Surfing Waves

I surf a lot more now in 18-20C water. It's still pretty cold for my standard because I learnt surfing in Taiwan where it can be 28C+ water.

I'm wearing a 3/2 wetsuit during the summer and I still feel a bit cold. If I stay in the water for 2-3 hours, after coming out I always feel cold the whole day so I need to go in the sun and warm myself up.

On the second day, my body is just aching everywhere. It also feels like I'm having a fever and my wife says she my body temperature is a lot higher and always ask if I'm running a fever. I usually feel super exhausted on the second day. I'm wondering if this is due to muscle fatigue and exhaustion? Perhaps I'm pushing myself too hard? I haven't surfed two days in a row for probably more than two years and I did it last weekend. It took me 3 days to recover the muscle aches.

Anyone else have similar issue? I know muscle ache is normal, but it's weird that my body temp is always high on second day.

I am not a doctor however it's possible you are suffering from a mild case of rhabdomyolysis. Do you have dark urine? I would check my temperature prior to surfing to be sure your body temp isn't just set high. Probably a consult with a doctor would be good if you are having dark urine. If not then maybe exercise induced hyperthermia might explain the temp.

Oh right, I thought it might be normal for surfers staying in cold water to experience something like this. As I guess it's hard for the body to regulate the temperature. I don't have any dark urine but I'll start monitoring my temp before and after.

Rhabdomyolysis is the destruction of muscles caused by over exertion and high body temperature. Maybe try surfing without a wet suit LOL Just kidding Normally when you exercise your temperature goes up but comes down once you are done. So I guess the first thing is if your temperature is going up or are you normally higher temperature. It could be some metabolic thing that is happening due to muscle trauma but I can't find anything like that using google. Get a thermometer and see what your real temperature is (not skin or ear drum temperature) Quite often skin temperature does not reflect core temperature for a variety of reasons. Rhabdomyolysis happens often in fat Labrador bird dogs in the beginning of bird season. they hunt in mid day or for long periods of time without water breaks and are overweight and out of shape from not exercising in the off season. Doesn't sound like that because the giveaway is red/brown urine. The red color is from myoglobin released by the destruction of muscle tissue. Myoglobin is the oxygen holding chemical from muscle tissue similar to hemoglobin in blood. While this may be interesting it doesn't sound like your problem. Most likely you are just overdoing it.

The physiological signs of overtraining include chronic fatigue, chronic muscle soreness, increase in body temperature, elevated blood pressure, increased frequency of headaches, upper respiratory infections and a suppressed immune system.

https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/v6aw3U ... ining.html

Ok, so you arent overtraining as such, as that involves a longer period. However, you can definitely 'overexert' just from one or two days of effort and get short term symptoms.

My suggestion is to stop surfing as soon as you start feeling tired, come in - sure you dont get that extra 30 minutes or whatever, but the next day you can do 2 hours again and the day after. So you have 3x2hr sessions, instead of 3 hours, 2 hours, 3 days off.

Also if you arent doing something regularly/exercising regularly, then DOMS is a factor as well.

BaNZ wrote:As I guess it's hard for the body to regulate the temperature.

That's it. It is incredible, how much energy it takes your body to maintain that 36° (or something Fahrenheit) in a cold(er) environment. Although not beeing a doc, I'm sure you constantly beeing cold encances the symptoms of said overtraining by quite a lot, even though you're surfing for 2 hours instead of running a marathon.

Have you tried a 4/3 wetsuit? Wearing a wetsuit and beeing cold still means that the wetsuit's too thin, at least in my book...
My body doesn't have a lot of...umm, humanly insulation and I'm wearing a 4/3 the whole year surfing Europes Atlantic (no surfing in July/August though, where you can get away with Boardshorts in Southern France and further south).

Cold also decreases muscle fibre elasticity, and then the need to,stretch the neoprene constriction over your muscles to move, = more effort for result, = more fatigue and individual muscle soreness. Overdoing it is ofer an occurrence in a holiday at a tropical epic surf spot, day three spastic muscles!
That is why the pop have surf specific warm up,and cool down routines tailored to,the water temperatures, and the casual,just falls flat!

Interesting. My recent thread on injuries was trying to find out who was getting injured. I wonder if it has to do with fatigue from overexertion or lack of fitness? I imagine if you are very tired you're going to make more mistakes. Crowds of course will increase the risk because of more boards and having to take more risk in order to catch waves. Well let us know what temperatures you are achieving. I see what you were getting at. Maybe being cold for a while causing hypothermia your body might overreact with hyperthermia? I have no clue because I haven't been in cold water enough to say anything.

I'm probably close to underweight at 136 pounds and 5'6. 62kg and 172cm. My only exercise consist of surfing 2 times a week. Which I thought this is more than enough as I'm getting close to the big 40. Each session range between 1-3 hours longer. As I mentioned in a previous post from years ago, my diet consist a lot of junk food. Mcdonalds 2-3 times a week.

I usually start my surf day with a chocolate or almond croissant with a cup of cold brew. By the end of my surf session my stomach acid is insanely high so I need to take tum antacid. Lunch, it's usually pokebowl or in n out or some type of burger. Then another can of redbull to keep me awake for the hour drive home. Then by 5-6pm, I would be craving for food due to overexerting myself. Most likely binge on steak, korean bbq or more raw fish. Second day I would just avoid doing anything as my muscles are aching.

