Pop-up in Surfing

Reviewer One of the best pop-up breakdowns around - gives you a way to actually choose your technique, not just copy one.

Moderator Entirely about the pop-up/takeoff - compares four distinct techniques (sliding knee, push-up, chicken wing, standard) with clear criteria for choosing between them. Squarely on-topic.

Reviewer Thorough, well-structured, actually actionable.

Moderator A structured rundown of five common pop-up mistakes with fixes - looking down, using knees, and more. Entirely on topic.

Reviewer Strong practical coaching -- the two-stage breakdown is a great teaching tool.

Moderator Entirely about coaching a beginner's pop-up -- breaking it into a two-stage progression, strength/mobility/core factors. Squarely the sub-skill.

Reviewer Clean step-by-step teaching with a good common-mistake callout.

Moderator A full step-by-step breakdown of the pop-up from paddle to stance - hand position, chest raise, weight shift, one explosive movement. Entirely on topic.

Reviewer Clean explanation of why this habit kills your pop-up.

Moderator Entirely about a specific pop-up mistake - looking down - and why it wrecks balance and reduces space for the front foot. Directly on topic.

Reviewer In-depth, well-reasoned, with a smart at-home drill.

Moderator Standard take-off broken into push-up, back-foot-first, create space, front foot to stringer. Directly addresses the both-feet vs back-foot question with reasoning. Squarely the pop-up.

Moderator Surf coach breaks down three pop-up styles for different levels and boards: spring off the toes (longboard), the rock climber (back foot then front foot, good for shortboards and anyone short on power) and the explosive no-feet pop-up. Squarely about the pop-up, from learning it to speeding it up.

Reviewer Clear, credible and well structured. Three pop-ups matched to board and level, each with setup, why it works and its limits. The rock climber as a bridge to a fast pop-up is a smart progression. Good starting point on a longboard or a shortboard.

Reviewer Good specific coaching cues you could apply on your next session.

Moderator Whole video is real-time pop-up coaching -- arched back, hip drive, prone position, two-knees mistake. Squarely the sub-skill.

Reviewer Sharp, well-reasoned coaching on a specific pop-up fix.

Moderator Directly about pop-up mechanics - explains why bringing the back foot forward first creates space for the front foot, compares chicken wing/push-up/standard techniques, and diagnoses related mistakes (looking down, hand position). Squarely on topic.

Reviewer Great dos-and-donts framing for beginners.

Moderator Beginner pop-up for longboards/foamies, step by step, with a clean list of dos and donts (no knees, no rails, back foot first). Squarely the pop-up sub-skill.

Reviewer One sharp fix, well explained — exactly what a struggling surfer needs.

Moderator Entirely about hand placement during the pop-up: hands down by the ribs, chicken-wing elbows, more leverage and more room to bring the foot through. Bullseye on the pop-up sub-skill.

Moderator Compares frontside and backside pop-ups side by side: the common mistake of staying square, then how to stagger the hands, lean out over the rail, turn the head down the line and land with toes, knees and hips facing the direction of travel. Key point: the hand stagger and lower body stay the same, only the upper-body lean and turn change. Squarely on the pop-up.

Reviewer Clean, specific and easy to apply. You'll fix the 'staying square' mistake and know exactly what changes on backside.

Reviewer Clear reasoning for why knees slow you down.

Moderator Specifically about the mistake of using your knees during takeoff - why it's slower and less stable than a proper pop-up. Squarely on topic.

Reviewer Concrete, usable setup: tape line, centre line, clean reps, a sock-and-bars progression. He sells the mat but shows the free version.

Moderator Dryland pop-up training done properly: lay a straight reference line (tape works) plus a centre line so you can see where your hands and front foot actually land, train barefoot or in flat barefoot shoes, do only clean reps, and build strength with socks on a smooth floor and push-up bars. Squarely about practising the pop-up.

Reviewer Coach-quality troubleshooting. He explains why eyes down and a badly placed front foot wreck the pop-up, not just what to change. Long intro and a plug for his own site, but the cause and effect is clear and the fixes are practical.

Moderator Pop-up troubleshooting from a longboard pro, surf coach and physio. Runs through the three biggest pop-up errors, starting with eyes down and front foot position, plus a drill and a bonus tip at the end. Squarely about fixing the pop-up.

Reviewer Detailed pro-footage breakdown — genuinely instructive.

Moderator Take-off broken into catch/pop/look with slow-mo analysis of Moore and Medina popping up. The pop-up is the central and most detailed segment. Strongly relevant.

