Learn to Surf | How To Surf

Surfing Pop Up

02. Surfing Pop Up - Practice On Beach

surfing pop upLearning the surfing pop up - So you have bought all your equipment and your itching to get in the ocean, But before you do that wait a sec and lets take the first step.


In your first few surf sessions you are definitely going to want to be able to stand on a wave, to achieve this glorious feeling. Practicing on the beach and learning the pop up is going to speed up the process of learning to stand on your first wave dramatically.
Don’t be intimidated by people on the beach when doing this, if they are surfers they will respect you for it, as it shows you really want to learn how to surf and in the fastest possible way!

Surfing Pop Up | Lessons on Standing | How To Surf

1. Place you board on the sand, the softer the better but any kind of sand will work for this. Lay flat on your board in the center about half way up, bring your hands up nearly in line with your shoulders and place your palms on your board just inside the rails. Quickly do a push up or "pop up" as it is commonly known and place your front foot underneath your chest, your front foot is going to take most of your weight as you begin the standing motion. Bring your back foot up and plant it on your board so that you are in a standing position, Make sure when you stand you have a solid stance with your knees bent, imagine if someone was trying to push you over you want to adopt a stance that will make it very hard for someone to do that (remember the closer your feet are together the more unstable you will become and easier it will be for you to fall off).
Both your feet should be directly in the middle of the board with your front arm facing the beach and your back arm facing the wave, this will act as your body’s stabilize. Keep practicing your surfing pop up until you feel comfortable with it to take tak to the water.

Goofy Foot or Regular Foot

goofy foot2. Goofy or Regular? When standing up for the first time you need to realise weather you are goofy foot or regular foot. Goofy footers stand with their right leg forward whilst regulars have their left leg forward. There is no advantage or disadvantage to being goofy or regular so don’t worry about that. If you have skateboarded or snowboarded before you should know what stance you are.
If your not sure, practice your surfing pop up on the beach over and over until you understand what feels more comfortable and natural, left leg forward or right leg forward. Keep repeating this until you are very confortable and dont have to think about the process, you want the "Pop Up" to become an instinctive natural feeling.