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How I Got My Pop-up Back

6/25/2021

10 Comments

 
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​​I'm 68 and have been surfing for over 55 years.  After a short stint of competition in college, I decided I much preferred empty dawn patrol sessions in more remote spots.  As work became a necessity, I found I could usually get two hours of surfing in before heading to the office.  Surfing continued to be a basic, essential part of my life and I attribute much of my moderate success in business to the stress-relief surfing provided.  It kept me sane during insane times.

As the years went by, early injuries started to reemerge and by time I hit 50, I surfed well on days when my back was okay, and not as well with any significant back pain.  At one point,  I saw a physical therapist for an Achilles tendon injury.  He made me stand and walk, then approached from behind and hit me in the butt.  "Relax your glutes! he ordered.  The fact was that I couldn't.  No matter how much I tried, they remained rock hard, which I thought was a good thing.

"You surfers are all extenders," he stated flatly.  "We need to fix that."

Over the next couple of months, I worked on not arching my back, standing straighter, pushing my pelvis forward,  and on core strength to compensate for over-developed lower back muscles.  

Amazingly, in addition to improving my Achilles injury, my back problems disappeared.  Suddenly, I was surfing like I was twenty again.  I added the core strengthening exercises, especially plank and side plank, to my morning stretches/warm-ups, and over the next 15 years, I had zero back problems and was easily able to keep up with the young surfers in the lineup.

The Setback Injury

Then, a few years ago, on a small (shoulder-high) day - injuries always seem to happen on small days - I pulled into a backside barrel which started to close down on me.  I tried my  standard small-day-pull-through-the-back-of-the-wave but found myself slammed on a sharp rock which had fallen off the cliff the previous winter and had migrated.

The rock knocked my sacrum out of alignment which twisted my spine and compressed a disc causing a nerve impingement.  I went a month without being able to lie down or sit, and sleeping standing up didn't work.  For more on how I recovered from that injury, see How I Narrowly Avoided Back Surgery.

I was out of the water for four months, the longest I'd ever gone without surfing.  Once I could surf and had regained my paddling strength, I found I was almost always dragging my front foot on my pop-ups.  I could ride well enough, but that slowness getting up limited my critical takeoffs.

I worked hard on upper body strength doing sets of 50 pushups followed by 20 popups on the floor.  There was marginal improvement, but it wasn't like before.  I still surfed every day but...
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Time to Give up Surfing?

Last November, surfing up north on a super high tide with a slightly overhead swell, I got hit by backwash as I was standing up.  Perhaps if I'd had my old pop-up I would have been fine, but my dragging front foot slipped off the board and my back leg hooked onto the board as the backwash threw the board upward.  I severely tweaked my pelvis and this time I was out of the water for 3 and a half months.  

When I got back into paddling shape, with lots of push ups, my pop-ups were worse than ever.  I seriously considered giving up surfing.  For me, it was embarrassing to be in the lineup.  I was well-known and now, I'd lost my confidence.  I sucked.

Getting the Pop-up Back

I searched the internet for ways to improve your pop-up.  There are countless videos with all sorts of exercises.  I tried a bunch but had no luck.  Then I stumbled on this one by Kale Brock.

Attempting to do push ups bringing a knee inward was easy for my back leg and very difficult for my front leg.  I realized that I'd lost a lot of range of motion in my hip flexors and that this was preventing me from bringing my front leg forward properly.  I searched further and found an excellent video by Cris Mills of Surf Strength Coach.  If this video is any indication, I suspect his other training programs are worth the expense.

I did their exercises and then modified my stretching/warm-up routine to include the following:

1) Push up, bringing my foot to the opposite hand as I push up.  After only 5 of those, I go into pigeon pose (per Cris), for one minute, then pointer-dog for 1 minute and repeat on the opposite side.  I do two sets of these.
2) At the end of my stretches I do squats leaning forward to put my hands on the floor.  At first, I'd lost that flexibility, so as odd as it sounds, whenever I was on the toilet, I'd lean forward and put my hands on the floor for a minute.  After a few weeks, I could do the squats and gained a lot of flexibility in my hips.  Ultimately, I could do squat-hops, forward, back, sideways - 20 before each surf session.  

When I first started (1) above,  I couldn't bring my front foot more than half way to the opposite hand, but had no problem getting all the way to my hand with my back foot.  Two weeks later, I could touch my hand with my front foot. 

That day, I paddled out into empty waves and popped up with no problem on my first wave.  It was a small mushy day (for me, the worst conditions for popping up), but it seemed like magic.  

Since then, my confidence is coming back and I'm taking off on more critical waves.  It's great to be back!  Who would have thought that the pop-up problem had nothing to do with upper body strength?  It was all about flexibility, specifically hip flexor flexibility.  

I'm sure this won't work for everyone, but if you end up in a situation like mine, I hope you'll find this blog helpful.  

