keep your hips at a 45 degree angle to the centerline of the board.
You will gain a better understanding of this concept later on in the course. For now we are just planting the seed so that you aren’t surprised when we start to talk about it later on. The main term for this instance is called “being side on.”
Head
Your head should be up and looking down the line. Avoid looking down at your board.
Chest
Your chest should be open and facing down the line.
Arms
Your arms should be straight underneath your chest. Most of your weight should be resting on your arms.
Hips
As you move your hips forward, you should also slightly twist your hips to help feet land in the right place.
If you have your right foot in front (goofy), your hips should twist slightly to the left.
If you have your left foot in front (regular), your hips should twist slightly to the right.
Legs and Feet
You can either put your leading leg on top of your trailing leg, or you can keep your feet and legs together.
The sliding phase and twisting phase should be combined as one movement, so they are executed at the same time. Avoid putting too much pressure on the knees, this will sink the tail and create drag during the pop-up phase. Too much pressure on the knees is a very common mistake made by beginner surfers.
3. Front Foot Between the Hands
This is the moment of truth. During this phase we are taking a leap of faith and trying to get our front foot in between our hands, while sliding our back foot slightly forward. It's important to keep your back arched and chest open during this phase to create the space for your front foot to land between your hands. If there are hitches in the pop-up they will come to light as you try to land your front foot forward.
Head
Your head should be up and looking down the line.
Chest
You should keep your chest open to allow the front leg to come forward.
Arms
Your arms should be straight underneath your body to create space for your front leg.
Back
You should try to keep your back straight, although it can be slightly rounded to allow the hips to stay underneath the body.
Hips
Your hips should shift forward. As they shift forward, keep them slightly rotated and centered below the body.
Legs
Your front leg should be bent and should move forward to land between the hands.
Your back leg should shift slightly forward and invert.
Feet
Your front foot should be flat on the board between your hands and be 45 degrees to the centerline of the board.
Your back foot should be 90 degrees to the centerline of the board and be slightly rolled onto its side.
Getting this technique down takes time, most people aren’t able to get it right on their first day, so please be patient and don’t feel discouraged if it takes you some time.
If you aren’t able to get this down after a few weeks, you could consider booking an online consultation session with us to help figure out what is going wrong. We can help by discussing what is happening when you try to pop-up or by reviewing video footage. To emphasize, we do not need high quality footage of you actually surfing to see what is going wrong. Generally, we can help you identify what is happening from a simple conversation or a video from your phone of you popping-up at home.
This technique is tried and tested, and I can honestly say that I have seen all different body types, genders, and ages able to complete this movement after practicing it a few times and working through all of the kinks.
4. Standing up phase
As we transition to standing on the board, we need to make sure that we are stable and that we don’t rise up too quickly. If we rise up too fast, we can easily throw ourselves off balance and fall off the board. Stability and control is key during this phase.
Head
Your head should be up and looking down the line.
Chest
Your chest should be over your front knee. This will allow you to exert enough front foot pressure on the board to keep up with the wave.
Arms
Each of your hands should be over each rail. Your left hand should be over your left rail and your right hand should be over your right rail. You arms should also at least as low as knee level.
Back
Your back should be straight or slightly rounded to help you stay low on the board.
Hips
Your hips should be a 45 to 90 degree angle to the centerline of the surfboard. Your hips should also be centered over the board. Finally, you should avoid sticking your bum out.
Legs
Your front knee should be bent no more than 90 degrees and most of your weight should be on the front foot. Your back knee should be inverted.
Feet
Your front foot should be 45 degrees to the centerline of the board. Your back foot should be 90 degrees to the centerline of the board, almost rolled onto its side.
Conclusion to Standing Phase
This is the basis of being able to maneuver the board. Once you are comfortable with this, then you can start to work on turning the board. If you have a hitch in the pop-up here, then when you start learning to turn the surfboard you will run into some issues and may have to go back to the pop-up.
Correct Surf Stance After Popping-Up
The following are images of the correct stance you should end up in following your pop-up, both frontside and backside.
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