Gaining Flexibility for Surfing is one of the major obstacles for many beginners. Most people think they are flexible because they don’t have any issues in their daily life picking things up off the floor. They find when they learn to surf that the pop up demands more flexibility than they imagined.
Flexibility is more than placing your fingers to your toes. Placing your palms on the ground is a good start. Pop up flexibility requires loose muscles in the hamstrings, buttocks, and lower back. These muscles can generally be loosened in about 3 weeks with daily practice.
Getting the Basic Flexibility to Pop Up in Surfing
The surfing pop up is a sequence that must be executed in a timely manner with muscles and joints working together. Any difficulties with muscles or joints will create obstacles for standing up on the surfboard. I give students a count for the sequence. First they must catch the wave with three hard paddles after the foam wave hits the surfboard. When they are planing on the surface with the tail of the board in front of the foam, they can put their hands on the board.
The pop up begins with placing both hands in a man’s push up position next to the chest and resting there for a second or two while the surfer gathers poise. There is no rush. The flexibility comes into affect as the surfer pushes up and puts his back foot on the board flat. A lack of flexibility will make it difficult to get the foot flat.
If the foot is not flat, the surfer cannot stand up on the back foot and raise their hands out of the way for the front foot to move to the nose. What happens is the surfer can only get the ball of his foot on the board, he cannot stand on that. He is forced to move the other foot to the board while his hands are still on the board. This causes him to fly off the front or ride on the back of the board.
I suggest four exercises for executing the pop up. Push ups help get the spring and get the chest off the board to make way for bringing the knee under the chest. Burpies are great for moving the knees up under the body and loosening pop up muscles. Squats and dead lifts are the real key to flexibility. They don’t have to be performed with weights. Daily routines can be effective with just the motions. Weights will increase strength.
See YouTube for videos on squats and dead lifts. After you have learned proper form so you don’t injure your back, you can start adding weights. Go easy. 5 or 10 pounds is a great start. I lift a 35-pound barbell plate, but I used to use 100 pounds in the gym,. Keep practicing the pop up in your living room. Soon you will see improved results.
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