Surfing Waves

I'm on my yearly SoCal trip! Last 3 days I accumulated over 9 hours of surf time. Surf is perfect with no wind and clean glassy waist to chest.

My arms are giving up. Yesterday I was getting sharp pains on my arm during paddle. Experienced some twitching on the muscle between my elbow and wrist. This is also possible made worse by carrying my son which is over 22 pounds. I think I'm going to surf again today then rest for the next day.

When would I know if I'm pushing myself too hard and might be causing damage? I've been treating myself good with the food. Eating lots of greens, plenty of water, no alcohol and generally eating bigger portions of light food.

If you have have any tips on recovering faster during a surf trip, do let me know!

You are pushing too hard. When it's good I often stay out for 3-4 hours in a day and also pay the price. At my age, rest and stretching are the only cures for too much water time.

Excited to hear about your son. Didn't know he'd arrived or weigh 22 pounds. Congrats!

yeah, you can exhaust yourself. I found that surfing until I started feeling tired, rather than until I was actually exhausted, means I can continue to surf every day. But a couple of days of pushing past the limit and about day 3 it hits you. I used to surf 4 days then have to rest the 5th; now I surf slightly shorter each day but can surf every day.

BaNZ wrote: Yesterday I was getting sharp pains on my arm during paddle. Experienced some twitching on the muscle between my elbow and wrist.

Don't cup your hands. Relax your fingers.

I love 3 hour sessions, but I've never done 3 of them in a row!

What spots are you surfing at?

Only brought my phone so keeping the replies brief. I surf at San O for 3 days in a row and 30mins at Dana point today. Tomorrow it might be San O or Dana point. We've not decided yet. Hoping to catch some waves with Bill.

Storm is bringing some nice swell to the west coast. Let's hope I have recover enough energy with my 30 min session today.

I've been reading some articles in that the experiments has shown that ice pack usage within 24 hours speedup recovery.

Unless you were semi pro, in most other sports you wouldn’t usually train and play that much.

I guess surfing is different to say rugby, football or cycling in that the activity isn’t constant (unless the paddling is constant due to rips or wind) but the whole take off and turning process is pretty explosive, and places some fairly unusual stresses on the body (especially if you do a sedentary job).

I find that after 3 sessions (e.g. 2 one day, one the next) I generally have to pass on the fourth unless there is a day in between to rest, otherwise my back starts complaining. Then again if I was on a surf holiday with perfect glassy conditions I would probably ignore my back and then pay for it big time later!!

Banz,
I'm super jealous! I grew up in those areas but didn't start surfing until I moved to the Atlantic. I want to go! To be honest I would probably end up spending so much time in there I wear my body out too.

I find I need to find my sweet spot. Surf too much my shoulders kill me, too little and I lose paddle fitness and my shoulders kill me. Then I have to balance that with the fact I work a physical job outdoors.
I’m 41 and I just don’t recover from exercise as quickly these days. Recovery time is key for me.

BaNZ wrote:Only brought my phone so keeping the replies brief. I surf at San O for 3 days in a row and 30mins at Dana point today. Tomorrow it might be San O or Dana point. We've not decided yet. Hoping to catch some waves with Bill.

Storm is bringing some nice swell to the west coast. Let's hope I have recover enough energy with my 30 min session today.

I've been reading some articles in that the experiments has shown that ice pack usage within 24 hours speedup recovery.

Which town is a good place to stay in if one's to do a 3-4 day trip to surf SanO/DP?

ConcreteVitamin wrote:Which town is a good place to stay in if one's to do a 3-4 day trip to surf SanO/DP?

San Clemente is the closest town. There are some surf hostels. It isn't a cheap town and I work out that it the same if you just rent a campervan or RV than paying for hotel + car.

your baby is cute but fat, BaNZ, you need to put him on a diet, I've told you this LOL

all kidding aside, ice won't work very well without rest - take it easy on yourself, give yourself some rest breaks in there. if you want to push through, Aleve is good, but don't take on an empty stomach - make sure to eat something first. Also, if you're noticing cramping and twitching, you might want to up your salt intake between sessions, especially if you're drinking more water - look into the symptoms of hyponatremia... there are varying degrees of it, and I don't think you're necessarily experiencing it but you could be heading there if all you're drinking is water.

Can't wait to see pictures!!

Fat baby is cute! So I'm feeding him more.

I was having problems with the early morning surf. Coffee + pastry or burrito does not go down well. I was getting severe acid reflux and all day. Surfing 3 hours a day definitely made things worse. I normally have very high sodium intake so I should be fine.

If you seen how good the waves was, you will not be resting. It's like a 10 out of 10 every single day.

Cryocamera can help!
Epsom salt is less efficient but more available.
Anyway, 3 hour sessions are probably too much

BaNZ wrote:Fat baby is cute! So I'm feeding him more.

I was having problems with the early morning surf. Coffee + pastry or burrito does not go down well. I was getting severe acid reflux and all day. Surfing 3 hours a day definitely made things worse. I normally have very high sodium intake so I should be fine.

If you seen how good the waves was, you will not be resting. It's like a 10 out of 10 every single day.

I can't eat/drink more than a piece of toast with butter/jelly and half a coffee before early morning surfs or I get the same symptoms. And you know me, I've puked in the lineup! Last time I made it to the garbage (last week) but it was after drinking a very strong cup of coffee with no food, won't do that again. Anyway, you can try some Omeprazole (over the counter) as soon as you wake up and it will help with acid reflux, but know that it's from laying down flat on your board. When you lay down, your lower esophageal sphincter relaxes and opens, and acid creeps up from your stomach. It happens to me a lot too, though less now that I know how to eat and drink. I'm so happy you're scoring so much, great to hear - have fun!

Consult a doctor. My brother had a similar situation. Only it wasn't his arms that hurt, it was his legs. He's a basketball player. And when his legs hurt so much that he couldn't walk, he took steroids. After taking this steroid, the pain in the legs was dulled. But I advise you to see a traumatology. It's just that you may have serious problems with your ligaments or muscles. And take a break from surfing.

Ive been using a Percussion Massager (Compex Fixx Massage Gun) that works pretty well for muscle/joint recovery.
I heard about it from some of Nathan Florence vlogs about surf training/recovery. Sounds like it's a big part of his routine.
I have lots of issues with my joints and it seems to be helping me so far.
Hope things are getting better