Hey guys,

I am riding a shortboard now and land about 8 out of 10 o fmy popups. With that said, I would like to be better at them. I ussually try and do the normal pop up method where you use your arms to support your weight and where you swing both your legs through underneath so that for a short second both your legs are airborne. With that said, I have seen an alternative method called teh chicken wing or back foot prop method (refer to first video below) where you kink one of your legs out at a 90 degree angle so that your back foot is lying gently across the board before you begin your popup and you can use it as support during your pop up. Obviously when you get better at this it becomes more fluid, but in essence it means that your backfoot doesn't really go airborne while your front foot does. So, this post is a two part question. Do any of you have experience with this method, would you recommend it or would you say its a bad habit? I am not interested in being the most technical surfer and am more interested in maximising my ability to get up onto my shorty.

(at 2:18 is the chicken wing technique)

Next question. I have posted two old videos below (about 2 years old) of me surfing. I feel like my pop up is more fluid than this now, but there is one thing that I am doing in these videos that I continue to do which is really annoying. As you will see, when I popup my front foot lands correctly in terms of it being flat on the board. However, my back foot lands on the toes or the front ball of my foot and once my front foot lands about a second after I then readjust backfoot to being flat. Why can't I get my back foot through to land flat in one motion? Also, am I releasing my hands after my feet have landed too soon?

Below are videos of me doing my popups. Sorry for bad music. The second video has a slow motion at the start which might give you a better idea of what I'm talking about in regards to my back foot. Thanks heaps in advance for any advice in re. to both questions