Early transition to a shortboard (I know, I know...)

Careful with that tip... ahh nevermind, he wont understand that anyways. You gotta kinda see it to use it. So no one show him. K?

 

Excellent reference. We need more of that here.

 

...."In steep waves, the popup has to be executed immediately upon catching the wave, otherwise the centrifugal force makes getting off the board very hard at high speed. I tried getting up a few times but literally couldn't peel myself off the board and as a result rode in on my stomach or knees (sometimes finally getting up when the wave slowed down)."....

Ditto for me (except for the knees part) during my recent transition efforts to a 7 ft quad swallowtail after a year on an 8-4 high volume board. I was working on it for over a month (late Aug to mid October), getting out at least 4x/week with less success than you. I'm 23 years older, but it was nonetheless frustrating. Went out in generally lousy surf conditions, but I didn't think the transition would've been that difficult. See my "Surfing Slump" thread. Sounds like you're making progress though. Keep at it!

 

Sounds as if you are catching the wave a bit too late. With your bigger board you were able to catch the wave a lot sooner. You will have to really put forth a good burst of paddle and get into the wave earlier to avoid going over the falls. Ideally you want to paddle at an angle in the direction of the wave breaking and when you pop up you are already started going down the line.

You're doing great though man! Props! Its tough to teach an old dog new tricks! Stick with it though and try not to mix it up. Stay riding the shortboard until you get decent at it. Switching back and forth will really confuse you.

I realize why you purchased the 5'10", however ideally you may have been better off with a 6'2" - 6'3". No worries though eventually you will get the hang of it. You'll only get better everytime you go!

 

Surf has been flat off VB for almost two weeks, but we're just starting to get a few ripples. So I got back in the water yesterday and this morning with the longer board.
Was glassy and 2-3ft, with slight offshore breeze this morning. Not much of a report, but it was an improvement over what we've been seeing. Got a good number of rides; and like a kid, I snuck/sneaked into the office little late. Surprised I saw no one else was out yesterday or today - maybe because forecasts continued to report 0-1 or 1-2. But this morning was a treat. Will take what I can get.

 

my exact thoughts lol