Surfing Waves

I have always had issues paddling out to the waves. My shoulders get exhausted after 5 mins of paddling. I see all of these people paddling all over the place, But I am just totally beat by the time I make it past the second break, if I can even make it out there.
Am I doing something wrong? maybe I just have weak shoulder muscles?
I used to play a lot of baseball, so you would think not.

Muscle development can be very sport specific. Paddling is more aerobic (eg jogging) than an anaerobic (power/sprinting) activity. Its also not an action that is very normal eg walking is close to running, but nothing you do in your daily life is close to paddling. So basically you are trying to do something your muscles aren't built for doing. No different to trying to pitch if you haven't done it for 3 months - first few pitches and sore arms; 2 months later and you are firing down 100 pitches in a game.

There are four (and a half) issues here:

1. fitness - comes from surfing, comes from swimming (the closest non surfing activity) and there are various gym workouts you can do it you want focusing on surfing muscles. Also, any aerobic fitness activity (jogging, cycling, rowing whatever) will have some cross over, but you still need to get the right muscles fit. Main issue.

2. technique. Make sure you aren't, for example, paddling really wide (hands away from the board) because that puts a lot of strain on your shoulders. Hands should come down very close to the board; most of the power should come from your upper back/lats not your shoulder muscles. Google for some more specific advice.

3. injury or should restriction. Lots of baseballers have shoulder injuries or lax ligaments etc. You could just be exacerbating an underlaying problem you never knew existed.

4. warm up - check out some dynamic stretching to do pre surfing. Hitting the water cold just exacerbates all other pain and can cause injury

4.5 - wetsuit? If your wetsuit is too tight across the shoulders, then it can pull the shoulders into a bad position and cause pain

Other than 3 you should be able to sort these out, if it exists, might require some rehab exercises or specialist attention. Getting fit just takes time and effort; technique can make changes immediately, so start with focusing on that and warming up properly

When I meet someone who says they "surf", I always check one muscle to verify that claim. There's some posers that go to a tanning both and lift weights to make them look like a surfer. They think big biceps or chest makes them look like a surfer. But every real surfer I know has developed this certain muscle. It's not the shoulders but very close. * note * If you don't have a good paddle technique, this muscle doesn't develop.

I would say you are windmill paddling with cupped hands. And that's why you get tired so fast.

Now I'm intrigued. Lats or traps are my guesses. Back muscles anyway.

I just paddle one hand at a time, arms bent 90 degrees.

bowman316 wrote:I just paddle one hand at a time, arms bent 90 degrees.

no bloody wonder, do you swim like that? Can you swim?
stroke; reach out towards the nose of your board like it is the centre line pull straight back with good arm depth in the water like a freestyle swimming stroke pull your arm up as you would in finishing a freestyle stroke then repeat as needed.
Do not flare your hands or arms out to the side, you lose drive doing that.
develop a rhythm and glide to your paddling and get on your board so the nose is no more than an inch/ 25 mm from the water.
Playing baseball gives you nothing towards surf muscle

"Playing baseball give you nothing towards surf muscle"

I think he found that out quickly.

You get out of it what you put into it....I was a soccer player in a former life and we used to run laps for a half hour to warm up for a training session then cool down after with windsprints and more laps....but that's not playing soccer you say?

The analogy works.

waikikikichan wrote:When I meet someone who says they "surf", I always check one muscle to verify that claim. There's some posers that go to a tanning both and lift weights to make them look like a surfer. They think big biceps or chest makes them look like a surfer. But every real surfer I know has developed this certain muscle. It's not the shoulders but very close.

My guess is that one that connects the pecs to the shoulder...the one with a big dimple on top....lift up your arm to the side and it will pop out.

Im a decent swimmer, but my swimming stroke is a lil different then my surfing stroke. thats some good advice.

When i swim, I have to turn my head side to side, i can't keep my face down in the water, and only come up to 1 side for air. I have to move my head to both sides. which makes me dizzy after a while.

