Surfing Waves

Hello All:

Never surfed while living back in Indiana. I have moved to Palm Coast, FL and figure I better find a hobby. So surfing popped into my head. I love the beach, love the water and love being outside. Surfing seems like the obvious way to combine all three.

My concern is my fitness. I have read various things about being new to surfing and one of the main things I keep reading is that I will need to be in shape. Is this something that comes with time and surfing experience, or should I get in shape before I ever try and take a lesson? I don't want to waste money on a lesson if I'm gonna waste half my day sucking air on the beach. I'm 5'11" and 155lbs. Don't do much by way of exercise, aside from walking the beach or other mundane stuff.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice from the site so far, and thanks ahead of time for your thoughts/opinions!

-Ben

Welcome Ben , the better shape you are in before you hit the water the better chance you have of an easier introduction to surfing!
Being in better shape ensures your quality of life improves.
What have you got to loose except that extra weight, invest in your health then go surfing.

BTW, you will waste a lot of time and it will change your life , but if you think it a hobby, think again, you will spend a lot of time just learning to become basically capable.

Surfing is fun enjoyment and natural, you might just find that and go beyond hobby!

Thanks Jaffa. Spoke to a guy at the beach and he pointed out that unlike running, if you get wore out in the ocean, you cant sit down and rest. In his words, "The ocean doesnt care about your limits. The waves keep coming." Kind of dark, but nonetheless, spot on.

Like all activities, the fitter you are the easier the activity and the quicker you will progress. However, surfing is a somewhat unusual sport because the main actions are not day to day actions eg running is just walking faster and we all walk every day; but paddling and pop ups (getting to your feet) are not things people do day to day. Thus you need to take specific action to improve.

That said, I reckon there are 'three levels' of surfing

1. lessons - this is where you are in shallow water and under supervision. You dont really need any level of fitness for this but you do need some basic level of mobility ie you have to get from laying on your stomach to your feet (pop up). When done properly this is a one move action, but you can start off with two moves (eg stomach - back foot up - front foot up) or even three (knee-front foot-back foot). The last arent ideal but its enough to get you started and as you get more mobile you can do it properly. You will also need to be able to do a body weight squat so your thighs are parallel to the ground.

If you can do both those things, you can do lessons - of course, you will (and everyone does) end up with sore shoulders, arms, back, legs, exhausted and smiling. If you are really unfit - all you have done for 10 years is sit at a desk - then you may only be able to do a lesson for a short while, but you can still do it.

So, basically, go and do lessons now, dont get fit to do lessons.

2. starting out on your own - once you arent supervised, you are responsible for your own safety. This means you need to be able to paddle around competently (keeping out of the way of others) and - most importantly - be able to swim to safety if you lose your board (leg rope breaks). Swimming in the wave zone is much harder than swimming in a pool. My rule of thumb - completely unscientific - is that you need to be able to pool swim approx 10X as far as the distance you surf off land. eg on a typical beach break you are 50-100m off the beach, you need to be able to swim 500-1000m in a pool without stopping (doesnt have to be fast, just continual). This is purely safety related but, of course, being able to swim helps paddling which helps your surfing, so there are multiple benefits.

You will build up some of this fitness from your basic learning to surf, paddling around the white water. But ideally you should make a conscious effort to join a pool and do some laps. You can also get this fitness by just paddling a lot on your board.Note that plenty of surfers cant meet my criteria and they surf, and if you only surf with other people around you then potentially you can always get assistance. But I still reckon you should be responsible for your own safety.


3. surfing 'proper' - here we are talking fitness for the sake of improving your sport, just like improving your running to help with football or whatever. Not essential, as you have the basic fitness required to do the activity, but the fitter you are the more you can surf, the less tired you get, the more power you have to catch waves and so forth, the more you can improve, the more fun you have.

Strength training is also useful, although surfers arent necessarily the most powerful types (look at gabriel medina for example). But basic push ups, pulls ups, rows and squats will help everyone; along with mobility work if required. But this is down the track.


You can actually rest in the ocean - you paddle out and past where the waves are breaking and you can sit there pretty comfortably for as long as you want ('bomb' sets permitting). But you still have to get back in somehow!

Anyway, start now, do lessons. You will then discover how motivating it can be to do all that other fitness work - fitness with a goal is much better than randomn efforts