Surfing Waves

Being a later in life beginer of 52yo my main focus is in fitness and surfing frequency. I live in Bali and can find waves every day, but my body needs 2 or 3 days rest between surfs to stay free of injuries or sickness. So lets say I surf 2x a week.

I'm very curious how other older surfers are doing

I kitesurf whenever the wind blows. Which is currently running at about 5 times/week. 2-3 hour sessions are the norm and at the weekends i'll try and get two sessions in/day. Age 43.

KS

When the work isn't crazy and the waves are okay, about 5 times a week. A few of those sessions will be a quick hour as the sun goes down, while a couple of them will be 3 or 4 hour epics while I ought to be doing some work
Recently, the amount of surfing has damaged my shoulders so I've cut it back to 2 or 3 times a week, and an hour or so. Fitness has taken a dive, so I'm catching far fewer waves during that time too

...But shoulders are improving now, and I'll start to edge the time and number of sessions up soon

44yrs old....live in Bali...surf every day that I can when life and conditions don't get in the way.....works out to anywhere from 3x a week to daily....had a good run of 17 days in a row not too long ago....I stretch, drink lots of water, do foam rolling and get 5 dollar massages to keep the body operational. Also big on nutrition, really watch what I eat which seems to help.

What do you guys eat before or after you go surf?

Last week I decided to have a full english breakfast. Everything was fried and oily. I got in the water and felt my body was so heavy!

Dawn patrol I eat half a peanut butter and jelly or a banana....chase that with water and pocari....an hour after getting out I eat the usual grilled salmon and rice with miso soup and chilled tamago.......afternoons It is a banana (no lunch) with water and pocari then afterward something heavy on vegetables and protein, very little carbs and oil.

I started serious surfing at age 45 in Bali in 2008, surfed every day sometimes 2x a day. After that year I had to go back home to work and didn't surf for some time until I permanently moved to Bali end 2011 but from then on struggled with injuries. Age had jumped me, it seemed

In 2014 I got my fitness up to surf on a more regular basis again, but must be careful and take enough rest in between. I hope I can still turn on the frequency, if the old and worn body lets me.

At Dawnpatrol I just eat an energy bar or a banana and a cup of coffee, and a lot of water. Directly after surfing an other banana or energy bar and water, then back in the house a good breakfast.

You should try P,B&J's....Jif chunky and Bonne Maman jam......mmmmm.

I surf 30 minutes on Saturday and 30 minutes on Sunday. I am 62 well almost and I have a shoulder and a knee and a back and a hip problem. To keep all of those parts working I do daily exercises and stretching and I do dumbbells 2 times a week for strength and I hike up and down a hill (0.8 miles to the top and about 500 feet elevation) 3 to 6 times a week for cardio and I do balancing exercises 2 times a week. I try to surf for 30 minutes 2 times a week regardless of what the surf is doing. If it's knee high I am out there or if it is double overhead I am out there. For a while I tried to do SUP on the days when the surf was small but found that it is a poor replacement for paddling a board. Sometimes I surf longer than 30 minutes but I also miss some session due to work. I learned to swim in the ocean and never lived further from the beach than a 30 minute walk. I body surfed a lot as a kid and then moved to paipo boarding then started surfing after my 18th birthday. I surfed a lot then quit for 12 years then restarted originally just surfing 30 minutes a week ....slow learning at that rate. Doubled how much I surfed and doubled how quickly I relearned. I know lots of older surfers who have shoulder problems but they all keep trying till they can't. I hope to be able to keep trying for a while more

There are a few guys out at my local who are 70+ years old, and they surf every day. Most of them are on longboards, but there are several who shortboard too. There's one guy out there, about 70, skinny as a rope, grey hair and a white beard - looks like a salty old sea dog... and he surfs a skinny 6' board in double overhead waves whenever he can. He's my hero!

If there's enough swell... so anything from 1ft upwards I'll surf everyday for about 4 hours each session, sometimes 2 sessions totaling 7 hours if it's pumping. I'm 40 so I stretch up pretty well before I surf though.