Reviewer Smart and specific. Hands too far forward kill your leverage, and he gives you a quick self-test plus the shoulder and thoracic mobility work to fix it. Some anatomy language and a plug for his programs, but the teaching is first class.

Moderator Pop-up hand and shoulder mechanics from a surf physio: why hands that land too far forward kill the leverage, how to test how far back you can bring them, and the shoulder retraction and thoracic extension you need to do it, with three exercises. Squarely about the pop-up.

Reviewer Decent, casual walkthrough with a nice beginner variation.

Moderator A direct tutorial on take off and pop up technique, including a beginner-friendly variation with the back knee down as an intermediary stage. Squarely on topic.

Reviewer Practical home-practice setup, genuinely useful.

Moderator About practicing takeoffs at home - setup with tape lines, mirror, floor/yoga mat practice. Directly supports learning the pop-up, though it's about practice method rather than the technique breakdown itself.

Reviewer An easy routine you can start tonight. Clear steps for the floor pop-up, practical tips like long pants, and he's honest about his own tight hips.

Moderator Three daily exercises for the pop-up: the 90/90 hip switch and a deep squat with knee drops for mobility, then a floor pop-up drill (two strokes, hands under the chest, press through the knees, lift the hips, back foot then front foot), five reps frontside and five backside with a touch more pressure through the heels and the head turned down the line. Squarely on pop-up prep and practice.

Reviewer Detailed, correct pop-up cues; caption alone is useful.

Moderator Caption is a full pop-up breakdown: hands under ribs, lock arms, lunge legs forward, shoulders ahead of hands, eyes down the line. Squarely the sub-skill.

Reviewer Detailed, correct pop-up steps; light plug.

Moderator Three-step pop-up: cobra, back foot first, front foot follows, with detailed cues. Squarely the sub-skill.

Reviewer Good ordered cues; minor sales plug.

Moderator Six-step pop-up guide in caption: hands under ribs, elbows in, chest first, back foot up, front foot to stringer, stand and look up. On the skill.

Moderator Why the pop-up gets harder on unbroken waves and with age: waiting until the bottom of the wave, tail dragging, board pointing uphill. His fix is to pop with the board angled down the face and some speed, so your feet have room to travel through. Promises one drill in the water and one on land. Squarely a pop-up lesson, mostly about timing and board angle.

Reviewer Good, simple explanation of why your pop-up stalls in the water and what to change. A bit of self-promo up front.

Reviewer Smart wall test and drills that match the real causes: hips, ankles, leg strength. Bit of story padding, but specific and fixable.

Moderator Fixing the butt-out landing from the pop-up: strength to get low, hip and ankle mobility to bring the knee through, and repeatable technique. Gives a wall test (pop up with a wall behind you; if your butt touches it, something's lacking), the leg-stack hip stretch, the ATG lunge for ankles and legs, and a two-step pop-up to build toward a clean one. On the landing phase of the pop-up, so squarely relevant.

Reviewer Useful correction to the 'feet between your hands' rule: let the front foot land under the sternum, which is where pros actually land it. One idea, no drill, but it's a point many surfers get wrong.

Moderator Short coaching clip on where the front foot should land in the pop-up: under the sternum rather than between the hands, the way pro surfers actually do it. Squarely about pop-up mechanics, one specific point.

Moderator Physio and competitive surfer gives three at-home exercises aimed straight at the pop-up: a deep hip-flexion mobilisation, a split-stance surfer squat for lead-leg strength, and a power exercise. It is the conditioning side of the pop-up, built around the pre-pop-up position and front-leg loading, rather than a how-to-pop-up lesson on the board.

Reviewer Credible physio-led programme with clear cues, progressions and dosage. It builds what the pop-up demands but won't teach the pop-up itself.

Reviewer Sharp, specific correction on a common pop-up mistake.

Moderator Caption is squarely about the surf pop-up - specifically calling out the common mistake of placing the front foot first and breaking the move into multiple steps instead of one seamless motion.

Reviewer On-land pop-up drills are exactly how beginners should build this -- looks like solid practice content.

Moderator Caption explicitly lists pop-up drill goals (muscle memory, feet positioning, balance) -- squarely on-skill.

Reviewer Thorough fault-and-fix plus a drill.

Moderator Pop-up stance mistakes: sticky butt, straight legs/arms, forward stance, narrow/wide feet, plus a drill. Squarely about the pop-up stance.

Reviewer Good strength progression, clearly reasoned back to the pop-up.

Moderator About building the specific strength (push-ups, ring stability work) needed to pop up on an unstable board -- supports the pop-up rather than teaching the movement pattern itself.

Reviewer Clear, correct step sequence.

