How to Pop Up on a Surfboard: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

If there’s one skill that determines whether your first surf session goes well, it’s the pop-up — the movement from lying flat on the board to standing up and riding the wave.

Get this right, even roughly, and you’ll catch waves. Get it wrong, and you’ll spend your whole first session falling off before you’ve had a chance to actually surf. The good news: it’s a teachable, practiceable motion, and you can genuinely improve it before you ever touch water.

This is exactly how we teach it at Atlantic Surf School — on the sand, before anyone gets in the ocean.

Why We Practice This on Land First

The pop-up happens in roughly one second, in a moving, unstable environment, while you’re often out of breath from paddling. Trying to learn the movement for the first time in that context is unnecessarily hard.

Practicing on sand removes the variables — no waves, no wobbling board, no water in your eyes. You can slow the movement down, feel where your hands and feet should go, and build the muscle memory before the ocean adds difficulty. Every beginner lesson at Atlantic Surf School starts here.

The Pop-Up, Broken Into Steps

Step 1: Start in the Paddling Position

Lie flat on the board, chest up slightly, hands roughly beside your chest — similar to the position you’d be in at the top of a push-up, but with your body still down on the board. Your feet should be together, toes pointed, near the tail of the board.

Step 2: Place Your Hands

Your hands go flat on the board, roughly under your shoulders or slightly wider — the same hand position you’d use to push yourself up off the ground.

Step 3: Push and Bring Your Feet Forward — in One Motion

This is the part beginners get wrong most often: doing it in two separate movements (push up to your knees, then stand) rather than one fluid motion.

The correct movement: push through your arms while simultaneously bringing both feet forward from lying flat to a standing position — landing with feet roughly shoulder-width apart, knees bent, in one motion. Think of it less as “standing up” and more as “jumping” your feet up to where your hands were.

Step 4: Land in the Right Stance

Your feet should land at an angle — not straight forward like walking, but turned slightly sideways, similar to a skateboard or snowboard stance. One foot forward, one back, roughly perpendicular to the length of the board. Knees bent, weight low, arms out slightly for balance.

Step 5: Look Where You Want to Go

A common mistake is looking down at your feet or the board once standing. Keep your eyes up, looking in the direction you want to ride. Where your head goes, your body tends to follow — looking down pulls your balance forward and down with it.

The Most Common Mistakes

Standing up in two stages. Push to your knees, pause, then stand — this takes too long and usually results in falling before you’re fully up. The pop-up should feel like one continuous motion, however clumsy it looks the first few times.

Feet landing too close together. A narrow stance is unstable on a moving board. Feet should land at roughly shoulder width, not together.

Standing too tall, too fast. Straightening your legs immediately after popping up raises your center of gravity and makes you far more likely to fall. Stay low, knees bent, for at least the first few seconds of standing.

Looking down. As mentioned above — keep your eyes forward and up, not fixed on your feet or the board.

What This Looks Like With an Instructor

At Atlantic Surf School, every lesson begins with dedicated pop-up practice on the sand — usually repeated multiple times until the motion starts to feel natural, before anyone enters the water. Your instructor watches your specific movement and corrects the details that matter for you individually — where your hands land, how quickly you bring your feet through, whether your stance is wide enough.

In the water, your instructor often helps with the timing of the wave itself — telling you exactly when to start paddling and when to pop up — so you can focus entirely on the movement you’ve just practiced, rather than also trying to judge the wave.

How Long It Takes to Get Right

Most people execute a rough, functional pop-up by the end of their first lesson — not always perfectly balanced, but enough to stand and ride briefly. Genuinely smooth, automatic pop-ups tend to develop over several sessions, as the movement stops requiring conscious thought and becomes closer to instinct.

This is one of the clearest reasons multi-day surf camps produce faster progress than single lessons — the pop-up is a repetition-based skill, and consecutive days of practice build it far faster than isolated sessions spread weeks apart.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I practice the pop-up at home before my lesson? Yes. Practicing the motion on a yoga mat or carpeted floor — from lying flat to a bent-knee standing position in one movement — builds useful muscle memory before you ever touch a board.

Why do I keep falling forward when I stand up? This is usually caused by standing too tall too quickly, or looking down instead of ahead. Keeping knees bent and eyes up on the horizon corrects both issues.

Is the pop-up different on a beginner board versus a shortboard? The fundamental motion is the same, but beginner soft-top boards are wider and more stable, which forgives small errors in technique. Shorter, narrower boards used by experienced surfers demand more precision in the same movement.

How many attempts does it usually take to get it right? This varies significantly by person, but most beginners see noticeable improvement within the first lesson, especially with land-based practice beforehand and in-water corrections from an instructor.

Do I need strong arms to push myself up? Some upper body strength helps, but the pop-up relies more on technique and timing than raw strength. Beginners of varying fitness levels learn the movement successfully with proper instruction.

Atlantic Surf School is based at the National Surf Centre, Shore Rd, Strandhill, Co. Sligo. Book your lesson here.

Written by Zuhé Coronil, founder of Atlantic Surf School, who has taught the pop-up to complete beginners for 16 years.