That's a control issue that has little to do with your hight. Any time you loose forward momentum while leaned over you loose the centripital force that is keeping the bike balanced. If you have the room, you need to not panic and get the bike upright before you brake. Or be more aware and causious to avoid having to stop right after taking off. This could still happen on a lower lighter bike. You just have more leaverage to recover from the mistake with a foot down. But it is still a mistake on your part in taking off before fully sure of possible obsticles.
Yeah, that is what I think. While he may have been able to recover on a shorter, lighter bike it still is a sign of a habit that he should work on breaking.
As we all have been saying practice in a parking lot is the best bet. I would still highly encourage a MSF course probably ERC in your case but if you don't have a lot of time on a bike the BRC could be beneficial as well. The difference is that in the basic course you are on their bikes which are small 250cc bikes. The ERC will be done on your bike where the instructor can see what you are doing and maybe give you things to work. The 250cc bikes, while smaller, still use the same core techniques that you need to work on.
I think you would find that most people that have had a tip over have had it happen in a parking lot or in a situation like that. For me I pulled to a stop and was going to back into a parking spot. My foot slipped on some sand when I went to push the bike back and down it went. I knew I wasn't going to save it right away so I let it go.
As for stopping proper technique is to shift to 1st as you are coming to a stop, and lower your left foot to stabilize the bike. This way you keep your foot in the rear brake, are in the proper gear to accelerate if you need to avoid being rearended or whatever. Of course the situation will dictate how you do this. Sometimes the ground may not be level so it is better to put the right foot down to keep the bike vertical. As for starting out the tire should always be straight even if making a right turn you shouldn't be so far out in the intersection that you have to immediately turn before building speed. In most cases you need to get through the pedestrian area before turning. So, build speed while going straight and then initiate the turn.
I also did a lot of practicing with the 1300 when I got it in a parking lot. Though the transition wasn't bad because the 1100 and 1300 are pretty close. It is still important to build a good base of skills before practicing too much. I was lucky because I not only got into an ERC course right after getting my 1300 but with the exception of 1 or 2 bikes they were all ST1100s or ST1300s and the main instructor is a member here that rides a ST1300 so he could give pointers a little more directed to our bike specifically though the core skills that are worked on are the same with all bikes.
I guess my main concern is that while practicing is good, it doesn't help to practice a bad technique because it will be even harder to break it later if you take a course.
I should mention that the ERC class isn't that expensive. I think about $75 or so. It is 1/2 day. Also you are going through several drills in the course, all of which are optional. If there is anything you are not comfortable in doing you can pass on it. For instance the figure 8 is one that people may be the most hesitant about doing. I was a little nervous but was able to easily pull it off in the smaller box for the small bikes.