I work for myself and I've got no kids or wife... that's where I find the time

Age 43 3 kids 1 wife 4 x 12h shifts/wk at the madhouse: 2 to 3 hour approach to various New England beaches, managing at least one good (3+ hour) longboard session in most of the decent swells coming through, say two to five times a month; interval swimming and trail running twice each on a good week seems to have supported slow but steady progress through a year of kook bliss. (Minus January and February when the storms bringing swell made the approach inadvisable). More fun every time.

At least two days a week, up to five days a week depending on what the waves are doing. Sometimes two sessions a day or sometimes just one long one or one short one depending on what I have going on. It's probably easier to quantify how much I surf in terms of hours rather than "times"...so probably around 8-10 hours a week on average I would say.

I'm almost 50, I surf every day if I can, especially when on vacation. The trick is to have a board for every ocassion, including exhaustion LOL. I surf a 6'1 in most conditions, my retro fish in small conditons, and belive it or not I use a 6'8 big buy board when I'm tired.

Get a bigger board, when you are tired or sore take it out and take it easier, you'll be able to surf more. Not sure if you are a longboarder, but if you are I also have an 8ft minimal cuase it's lighter than my longboard.

IB_Surfer wrote:Get a bigger board, when you are tired or sore take it out and take it easier, you'll be able to surf more. Not sure if you are a longboarder, but if you are I also have an 8ft minimal cuase it's lighter than my longboard.

I use high volume (45 and 48l) 6'6" hybrids but because I didn't surf much last few years I lack timing, what I try to compensate in muscle power. Also it's hard to control my enthusiasm when my timing has a good day, and I surf until my shoulders cramp.

Actually I was thinking of getting a longboard for the tired or sore days. U think an 8ft minimal is a better choice for that?

You'll fit right into the old man scene.....rent and try it out....also try an epoxy and a PU....they have lots to try and then you'll know what you're getting into.

Big H wrote:You'll fit right into the old man scene.....rent and try it out....also try an epoxy and a PU....they have lots to try and then you'll know what you're getting into.

Yes, plenty of boards for hire at Batu Bolong now.

When I started my Bali surf adventure in 2008 I stayed in a back room of restaurant Sol. The restaurant changed names many times since then, it's the one in front of the Sentosa project (is that open already?..) My view was Oldmans and a couple of sapi.

But then I couldn't find a good surfboard for rent, that all started there in later years. Bought a minimal 7'3" from a guy I knew, that made me miss so many perfect waves before I had some timing

I brought my BIC Natural Surf 7'9" to the island in my later years, I'm a great organiser as u can see.. That board served me so very good before on trips to Biarritz and Portugal. Also in Bali it worked perfect at Batu Bolong, makes things so easy.

Later I started renting all kinds of boards there. The thing is u need more experience to feel and understand the differences.

Now I mainly use my Addvance 6'6", I love that board. Also I'm getting better at duckdiving it. The board carries 48 liters for a big part distributed in the front half, hard to push under a 14 sec wave..

I guess my lack of fitness is next the age-thing due to troubles sleeping, a souvenir from my work in shifts. If I sleep good my body recovers good and I'm fit for surfing, if not I better skip the surfing for another day or risk injury.

Just happy to still be in the game

......so then you know the answer already

Yes, a longer, bigger, higher volume board will most likely extend your sessions and get you out in the water more frequently as there will be less downtime between sessions....I'm younger than you and I still can feel the difference between a sesh with a shorter board and with my big one.....I can't go daily with the shorter board.....I'd be worn out and wouldn't be able to work.....mixing it up with longer boards seems to make the occurrence of the tired and sore days less frequent as well as allowing me to surf on those days in spite of my slowly (and in some cases not so slowly) deprecating body systems.......

Big H wrote:......so then you know the answer already

I'm always interested in other opinions

I'm bit interested in the Firewire Submoon 8'2" http://www.firewiresurfboards.com/surfb ... id=submoon

But then again that's an expensive board and the dimensions are very close to my old BIC 7'9". Ah well, maybe I give it a testride one day..

Tudeo wrote:

Actually I was thinking of getting a longboard for the tired or sore days. U think an 8ft minimal is a better choice for that?

Honestly, I got an 8ft board because it's easier to carry, store and lug out and it performs better than my longboard, though the longboard catches more waves. It's up to you, but a minimal is cheaper and easier for me, but if you go to a longboard beach (unlike mine) the guys with the 10ft boards will get all your waves LOL