Moderator Full pop-up breakdown: push up locked elbows, look ahead, back foot forward, knee 90, front foot between hands at 45, rise to stance. Squarely the sub-skill.

Reviewer Genuinely informative caption — explains the why, not just the what.

Moderator Caption is unusually substantive for a caption alone — explicitly explains what a 2-step pop-up is, why it's a useful bridge technique, and its tradeoffs (slower, less stable, not for shorter boards). This is real technical content about pop-up variations, squarely on-skill.

Reviewer Specific, sound pop-up tips.

Moderator Squarely on the pop-up - why not to use the knee, plus core and upper-body push, hand placement, foot position, wide stance. Right on the skill.

Reviewer Solid, specific cues - just short and lifted from another coach, so thin on demo.

Moderator Caption is all pop-up mechanics - back foot placement, hip turn, hands under shoulders, toe position behind the tail. Squarely about the pop-up, no drift. No transcript but the written cues are unambiguous.

Reviewer Sounds like a solid beginner breakdown, engagement is just low.

Moderator Caption explicitly promises a structured beginner pop-up breakdown in 5 steps — squarely the skill.

Reviewer Good fault-diagnosis, only a light plug.

Moderator About the pop-up, framed through the paddle setup that feeds it: feet together, tight glutes, chest up, look ahead, and the glutes-too-high fault. Mostly on the pop-up itself.

Reviewer Decent named-technique breakdown for beginners.

Moderator Explicitly the Australian pop-up technique for beginners. Names the method and the skill directly. Squarely on target.

Reviewer Solid single cue, just short.

Moderator Caption is dead-on the pop-up: hands by the ribs, eyes forward, feet under you in one move. No transcript but the cue list is squarely the skill.

Reviewer Good practical tips, several of which directly target takeoff problems.

Moderator Broader beginner-to-intermediate progression tips (board size, common takeoff mistakes, angling the takeoff) with meaningful pop-up-specific content mixed in among other topics.

Reviewer Good coaching insight linking paddling setup to pop-up success.

Moderator Covers paddle positioning/board angle and timing of standing up as factors that wreck the pop-up -- adjacent contributing factors rather than the pop-up movement itself.

Reviewer One solid, correct cue, good for beginners.

Moderator Specific pop-up cue: back foot first for stability. On the skill.

Moderator Short clip on foot placement in the pop-up: get the foot far enough through that it sits under your hips, so you have leverage to push up instead of falling forward. Squarely about pop-up mechanics.

Reviewer Good concept: get your foot through under your hips so you can push up instead of falling forward, and try it both ways to feel the difference. The foot talk gets a bit muddled and there are no drills, so it's a tip more than a lesson.

Reviewer Sound beginner progression — can't verify the demo, but the tip itself is right.

Moderator Caption is squarely on the sub-skill — a knees-first pop-up progression for someone's first week of surfing, with an explicit path to the standard pop-up once they're stable. No transcript to confirm the demo matches, but this is exactly the kind of specific technique cue this sub-skill is about, from an account that's plausibly a real surf school.

Reviewer Can't verify depth without a transcript, but the framing suggests real teaching intent.

Moderator Title and account name ('surf_tips_for_beginners') are both squarely on-topic for a beginner pop-up tutorial.

Reviewer Handy trick for consistency, not a full pop-up lesson on its own.

Moderator This is a coaching tool specifically for building a consistent pop-up - painted lines on the board mark where the belly button and front foot should land, used to build reproducible stance placement. It's a supporting technique aid rather than a full pop-up breakdown, so not quite a +2, but it's squarely in service of learning this exact skill.

Reviewer Correct cues, but 17s and a camp ad - light on teaching.

Moderator Caption targets the classic pop-up fault - knees on the board pushing weight back. Eyes forward, hands under ribs, chest up, feet under body. All pop-up, on the nose.

Reviewer Well-coached, practical pop-up conditioning.

Moderator Dryland conditioning specifically to make the pop-up easier: plank-to-lunge with foot rotation, lateral lunge, squat hold, floor push-ups. Prep for the pop-up rather than the on-board move, but explicitly about it.

Moderator Physio-led hip mobility exercise to free up the pop-up: the deep flexion hip mobilization from the prone pre-pop-up position, working the lead hip toward the knee-to-chest end range. A supporting drill rather than pop-up technique, but built explicitly around the pop-up.

Reviewer Well explained. He shows why a stiff lead hip stops you getting your foot under your chest, then gives an easy drill with a regression. No sets or reps, and it only helps if mobility is what's holding you back.

Reviewer Useful format, but the text does not show the goods.

