How to fix the back knee issue when popping up

We haven’t had a Weekly Popup segment for a while, because honestly—I haven’t come across any brand-new, practical solutions to help us get our pop-ups better. Until now.

A few weeks ago, I learned that:
Your brain gets fried when you throw too many things at it in the surf
Your best chance for progress is to chunk-ify skill learning until it becomes automatic
Your body will follow your eyes

So I decided to test it out.

Instead of obsessing over my pop-up, I focused solely on one thing: taking off at a 45-degree angle (okay, maybe a few more degrees than necessary… ).

Doing that forced me to look down the line instead of straight at the beach, like I usually do. And my brain—so surprised by this new, singular focus—let the pop-up just happen. Automatically. Faster. Still clumsy, sure, but definitely faster.

And? It was waaay more fun.

New information: Moment of weightlessness

That’s not all I’ve discovered. Someone on Reddit posted that they can’t pop up without landing on their back knee first. Once they’re up, they’re fine. This sounds very familiar!

They said their mobility was okay, they could pop up fine on land, but in the ocean… well, their boards have huge dents in the deck. This actually explains some little indentations on my foamie. Whoopsie.

Not to worry. User WetFinsFine comes to the rescue. I asked for permission to include his advice verbatim, because it is truly precious:

“I know about the rear knee issue—personally. I was plagued with it for quite some time. It came down to 2 major things that needed rectifying/recalibrating:

The back knee will be more inclined to hit the deck with a delayed pop-up. So, when paddling for a wave, and always shoulder checking it, as SOON as you feel the tail lift with a bit of energy, it is precisely at this time that you engage the pop-up maneuver.

However, the one thing that will cause this to fail is a ‘looking’ issue. As in—where you are looking at the time you pop up. So…

Once you feel your tail lift, you oughta know what direction your wave is peeling and therefore what direction you need to go—this shoulda been sorted as you’re paddling for the wave already. As that tail lifts with the wave’s energy, hands on deck—DO NOT LOOK DOWN AT YOUR BOARD. DO NOT LOOK AHEAD STRAIGHT!!! No. Get yer hands on deck, FORGET ABOUT THE BOARD (trust me on this, just don’t think about the board), but turn your head and your stare towards the ‘line you wanna take on that wave.’”

Wait a second, that’s exactly what I discovered!!!!!!!

WetFinsFine continues:

“There’s a brief moment of time as the tail of the board lifts that creates a sense of weightlessness. It’s at this precise moment that if your hands are on deck, and you just ‘do your pop-up’ without thinking about your board (AND NOT LOOKING AT IT OR WHAT’S IN FRONT OF YOU), the board just kinda automatically shifts under your feet, and you’ll already be in a position to either bottom turn or immediately trim the wave depending on where your vision is fixated.

If you fixate on the wall of water right beside you as you pop up?? You’ll highline trim. If you fixate on that little spot just ahead and in the flats down the line? You’ll hit the bottom turn zone.

I’m not lying when I say this. Knee on board is because you missed the ‘weightless window.’ People miss the weightless window because they’re usually staring at their board, or what’s directly in front of them as they’re paddling. This causes target fixation—and by the time you’ve arrived at that target, your board has missed the weightless window and you’re now late to get to your feet.

It’s a looking problem and committing to focus on ‘down the line’ attention. Feel that lift, fixate on the wall or the line down the wave—your board will almost magically end up under your feet. Ya just gotta trust in the focus process.”

Best advice ever, methinks. Because it totally makes sense to me. Hope it does to you too!