I am very much a beginner and after just one lesson, having been able to stand up with relative ease, (l am quite an experienced snowboarder so this was not too much of a surprise) l set out to catch some 'real'waves instead of the white wash.

At first the nose of my board (probably around 7''+ roundish end) kept going under as l got onto the wave so l tried leaning back but just lost balance. A couple of days later the waves were quite steep and would brake over you making it hard to surf so l was told so this didn;t help much. but l still had a few more goes at catching the wave and l discovered that if l just got up further back on the board it seemed to work keeping the nose out of the water. To do this meant my feet were hanging about one foot over the tail of the board so l was not able to push of the board but by doing a jump get up l usually got on fine, then as l got lower in the wave l adjusted my self up towards the front of the board and rode off fine.

Now my question is, is this normal because it does not feel right even though it works, and am l picking up some bad habits or something?

l really liked surfing and wanna keep it up so any advise on this would be really help full, thanks.

l

your feet being 1 foot off a 7 ft board seems pretty far off.

Is your nose of the board like really up in the air?

I;d say do not worry about it, and keep surfing.

The steeper the wave the farther back you want to be on your board. IT does not sound bad necessarily. Just try to catch the waves earlier before they get super steep.

The Surfboard Man
http://thesurfboardman.com/

Standing up on a moving surfboard is the bare minimum of surfing. Paddling & catching waves is the first part where skill development is needed. (That is why it is different from snow boarding). You obviously r doing something really wrong, but no matter how good ur verbal skills are, u can not describe it well enough to have somebody 'diagnose' the problem via computer. You need somebody in the water, (a friend, an instructor, some very tolerant stranger?) to look at what u r doing, & set u straight.
l suspect that very little of ur problem has to do with how far back or forward u r in the board. You r probably trying to take off perpendicular to the wave. You need to paddle diagonally, along the face of the wave in the direction that it is breaking, otherwise, u will 'pearl'(nose dive). Also, especially on relatively steep waves, u need to be up & on ur feet fast, so u can turn the board. That when u shift ur weight, but not while lying down, but by putting ur weight on u back foot.
Surfing is not as easy at it looks, especially to snow or skateboarders, who assume their good sense of balance is all they need. Get somebody to watch u in the water, & be prepared to spend a good deal of time working on it. You will get. Good luck

PUT 1 FOOT ON THE TRACKTION PAD AND ONE FOOT IN THE MIDDLE. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A TRACTION PAD JUST MAKE OUT WHERE IT IS.

keep practicing that is all l can say, you might ask some other guys to check it out

take off at a angle and yank the hardest bottom turn you can. trust me. this is the key. Make sure you are not standing to far forward. This phenomenon you are experiencing is called ''pearling''. get used to it. it will happen but you will learn how to avoid it most of the time.