Surfing Waves

Hi, I am going on my first wave surfing vacation this summer. And I was wondering if there are any good exercises to increase my strength so that I wont get tired of paddling too soon.

Swimming would be a good way of excercising, or anything that works your shoulders and arms ! Good luck !

Merchz wrote:....so that I wont get tired of paddling too soon.

You WILL get tired paddling very quickly.

There really isnt an exercise that mimics paddling very well, so its hard to train for. Swimming is the best.
And do some weights (high rep stuff - you want stamina, not bulging muscles).
Lots of press ups (for the all important pop up).
And hold a light weight (or even no weight) and do a paddling action for as long as you can - even without weights you'd be surprised how tiring it is.

If you go to the gym, I think the arm bike would be pretty good, like Dbbb says, not too much resistance and lots of reps! (But you still get tired...however, that's what adrenaline's for!)

Well, if you are in a gym, you can do Lat Pull downs, shoulder press, tricep extensions, arm raises.

Lat Pull down-Normaly done on a machine, so easy enough.
SHoulder press-Take two weights, one in each hand, sit in a chair or something with a relativley straight back peice, start with your hands just above your shoulder, and press up.

Tricep extensions- Hold a single wight in both hands above and behind your head. Now extend your arms straight up.

Arm Raises-Hold a weight in each hand with your amrs at your side. Keeping your arms straight(ish), raise your arms to about level with your shoulders(like flapping wings).

Other then that, swim, swim lots. Most workouts that involve your back, or shoulders will help.

Swimming is the best as everyone has said. The other part of your body that needs exercise is your legs. You need strong legs as part of a good foundation for your stance. I suggest that you either jog or skateboard for at least 30 minutes a day. This will improve your leg strenght and balance.

Try pull ups and chin ups, I know that helped me on the paddling personally. You don't even have to do that many just keep it up, I usually do like 10 pull ups and however many chin ups I can bang out which ranges from 10-30ish usually. Good luck.

I actually found this link searching the forums:

http://www.surfflex.com/bsbworkout1.htm

It's one of the best things I've seen (as is similarity to surfing). Resistance bands and a swiss ball are all pretty cheap. You should be setup for £20-30.

Before I found this I just used a swiss ball. Back extensions meant that keeping my chest off the board when paddling didn't cripple me for the next 2 days.

Another thing I do is 20 pressups then a pop up. As it's one thing popping up on fresh arms, but when do you get to do that?!

Surf when waves are 3 ft or under.
Surf when the winds and water currents are calm/light (winds under 10 mph).
Don't surf near a pier or rock formations/cliffs etc.
Don't rush and panic to frantically paddle to get outback. There is no hurry if your in small surf..small crashing waves won't hurt you and there is nothing to fear.

Instead of thinking a crash course arm/shoulder workout will solve your paddling stamina problems I suggest sticking to the above strategies and you'll enjoy yourself quite a bit more.

swimming or if you have a board or a pool nearby just paddle around the pool for a while. at my neighborhood pool when it storms and no onees there but the life guard whos our friend we have a canoe hidden in the woods and we ussually take like scooters skateboards old bikes, surfboards, kayaks etc. and we just mess arond and eat the food in the consession stand

youre not hawaiian. where is tybee isle?

Tybee is in Georgia

drowningbitbybit wrote:

Merchz wrote:....so that I wont get tired of paddling too soon.

You WILL get tired paddling very quickly.

There really isnt an exercise that mimics paddling very well, so its hard to train for. Swimming is the best.
And do some weights (high rep stuff - you want stamina, not bulging muscles).
Lots of press ups (for the all important pop up).
And hold a light weight (or even no weight) and do a paddling action for as long as you can - even without weights you'd be surprised how tiring it is.

+1 to this.

tomato3000 wrote:I actually found this link searching the forums:

http://www.surfflex.com/bsbworkout1.htm

That first one looks like a recipe for fleshin' disaster!!!!

Thaya - Don't even think about it!

Stone Fox wrote: Thaya - Don't even think about it!

don't worry, I can't exercise right now cuz my shoulder's too bad... but I agree with you, I'd probably accidently strangle myself or something!!!

Looking at that picture made me imagine the swiss ball slipping and the bungees pinging him head first into the metal bars!¬