What I gathered from the comments is that I should wear a thicker wetsuit if I'm feeling cold. I would like to point out that there are other surfers without wetsuit so I definitely have a lower tolerance to cold water than them. I should also keep my session a little shorter, maybe 1 to 1.5 hour and instead of 2x week, make it 3x a week. I know if I surf 1 hour, then I'm usually fine the second day. If I surf 2 hours or more and I push myself, the second day my body struggles to regulate the temp and I feel crap the whole day.

oldmansurfer wrote:Interesting. My recent thread on injuries was trying to find out who was getting injured. I wonder if it has to do with fatigue from overexertion or lack of fitness? I imagine if you are very tired you're going to make more mistakes. Crowds of course will increase the risk because of more boards and having to take more risk in order to catch waves. Well let us know what temperatures you are achieving. I see what you were getting at. Maybe being cold for a while causing hypothermia your body might overreact with hyperthermia? I have no clue because I haven't been in cold water enough to say anything.

Most of my surf injuries comes from being cold or tired. It's mostly a mental thing. I recently hit the shin and got a golf ball size swelling. Simply because I did not want to submerge my body in the water so I landed on my board with my shin being the first point of contact. I also get injuries towards the end of my session because that one last wave, I push myself too hard and I take unnecessary risks picking a wave that I do not normally go on whether it's the size or the positioning.

BaNZ , please go and have a full health check..........ö things a bout your diet and need for sugar loading concern me . As does the high temperature after and fatigue states. I am not going to offer a full diagnostic guess! But I am concerned!
Pm me if you wish
jaffa

I agree with Jaffa. Get a full health check.

If memory serves you are living in San Diego which may be affected by sewage flows in the Tijuana River. (especially in the Chula Vista area) https://www.kusi.com/runoff-from-tijuana-river-closes-imperial-beach-shoreline-2/

Do you have any symptoms of exposure to sewage? https://www.sas.org.uk/water-quality/the-risks-of-mixing-with-sewage/

I bring 2gallons of hot water in the winter, by the time I get out it’s warm, it feels great to rinse and has cut down on runny noses and earaches. I actually rinse in a rubber storage container so my feet warm up

Sometimes I surf at a rivermouth and the water definitely smells like sewage where the sea meets the inland water. I always try and avoid staying in that spot for too long.

BaNZ, try wearing a sleeveless rash guard under your 3/2 wetsuit. This may be that "little extra" you need to remain warm.

I surf a lot more now in 18-20C water. It's still pretty cold for my standard because I learnt surfing in Taiwan where it can be 28C+ water.

I'm wearing a 3/2 wetsuit during the summer and I still feel a bit cold. If I stay in the water for 2-3 hours, after coming out I always feel cold the whole day so I need to go in the sun and warm myself up.

2-3 hrs. is a long time to be in the water, even in a 3/2. I surf in 14-16 C water in summer, in a 4/3, often with hood and even booties on colder days. Unless I am moving around a lot, I could be shivering after 1.5 hrs. If it's really cold or windy, I will paddle around throughout the session just to stay warm and keep the blood flowing. There's no point in sitting out in a crowded lineup, tensing up from the cold.

How's the wetsuit condition and fit? If your wetsuit is old and leaky or if it is even a little too big, that could make a huge difference in how cold or warm it is.

krustyburger wrote:How's the wetsuit condition and fit? If your wetsuit is old and leaky or if it is even a little too big, that could make a huge difference in how cold or warm it is.

The water temperature fluctuates like crazy. I don't know if this is normal for SoCal. I could be wearing a 2mm shorty one week and it's too hot but next week 3/2 and is freezing! These days I bring 2 to 3 wetsuits with me at all times. I get there and ask the other surfers after they get out of the water to see if it is cold.

It's end of summer so I'm wearing a 3/2 very leaky wetsuit with a bunch of holes. However everyone's cold tolerance is different, some of us in a wetsuit is freezing our balls off and you see plenty of surfers without a wetsuit.

I had a surf session on Thurs for 1.5 hour. Water was okay with 3/2mm. As soon as I felt like my popup was getting slow and unstable, I got out of the water and head in. My body temperature was okay and I didn't feel like crap the following day. Just very sore muscles. However it's Sat now and my muscle is still sore, I'm hoping I'll be at 100% tomorrow so I can surf!

For the past 2 weeks, I've ramped up my surfing. My body has started getting used to it and I no longer ache as much as I did and become pretty much incapacitated on the second day. I guess part of the issue was with exhaustion? I overexert myself too much.

Yesterday I also struggled really hard from surfing two days in a row. On second day I had sharp pains on my biceps when I'm sitting on the lineup. It lasted pretty much the whole 1.5 hour surf session. After every paddle, my muscles was in pain and sometimes it twitch a little. I guess I'm still not ready to surf consecutive days.

Yesterday I also struggled really hard from surfing two days in a row. On second day I had sharp pains on my biceps when I'm sitting on the lineup. It lasted pretty much the whole 1.5 hour surf session. After every paddle, my muscles was in pain and sometimes it twitch a little.

It sounds like you may be developing a paddling-related injury... so be careful. I had pretty bad shoulder pain, extending down to the tendon at the base of my bicep and rode the pain for about a year. I had to give myself 3 months of rest from surfing to recover. Lots of stretching and developing a proactive Yoga practice to strengthen tendons and increase flexibility have helped me recover full range of motion and strength. I consider myself lucky. If your muscles/ tendons ache from paddling, your body is trying to tell you something.

krustyburger wrote:If your muscles/ tendons ache from paddling, your body is trying to tell you something.

I thought it was just due to muscle rebuild process and pushing myself too hard. They always says you need to push to break the muscle down so that it will get stronger.