Practicing the pop-up...again

Saw this painted on the side of a
VW beetle parked on the Strand 

I might already have a post title similar to this one about popping up. Despite this, it is the only title that will work this week. Practicing and perfecting the pop-up continues to be an ongoing goal of mine. I practice it on an imaginary line in front of my TV at least four nights a week, and I draw a line in the sand at the beach and practice it on shore at least every other time I surf. Nevertheless, I still manage to screw it up when I'm actually surfing. During Friday's surf session, Dude B caught me going to my knees at least twice. Once he pointed out though, I made sure not to do it again. Instead, I modified the pop-up yet again. I brought my left foot (my base foot since I'm goofy-footed) up partially before bringing my right foot up in front of it. The Dude, who was watching my pop-up closely because I had asked him to, graciously said that some instructors teach that. My instructor in Costa Rica did, but only because I think he saw me do it that way. However, I don't think it's the quickest way to catch a wave. It might help me because my legs are so long, but because of the extra step, I lose some time...time that I have in the weak and mushy Galveston waves, but not in other more well-formed waves at other places in the world (i.e. California, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Florida).

It may sound like I didn't have fun on Friday, but I did! In fact, I had a blast. The waves were small, but provided great, long rides. The rides gave me time to practice my turning and positioning on the board, once I had popped up. I even had a special compliment from a guy who happened to be surfing near us. He was on a short board and I could tell he was having trouble catching waves. I was surfing with the Dude and T and they were catching 50 waves to my one, but I was still catching them. When I noticed the other guy, I happened to spot a wave heading his way. I shouted, "Paddle, paddle, paddle..." and he listened. He caught the wave, and I was so happy for him. When I was done surfing, I saw him sitting on the shore and invited him to take my longboard out. He did while I was talking with the Dude and T, and while I was changing into dry clothes. When he saw that I was getting ready to leave, he surfed a wave in. I chatted with him on the beach. I mentioned that the Dude and T were catching many more waves than me, but he smiled and said, "I don't know about that...you looked like you were catching quite a few." I smiled. That made my day!!!

Today, on the other hand, was pretty bad. The waves were very choppy. The Dude tried to dissuade me from coming down, but, since my surf time is so limited, I went down anyway. It was a mess! I thought we should be surfing on the west side of the jetty, but the dude didn't want to, so I listened to him. I caught a couple of small waves, but after that, I couldn't even catch whitewater. I had a hard time guessing the right waves to catch and paddle for. The dude caught a few, but even he missed some, which is evidence that they were sloppy. I noticed that some on the other side were catching waves, and I wish I had gone over there. But, I listened to the Dude. I'm sure he saw something that I didn't. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be waves at least one day this week...a day when I can go down to G-town and practice, practice, practice.