John Dennis as someone who formally had this issue for over a decade, I feel you!!
The bigger and stronger the wave, the faster you need to paddle to catch it - I beleive it’s mathematically impossible to paddle fast enough on a shorter board after quite small size (don’t quote me on this!)- hense why the Oreo and wave selection is so important! Not sure what you ride, but on a short board, gravity is my friend. If you’ve caught it, even if you aren’t standing yet, often you should be dropping down the wave! You could try body surfing on your board to test this!
Often, for me, it was less about my pop up, and more about my technique (Oreo) and position (deep enough!) and wave selection (steep enough), so I’m popping up lower down the face and letting gravity and the Oreo do the work, rather than leaning forward while stress paddling and being pulled up the wave over the falls by the time I pop up! Learning this was a game changer for me. Some smooth strokes is often all it needs then! There’s some tutorials on catch more waves and ocean IQ that are super duper helpful!
For me, there was a psychological component too as smaller waves felt easier to take risks but I’d end up over the falls hesitating or sitting out of position as size increased - which the surf psychology course is helpful for!
Replied on Man! Feeling really defeated. I wish ...
15 Sep 01:53
Haha that’s a good tip on doing the same thing over and over!