Moderator Three pop-up mistakes and fixes, squarely the sub-skill.

Reviewer Likely a real beginner pop-up tutorial by runtime, but low reach makes it hard to vouch for quality.

Moderator No transcript, but title is an exact match for the skill - 'How to Pop Up | Beginner Take Off Technique' - and at 138 seconds there's real room for actual instruction.

Reviewer Looks like a genuinely useful beginner drill, can't verify depth without watching.

Moderator Caption and hashtags (#popup #beginnersurftips #howtosurf #learntosurf) point squarely at a pop-up practice drill for beginners. No transcript, but title/tags are unambiguous about the subject.

Reviewer Likely useful, but caption hides the goods.

Moderator Caption is just a hook but the video is 85s squarely framed around pop-up struggles. Strong engagement. On topic even if the caption is thin.

Reviewer Good framing of why pop-ups feel overwhelming, but too short to be a full lesson.

Moderator Caption is entirely about why the pop-up is hard/overwhelming -- on-skill framing.

Reviewer Looks like a solid quick pop-up demo based on the caption and engagement, can't verify more than that.

Moderator Caption ('Pop-Up Simplified') is squarely about the pop-up.

Reviewer Useful niche, but caption shows nothing.

Moderator How to pop up on a short surfboard, directly the skill in a specific context. On topic.

Reviewer Coach account, right topic, but 13 seconds isn't much of a 'breakdown' -- likely a single quick cue.

Moderator Caption is a direct, unhedged match -- 'let's break down the pop-up' -- from an account tagged #surfcoach. No ambiguity about the subject.

Reviewer Surface-level, and the ending turns into a clothing ad.

Moderator Two-minute pop-up: sand-outline drill, hands on deck, lift chest, jump feet through, hands off last. Squarely the pop-up, if basic.

Moderator Lays out what makes a pop-up work: flexibility for the squat-lunge-twist position, core strength to lift the hips and drive the knees through, and technique (hand placement, when to turn hips and shoulders, which way to look frontside versus backside). Then invites you into a four-week daily stretching and exercise challenge. Squarely about the pop-up, framed as a program pitch.

Reviewer Right three pillars, but it sells the program more than it teaches. You'll need the actual drills from somewhere else.

Reviewer Promising hook, but judging without a transcript so treating this as moderate confidence.

Moderator Title is squarely about pop-up technique (foot placement), directly on-topic, but there's no transcript to verify depth of teaching.

Reviewer Probably handy quick tips, but cant judge depth without the audio.

Moderator Caption is pop-up practice + tips, exactly the sub-skill. Short-form surf clip, decent engagement (3.6k likes). No transcript but title/caption are squarely on the pop-up.

Reviewer Smart land-drill approach to the pop-up; mild promo.

Moderator About training the pop-up — but on a surfskate on land, framing it as a chain of links you groove slowly before taking to water. On-topic for the skill, just off-board.

Reviewer Can't verify depth without a transcript — treat as a quick tip rather than a full technique breakdown.

Moderator No transcript available, but title and caption are squarely and exclusively about the pop-up technique for beginner surfers — strong signal of relevance even without content to verify.

Reviewer Probably a nice visual demo of pop-up progressions, but too short to be a real lesson.

Moderator No transcript, but title '3 levels of pop up' directly names the skill and a surf coach handle backs it up. Strong topical match even without transcript confirmation.

Reviewer Likely a broad overview rather than a deep pop-up breakdown, given how many topics it claims to cover.

Moderator Caption explicitly lists pop-up as one of several topics covered (equipment, pop-up, catching waves) for beginner surfers — relevant but shares screen time with other topics.

Reviewer Short hook clip, more lead-gen than lesson.

Moderator Steep-drop pop-ups and the core strength to survive the drop before your feet land. On-topic pop-up variation.

Reviewer Might be a good visual reference, but it's clearly built to funnel you to a paid program rather than teach in the video.

Moderator Caption is directly about the pop-up, and a slow-motion breakdown is a legitimate way to teach this movement - though there's no transcript so I can't confirm what, if anything, is actually said in the clip.

Reviewer Caption is more pep talk than lesson -- can't confirm real technique content.

Moderator Caption is entirely about the pop-up as a skill (reps, difficulty, importance).

Reviewer True but vague - good reminder, no real how-to.

Moderator Caption is about the pop-up, but the angle is that the pop-up fails because of paddling position, timing and wave entry - so it is framed around the pop-up while pointing upstream of it. On-topic for the sub-skill, just not a step-by-step of the pop-up itself. No transcript, 18s clip, judging off caption only.