Popping up on green waves

Progressing onto a green unbroken wave can be a little tricky at times but practice makes perfect.

By Corinne Evans

Follow my 8 step guide and it will help you get offer up onto your feet, surfing those beautiful green waves in no time. If you don’t make it to your feet first time, that’s ok, just keep trying and trying.

1 – Paddle

You need to make sure you have paddled enough so that you’re at the same speed as the wave. You want to feel the wave pick you up and push your forward. If you don’t feel that try doing a couple more paddles just to make sure.

2 – Position

When you’re sure you’re on the wave it’s time to start the process of getting to your feet. You want to place your hands firmly on the surfboard. Right next to your chest, as if you were in cobra position in yoga or about to perform a press up.

3 – Push

With your hands firmly placed on the board you now need to push off them, creating space underneath you, ready to bring your legs through. Keep your eyes looking ahead and your arms strong.

4 – Jump

With your arms strong and space between you and the board, it’s time to jump your feet into the pop up position. You will see that my back foot naturally is coming forward ready to be place on the deck pad. This is the point where you want to avoid using your knees.

5 – Stance

With your hands still firmly planted on the surfboard, it’s time to bring your front foot forward. Make sure your foot ends up down the middle of the surfboard. When I am teaching I like to get my students to imagine there is aline down the middle of their surfboard and there feet must be on this line. Your back foot should be on the deck pad (if you don’t have one you need it be on the tail).

6 – Release

Now you feet are firmly planted on the surfboard you can release your hands. It’s really important to keep you knees bent at this stage.

7 – Set your line

Now you’re on your feet, bring your hands up near your waist for extra balance Keeping your eyes down the line, not looking down at your feet or straight to the beach will really help with this stage. You want to get straight out on the open face, so keep looking in the direction your want to go.

8 – Compress

To keep your balance, keep your knees bent, your arms up and look down the line! Don’t worry about trying any turns at this stage, just stick with the waves and off you go!