I think if you want to build the right muscles paddling a board is a great way to do it. Perhaps you just need to go surf more often. Can you swim a mile? You can build your muscles by swimming more. If you swim in a pool then workout one day doing sprints, swim one lap as fast as you can then rest (till you aren't winded) and swim another lap as fast as you can and keep doing this. The next day you just swim the whole time without stopping as far as you can go. Of course this would be in a pool with lifeguards for safety. Another thing you can do is weights. Get a set of dumbells of different sizes start witht a light weight and work your way up. With one dumbell in each hand lay on your back and extend your arms over your head then arc your arm straight up and down to your waist then back up and over to top of your head. Depending on your motivation do sets of 10 or 15 and repeat them. Then stand and bend at your waist leaning over and place the dumbellls on the ground then pull them back up so they are parallel to your leaning over body. The first exercise gets the muscles that pull down and the second set gets the muscles that finish the swim stroke. Do also shoulder lifts by standing with the weights in hand and lift your shoulders then drop them. Do some other execises to strengthen the rest of your arm muscles. Or you could join a gym and use the various machines they have.

bowman316 wrote:I just paddle one hand at a time, arms bent 90 degrees.

My surfboard paddle stroke is quite similar to my swimming stroke. If you are saying you paddle keeping your arms at a 90 degree angle then that seems very inefficient. I reach all the way forward and pull back under the board and arms are close to 90 degree angle only in the middle portion of the paddle. If your elbow is out of the water when you paddle you are doing it wrong. It's difficult to tell exactly what you are saying.

Big H wrote: My guess is that one that connects the pecs to the shoulder...the one with a big dimple on top....lift up your arm to the side and it will pop out.

Deltoid

But shoulders shouldn't be too involved; your back is stronger and more powerful. At least that's my view

Of course, I can do 15 pull ups and will be out paddled by a frequent surfing person who can only do 2 pull ups. Or none.

I don't think you can isolate a group of muscles specific to surfing but perhaps some are better developed with surfing however in paddling the more muscles you bring to bear upon your arms the stronger your paddling will be so using the back muscles and the muscles that suspend the shoulder blade and the muscles of the shoulder and upper arm will probably all add up to stronger paddling.

I went out "surfing" today. There were no waves at all, so i Just paddled around. I acted like I was swimming, instead of paddling, and I could feel a small difference. I could paddle for longer periods of time. No one has ever told me that before.

Swimming a mile! that sounds a lil extreme. My problem with swimming long distances is that I cant figure out how to only bring my head up to one side. My head goes left and right with each stroke. I can't keep my head in the water, and only bring it up for air. I can't breath in the amount of time that my head is above the water. So the way I swim, I get dizzy after a long swim.

I used to swim a mile in the pool in an hr session, not sure I could do it now, probably! But the thing is it was all breaststroke, I was never any good at crawl. Now when I get tired I often do a butterfly kind of stroke on my board, it's actually massively effective! Maybe not butterfly but it's using your arms like two oars..I love it because most of my power is in my shoulders I think.

I wish there was a way to use my legs while surfing. Seems like such a waste, to not use your biggest muscles.

When I was in the 7th grade I swam a mile in about 20 minutes without any specific training although I was on the swim team and we swam more than a mile to warm up (I never swam a mile in a contest or trained for it) It was for Boy Scouts to get Mile Swim merit badge. I am not really sure how far I can swim now but figure at least a mile (but it will take me longer). I think the majority of surfers I know can swim a mile at least

I did that test in Boy Scouts too...never had swam near that distance but just jumped in the lake and did it....later that year at the public pool I decided that I was going to swim as far as I could from the start of the period until the pool clearing break (each hour the pool was cleared for 10 min, so 50min...I remember I swam 72 lengths (25m x 72)...never tried it again.....13 was a good age wasn't it?

I was on the swim team and our coach had us swim 80 laps (20 freestyle, 20 backstroke, 20 breaststroke and 20 butterfly except for me I didn't do butterfly so I did 20 more freestyle) to warm up before we did sprints. We did this every day. Mile swim was a piece of cake. I don't know about 13, gosh I was so messed up back then LOL Every age was a good age LOL

I just tried to swim laps in the pool today. I did 2 laps in a 50 ft pool, I was ready for a short break after that. 2 mins later i did 1 backstroke lap, and 2 breast stroke laps. I don't think I am doing the breast stroke right, I never learned the butterfly. But I would be terrified if I was in the ocean, with no flotation, and I was trying to swim a mile. I would drown after 200 ft. I need that surfboard to rest on.