Getting up to your feet on a surfboard, or as they say now on the inter webs,’ the pop up’, is something we never thought about when we were younger. Well, maybe those first few months in the early eighties, when we were scratching around on a stormy swell in our footy jumpers to beat the cold, desperately trying to work out, how it is you get up on a surfboard, but still trying anyway because you were young, indestructible and had your whole surfing life ahead of you!

However once you got it, that was it. You seemed to forget all about how it happened and the rest was just natural (or goofy!) You just stroked into a wave and got on your feet!

So flash forward 35 years and you have to do it all again, even though all the ocean knowledge is there, the swell action, the winds, the sandbars and reefs right up to the way to turn, carve, find the tube and come off the top, all seem to be still in place but there is one big factor that seems to be lost.

Getting to your feet, quickly, smoothly with elegance and grace.

It’s so bloody important! And if you have lost the muscle memory, gained a few kilos, got a bit older, stiffer or slower it’s a pain in the butt to remember what you took on as a kid and never thought about again.

I have been back in the water now, surfing nearly every week on average, (which is a lot for me compared with the last ten years) for about four months. I have a new board ( that’s another story!) and a new lease on life.

My board is fast and loose, much looser than I have ever owned but with a nice drive thanks to bigger fins. I have just pulled off the cutback of my life the other day with it. I still can surf and it feels amazing!

BUT…

I struggle getting up.

I seem to fall off balance halfway through the ‘Pop up’ and I have been through endless scenes in my head trying to work out what the hell is going on.

Most of the time I have been blaming it on my board, but really it is me.

Anyway I am Not going to go on about it but I will start posting things that are helping me as I find them.

Like this. Enjoy…