How the World's Best Surfers Pop Up (Slow Motion)
Surf 5 years ago 257,754 views
I've always wanted to see the top pro surfers' pop-up technique in slow motion, so when I had the opportunity to shoot the WSL Founder's Cup at Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch, I rented a long lense and started shooting 120fps, which I then slowed down 5x for this video. I found it really interesting, so I decidedto share it so we could all learn from it. I was surprised that there were so many different techniques among these best. Tell me what you see here. What surprises you? Whose technique looks best to you? Obviously, we're just seeing their popups on a small-ish right-hand wave. They would adjust their technique in different types of surf (larger, steeper waves, etc), but the wave pool gave us a rare opportunity to see how their pop ups differ when they're all on the exact same wave. If you want to see some of my photos from the event, scroll back in my instagram: www.instagram.com/brentdangerrose Music by: Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech https://incompetech.com/
Most videos on popping up show all kinds of weird and different things that, after seeing this, aren't what the pros do at all and just make it more confusing.
So good to see how they do it to have something actually useful and good to emulate and try to work toward.
Nice video but one thing I don't think you're taking into consideration is the different builds everyone has which may have something to do with they're preferred pop up.
1) back foot lands first, sometimes well before the front. and that foot is used to help push the front foot thru (even on Slater, if you look closely, his back foot still lands 1st).
2) hips twist to raise inside/rear hip
3) front hand (same side as the front foot) is usually well ahead of the "back" hand, and both hands seem canted in the same direction toward the inside of the board giving more room to swing the front foot through (eg, hands facing more left for goofie riders).
4) head/eyes facing down the line in direction they want to go
5) back arches and chest raises before the push on the hands
6) hands on board until both feet are placed,
7) stay low and crouched until that hands leave the board.
i've thought a lot about this vid, and these takeaways have helped my pop-up immensely! it is not so much of a pop-up, but a quick powerful step up , and realizing that allowed me to keep in contact with my board, staying low and to be in the surf position once i remove my hands from the board. at least this is how it works for me.
thanks Brent!
10. comment for How the World's Best Surfers Pop Up (Slow Motion)
I liked your video at the Surf Ranch, slo-mo of Pros getting to there feet on waves very interesting, I am 68 still Surfing although not snapping to my feet as fast. Personally, I would love to see a video of Surfers my age getting to there feet if you can find some, it might help us old guys learn better ways to jump up some of the old ways don't work so well anymore. I have been at it since I was 13 and hope to Surf as long as I possibly can, great video.
20. comment for How the World's Best Surfers Pop Up (Slow Motion)
30. comment for How the World's Best Surfers Pop Up (Slow Motion)
This goes straight to my favorites playlist.
Wondering if the regulars use a similar technique of rotation when taking a left just as Medina does in the vid
Cheers
50. comment for How the World's Best Surfers Pop Up (Slow Motion)
up" on their boards according to many factors at the moment; their position on wave, late -vsearly take off, steepness of face, speed of wave, etc. All the surfers you depict will "pop-up" very differently depending on what their riding, what the wave is doing etc.What might be interesting is to take the same surfer and compare how he "pops-up" on different types of waves, under differing conditions, on different boards, etc.
Are they pushing with their arms and stepping the front foot through the shoulders using that back foot on the traction pad?
Buitendag is Bui = Bow | Ten = 10 | Dag = Dakh (this kh is strong clearing your throat sound, like you're disgusted).
Freaking awesome video and excellent slightly ahead karaoke commentaries to see it coming. Great stuff. Come down to the Canary Islands for a surf anytime!
Subscribed!
The worst thing about most surf vids is that they seldom show the paddle/pop-up, as if it were of no importance.
100. comment for How the World's Best Surfers Pop Up (Slow Motion)
Rather than technique, I think that fitness is the primary ingredient in successfully getting to one's feet in the most critical situations.
If they slow it down and learn it in steps like your wonderful video, there’s no chance of picking up bad habits
They'd love this sort of thing. Interesting how there's such a wide variety of pop up techniques.
Once standing, the pros are compressed and immediately un-compress for a first speed-generating pump.
I used to be involved in professional tennis prior to learning to surf and and I had always been flooded by millions of HD slow motion videos of things such as Federer's serve or Nadal's forehand (+100k results for each of these, for example), so it came to me as a shocking surprise that, when I looked for similar studies done with professional surfing in order to take a look at how the pros did it and try to realize what I was doing wrong and how I could do it better, I basically found no footage, especially concerning the pop up moment.
I may be speaking for myself and others may look at this as something trivial, but I believe that these six minutes you brought before us are very rich in showing the fine details of how each surfer tackles this critical moment in waveriding and how they compare between each other, especially when the wave is the same for everyone.
At the end of the day, this won't make me surf like Slater, but for someone like me, who never had surfing classes but instead got hold of an old beaten softboard missing one fin, pointed that thing at the shore, paddled like a maniac, tried to stand up, fell and proceeded to scrutinize what had gone wrong, wave after wave, session after session, trying to correct myself and improve out of casual feedback from friends and self evaluation, this is nothing short of pure gold and a tool that ultimately may help me improving my surf and result in me having more fun in the water! Thanks you very much for releasing this, man! :)