Surfing Waves

I dont know if any of you may had this "problem", but when i got to surf any wave, right when i stand up in the surfboard, i start getting too much adrenaline and i start breathing fast and start driving fast down the line, maybe its the emotion of surfing, but my question is..... this is normal in surfing?? or, in order to keep progressing i have to calm down and pay more attention to the sections of the wave and stuff?

You could be picking your nose and whistling dixie if you want to. But is the board doing what it's suppose to do ? If yes, then you're fine. Are you blowing past sections of the wave or flying off the shoulder ? Then maybe you need to listen to the wave more. If you're bouncing up and down to Punk when the music playing is Classic, it's gonna seem out of place. But there's guys that swing their arms a lot ( like me since I liked Martin Potters style ) and guys who have a calm approach. But what is the board doing ?

Adrenaline is your body's reaction to something that is 'stressing' it. If you are not used to surfing, or not used to the wave etc, then that is how your body reacts. For example, you may feel almost bored surfing waist high waves but have adrenaline coming out your ears in double overhead - simply because one is something you are used to, the other isn't. Even if your mind is saying one thing, your body is saying 'this is different, this is strange, I might need to do something, need to be ready for it'.

Its the same in pretty much everything you do. First time you drive a car at 100km/h you are gripping the wheel very tightly and tense up; after a while you end up one arm out the window tapping along to ACDC.

However, tensing up does reduce performance - as you say, shorter breath, tense muscles, perhaps teeth grinding. You may not really be focusing or focusing really intently on only one thing. On the other hand, a bit of excitement and emotion produces the best performances.

So I would say you will calm down a bit when you get more used to surfing; but if you ever lose 'the stoke' then that is when your performance really drops off.

We used to call it the first month smile when all of my friends got motorcycles as teens. Sure as anything, that first month on a bike the new rider couldn't stop smiling...just downshifting into a turn was a rush....

Adrenalin is your friend in surfing. I bet the majority of top level surfers are adrenalin junkies. There are different responses to fear, flight or fight is what they say adrenalin does to you but in reality some people respond to fear by freezing like a deer in the headlights. This is not helpful but if you can get yourself into the fight mode or flight mode then it will help you. When I get scared by something surfing everything goes into slow motion so it seems like I have lots of time to respond. I tend to make my best decisions and very quickly. I tend not to make any mistakes so the more scared I am the less likely I will wipeout. I think what you are describing is good. I am a beleiver that you should learn to go fast first so your fear is driving you to go fast which is good. After a while what makes you afraid will change and you can go slower in the same situation. That is the safest way to learn to surf. Stay safe. If you push yourself to change just do little steps, don't try to make radical changes. More time in the water and things will change.

Adrenalin can sharpen your senses if you welcome it instead of fight it...."Junkies" crave it....not always a bad thing....got to get the breathing under control though, short shallow breaths will dull everything (lack of O2) and incline towards panic....also not a good situation to be in should you wipe out and be under for a few seconds if you enter the water in a state of O2 depravity....

Panic is not good but adrenalin is good