The Surfing Pop Up and Stance are the Key to Surfing
Surfers who have problems don’t realize The Surfing Pop and Stance are the Key to Surfing. I have many intermediates coming for lessons with a wide variety of issues they think, but it is always the same things. It is the same for beginners learning to surf.
The purpose of the pop up is to get the front foot to the correct spot on the surf board and the body into the right posture. Surfing real waves, the body has to be in the right balance on the board or the surfer falls off. Surfers can be seen falling all day once they are up because they haven’t nailed these two important techniques.
The Surfboard is Designed for the Correct Stance
The surf board is designed so the surfer’s weight will be equal on both sides of the middle stringer. When there is pressure on one side or the other, the board is designed to carve. Too much pressure and it will dig a rail or just flip. The right stance is having the front foot close to the nose at a 45 degree angle forward. Feet are shoulder width apart or about three feet. Hips and shoulders have to be squared to the front and parallel to the beach. Hands are in front. Weight is equal on front and back leg and knees are flexed.
When the hips and shoulders are not squared, the surfer’s butt is over one rail and he probably has a hand trailing like on skate or snow boarding. This causes the board to flip as soon as the surfer is up. So many new students get into the incorrect stance because there pop up is not correct. Often their pop up is not correct because they can’t learn the sequence or because their body lacks the strength, flexibility and coordination necessary.
The Two Main Pop Ups
There are two main ways to pop up. There is an advanced pop up and a beginner pop up. The beginner pop up allows for the fact new surfers don’t have the strength and coordination for the advanced pop up. The advanced pop up has both feet hitting the board at the same time. The beginner pop up is used by many pros but the advantage for beginners is it uses leg strength more than upper torso and core strength.
In the beginner pop up, the surf catches the wave and then puts both hands in a man’s push up position. He pushes up and places a rear foot on the board flat under his butt. This is important to take the time and hopefully the flexibility to get the foot flat. Now the surfer can stand and release his hands from the board. If the hands are not released before the front foot has to be placed, the surfer will be in a bad stance. With the torso rising to the upright position and the hands moving in front of the body, the surfer places his front foot in the right spot.
For the stance, imagine you are going to push a fairly heavy and tall box ten feet. How do you line up for this? You put your hands in front of you on the box. You put one leg behind the other so you can push. Think also of stretching one calf while pushing against a refrigerator. Both are similar to the surfer stance. The body is in a straight line and if it was on a surfboard, the weight would be equal on both sides of the stringer. If you turn sideways and put only one hand on the box and have a hand trailing, you can’t push the box.
Executing the right pop up to get into the right stance is the key to catching and riding waves. It takes beginners time to learn this sequence and it is done in foam waves and a high volume soft top board that is forgiving until the technique is mastered. Then the surfer can paddle out to bigger waves and eventually move to smaller boards.
Read Other Posts:
Beginner Surfers Learn on Soft Tops
5 Steps to Improve Surfing Performance
3 Ways to Catch Real Surfing Waves
Training to Ride the Surfing Short Board
Short Board Surfing Techniques
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