Paul deCourcy Ellis Cool! Thanks for the tip! Regarding the chicken wing popup: another reason I needed to stop using it was that the sideways torque on my knee was causing a knee issue. Same for duck diving by winging my leg to get a foot on the tail...

That's reasonable advice, and certainly worth consideration.

The only  reason I'm considering changing things is that my default takeoff (knee outside or chicken wing) tends to put me more side-on and back-footed, a habit I'm trying to break. My hope is that if I can get a better position on the popup there'll be less to adjust during the drop and bottom turn, giving me more mental space for other challenges, such as a good coffee cup and not racing out to the shoulder...

Graham Marsden That's good advice. I need to focus a bit on that- I do think my hands are a bit far forward. I also tend to grab the rails instead of putting my hands on the deck.

Michiel van Gerven Both. It's particularly prevalent when I have to popup quickly on a pitchy wave, when I default to ingrained habits under the time crunch, even on longboard where I can more easily keep the knee between the arms.

Thanks for finding this for me! Very helpful, and pretty much exactly my issue. I'm OK from toes, but things are much more difficult off the knee. Interestingly, Clayton demos a "chicken wing" style popup that's almost exactly how I used to pop up- chin down and flat on the board. Luckily, Oreo fixed that, but introduced the knee-outside-of-arm thing...

I can see how that'd help- it'd give the leg a bit of momentum to help overcome tension in hip flexion. I'll give this a try. Thanks!

Not yet...

Clayton Nienaber It wasn't until OMBE that I realized I was just about always looking down to the bottom of the wave, and just about never down the line. I've made it the focus of my surf sessions, and the fact that it feels so strange to me shows me that I haven't been doing it for the past 25 years or so. (!) Now that that's feeling better, I'm trying to get my back arm up and pointing where I want to go. Thanks so much for responding!

Coryn Daniel Eventually, I'll post a vid. On the Bosu, it's even harder for me because the rear foot has to go even further forward than I'm currently comfortable with, but it's certainly something I'll work on. Thanks for the input!

John Kuras Cool, thanks!