Why popping up in the water > popping up on land

I want this on record. If I hear one more time that in order to get better at popping-up on your surfboard you need to practice popping-up on land every day, I am going to explode.

This is lunacy. 😂

I feel for any beginner who decided to ask ChatGPT or Claude if it’s easier to learn popping up on the floor rather than in the ocean. Because what they will hear is that of course it’s easier to learn when the floor isn’t moving, there’s no time pressure and no one can see you fail.
Bullshark.

💪 Land drills have a place… kinda

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still all in on burpees for days and doing push-ups for building upper body strength. It’s a necessary evil.

And I’m not a luddite and I do understand the argument for practising land pop-ups to improve your feet placement etc. once you’ve acquired bad habits in the water.

🧠 The land-to-water disconnect

So often you hear beginner surfers say: I’ve been practising on land, I get into the water and I do something completely different, how can I align the two.

But hear me say this: popping up on a surfboard is easier in the water than it is on dry land. Because—physics.

We have already established that if you want to get better at surfing, you will eventually need to graduate to the explosive pop-up method. That requires being able to swing your legs forward rather than stepping up or climbing like a chicken wing.

I challenge anyone without the highest level of fitness to perform this task on the ground. You try it and we’ll talk.

⬇️ Gravity is your friend

This is why popping up in the water matters. In the ocean, the board will sink as you press it into the motion (with all that super upper body strength from your pushups), creating enough space between you body and the board, and gravity will help your legs to slide into place.

Granted, when learning, it’s easier to achieve this in small, unbroken, rolling waves, but my argument still stands. The downward angle of the board + an unbroken wave make the entire transition so much smoother. I know, for a fact, because it happened to me. Once or twice and I have been chasing that feeling ever since.

🧠 Muscle memory: land vs. water

Lest we forget, building muscle memory on land and in the water: two different kettles of fishes.

You need to get a feel for that pop-up motion, with your board in motion. It needs to be fluid, more like a I don’t know a jelly swing rather than a jump, thud, wallop.

🤷‍♀️ Land practice still has its place

Ok, practising on land won’t hurt. It will build your fitness. Have fun doing a plank and sliding your feet forward and back on a skateboard.

But don’t get lulled into a false sense of security that if you master your pop-up on land, you will be able to perform it in the ocean.

🧘‍♀️ Words to surf by

I’m going to leave you with some wise words that I read on Reddit, because nothing can be truer:
Everything that is not surfing is different from surfing, there is no true way to practice surfing outside of surfing. You can only do things that help.