Sam Pa’e, over on the Zone, has some great advice for all you flailing-and-falling-off folks just starting out; to wit:
Do you find yourself looking down at the nose of your board?
I always tell my friends "look up"……."never look down or you will go down"….Let me explain 
Keep in mind…….that your "body" will take over the balance & your mind "needs to concentrate" on what coming forward. If you decide to look down at the nose of your board, then your "mind" is telling your "body" to compensate for correction.
Now your body is already trying to do its correction. It doesn’t need a second opinion or having someone else telling him to do its job. When two people argue over something….the out come is usually not good and your mission has failed……
This works for me……. 
This is WITHOUT DOUBT the best advice I have ever read. I didn’t even realize that I was staring intently at the nose of my board…even
when I was falling in!
So today, in Malibu, (a big seal was zooming
back and forth under my board), I looked up
that the pier, the horizon, anything but my board..>WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT !!!
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE SUGGESTION!!
AL
SANTA MONICA