If you liked this blog, please check out my novels.
10 Comments
David OLAN
8/13/2021 06:45:46 pm

Steve, great article thanks for the insight. At 59 years old my takeoffs have slow down so always trying to improve them. I just got out of the water in Malibu and got some good waves! David

Reply
Steve
8/13/2021 10:57:19 pm

Hey David,

Good to hear from you. Glad you got some good waves. It's been a bit inconsistent in Santa Cruz, but I can't complain. I took out a longer board last week (6'10), and have been surprised. I'm having a great time getting in early. Backside I don't even notice the extra length - I guess having your weight on the tail and inside rail bring the board vertical even with the longer board. Frontside took a bit of getting used to with so much foam in front and a bit hard to pull in on the takeoffs, but I'm having a great time.

And yes, the exercises, particularly working the hip flexors seem to have made all the difference.

We hope to be heading back to France end of September or beginning of October, assuming Covid numbers slow down a bit in the Pays Basque.

Stay in touch!


Steve

Reply
Ian Baxter
1/12/2022 10:07:34 am

Brilliant and inspiring article. At 54 my surfing seemed to be going backwards, and after a busy summer of work last year I headed down to France, Spain and Portugal for three months with virtually no surfing for the previous 4 or 5 months (plus the summer in the UK was just flat, flat, flat). I found to my horror that my pop up had just collapsed! Couldn't get front foot forward enough, taking waves too late and falling. Thank goodness I found your article! Really worked on my hip flexibility as you suggested, with the two links in your article. I've no idea how many hours this winter I've spent on the beach stretching! But it's worked! More flexible than I've been for a long long time and the pop up is back to its old reliable self again.
I really really did think it's time to hang up the surf board, now have just bought a Crowd Killer on my way back thru France to get that wave count up even higher when I get home.
Sir... I thank you..

Reply
Steve
1/12/2022 11:27:55 am

Ian,

Great to hear it worked for you too! My only advice is to keep up the stretches. The 10-15 minutes of stretching on the beach will be repaid in wave count and performance in the surf.

Steve

Reply
Hart
5/29/2022 08:25:35 am

Thank you, I now have hope. My pop ups suck (-after not surfing for many years due to depression) I'm 58 years old and have a big belly that doesn't help. I blamed the belly but after watching Jimbo Pellegrini in Indo I realize the belly isn't the only problem. He's big and ripped hard.
I will be researching the Kale Brock and Cris Mills material and dig up what the "pigeon pose" and "pointer dog" look like and following your lead.
Im losing weight and working out... I don't want to end up not surfing and your blog is an inspiration
Thanks
Hart

Reply
Steve
5/29/2022 08:35:37 am

Hi Hart,

Keep the faith. Ultimately, it's flexibility so working on that should help. However, even since I got my pop up back, I've noticed that if I'm a bit lighter, my pop ups are faster. So while weight is not the only thing, being lighter does help.

On the other hand, if you start surfing regularly, you likely will drop weight as your body tries to optimize for you renewed activity.

Don't give up!

Reply
Andy
7/2/2022 01:54:40 am

Hi Steve I just found this. I'm so glad I did. You're story is so inspiring. I am 52 and been surfing since I was about 9. grew up in a shitty town that happened to have decent waves and I think that kept me out of a hell of a lot of trouble. In short I think I was saved by surfing. it is definitely a big part of me and has taught me a lot of things that I've been able to apply to life on land. Last few years same thing has happened. I've gradually been losing ability to bring my front through. Before this started to happen I would've considered myself pretty competent in anything up to triple overhead. I got so much satisfaction and joy out of just riding a wave in a forthright and artful fashion start to finish. that stoke would spread to others because I'd regularly get really positive comments. But this problem has been creeping in and it's pretty awful right now to the point where I'm basically a kook. each take off is like tossing a coin. Sometimes I can do it. Other times I'm flailing with my front foot back near my back foot and getting hammered. And people just paddling past me in the line up. (Can't blame em). I started to wonder if I need to let go of this part of my identity but I can't do it yet. It's been one of the very few truly good this I've had in my life. I'm not ready to let it go.
So the fact that you shared your experience and what worked for you has given me hope. Yours elastically Andy.

Reply
Steve
7/2/2022 08:31:25 am

Hey Andy,

Hang in there. I just got back from a excellent 2-hour session. No problem with my pop ups. I'm 69 and riding a 6'4. If I can do it, I'm sure you can too. At my age, it just takes a lot more work to stay in shape and maintain that flexibility. Keep working on it and I'm sure you'll be back in top form.

Steve

Reply
James
9/13/2022 09:25:51 am

Hi,
Hi read your story with great interest. I have been having similar problems and also spraining front foot toes to add to the fun. I tried stretching my lower back and strengthening my hip flexors and this has helped. If I understand correctly your training has amounted to the same thing. Increase ROM of hip flexors by stretching opposing muscles. One could stretch the hip flexors but not sure that would help pop ups? Does that make sense?

Reply
Steve
9/13/2022 03:10:17 pm

Hi James,

The issue for me was ease of brining my front foot forward. With tight hip flexors after my last injury, that was difficult. By developing ROM, I can now do push ups bringing my foot to the opposite hand. That flexibility along with increased core strength has dramatically helped my pop up because I can now bring that foot forward.

Good luck with your efforts!

Steve

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    Steve Jackowski

    Writer, extreme sports enthusiast, serial entrepreneur, technologist.

     
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