Crazy bad days in my surfing

[Thedudeabides]

So i've had this problem in my surfing for a long time, i've been surfing for just over 7 years and i currently live in Jeffreys Bay South Africa,
but i've had this problem that consistently keeps coming up.
About one third or more of my surfs are so bad that sometimes i can't even stand up on my board, which is very worrying because i'm at an advanced level of surfing and on my good days i can do big fin free turns and i have no problem getting barrelled.
I don't know any surfers that have that same problem to such extremity and i can't find any explanations anywhere, people say they are just bad days, but bad days that go from a high level of surfing to complete kook and so often ??

I'm just wondering if this happens to any of you guys ?? or if you know anything about it, i've been struggling with it for so long that it's getting frustrating.

[oldmansurfer]

If you could describe the problem a little more. What happens when you try to stand on your board? This isn't because you're drunk or something like that? (my first thought) How often do you surf? What kind of board do you use? Are the waves at Jeffreys Bay so good all the time? Does it happen when the waves are good?

[carmelite]

I'm kind of laughing

Never surfed J-bay (I live in California) but it's a wave that I imagine to be damn near perfect. It just sounds weird to hear you say you have so many bad days there. Definitely go into more detail about the problem. Besides drinking (I thought that too!), do you have any actual hang ups when you paddle out? Fear of anything? It honestly sounds more a mental thing than a physical one. It sounds like you can surf fine.

[Thedudeabides]

It's a really weird problem because it happens regardless of the waves, the waves can be absolutely perfect and it still happens,
I surf a lot, usually 2-3 times a day every day, but taking a break doesn't solve it, it's not a problem with my pop-up either, because i've done advanced coaching and that's all pretty fine,
It's like, on a bad day, my whole judgement of the waves is off, i trip on my board when getting up or my feet are completely out and all my normal wave riding is completely impaired.

[carmelite]

That sounds like you might be over thinking everything and putting too much stress and pressure on yourself while you're out there--a type of performance anxiety. I've never had that in surfing because I'm so relaxed when I'm out there, but I've certainly experienced it in other sports. Actually, when I was learning to skateboard I would have that pretty often. When I was skating by myself in a parking lot or at a ramp early in the morning when no one around I was fine--pretty good to be honest--but as people started showing up I began to get anxious or nervous or self-conscious or whatever and would start to look like a flat out beginner. I could feel it too. My body wasn't loose. I would start thinking about what I was doing instead of just doing it. Now that I think back, that period was actually really frustrating. It took a while to get through it but I finally did. Though you don't describe nervousness or tension, the end result is exactly what I went through with skating and I know for me it was certainly anxiety related--started messing up, got on myself and messed up more until the whole session was ruined. In skating, I think an underlying fear of smacking the concrete may have played into it as well.

[Thedudeabides]

That sounds like a pretty good explanation although i'm not nervous or tense but i get really frustrated when i'm having a bad day,
A good example is the other day i was surfing supers with kolohe andino and corey lopez and a couple of other guys, where my surfing would normally of been lifted thanks to the high level of surfing, instead i was constantly tripping over my board and surfing like an absolute kook, i've tried to get over it but it's been over 5 years and it's hard,
surfing alone does seem to help so much, but sometimes even alone i have this problem
i've been surfing way too long and trained way to hard to be surfing like this.

[oldmansurfer]

well I am so jealous of you both for having such good waves and getting to surf with such great surfers and getting to surf 2 to 3 times a day. Perhaps it is a bit of what they call "self fulfilling prophecy". That is where you think something is going to happen and because you do you make it happen. Maybe you have trouble on a wave and then you think "OH no! Not this again." And because you think you are having a problem you do have a problem. The way out is to tell yourself to ignore it and just surf. Focus on surfing and don't worry about how well you are doing.

[KoolCook]

Well..I am still a kook...and I have "bad days" like that when I just can't get anything going....and end up catching maybe 2-3 waves in 2 hours....and just give up.

But I do have awesome days where I catch 10 waves in an hour...

[Thedudeabides]

Yeahh but that's easier said than done supers is like a gladiator area, it's a place where every surfer feels pressure when they surf, and jeffreys bay is a pretty overrated wave, mega crowded and really fickle, it needs perfect swell direction to work properly. Surfing with kolohe was cool, but Corey Lopez was riding one of those wavejet things and being a pain in the ass, those things are cheating.
I still don't understand how i can go from shredding and being able to keep up with high level surfers, to not even being able to stand.
crowds and being tired can set it off sometimes but i usually don;t know how it comes about.

[oldmansurfer]

I ran into that problem at some point. I didn't start surfing on a surfboard till I was 18. All my friends who surfed did so from much younger but I used to body surf and paipo board fairly large waves so I quickly went out into bigger and bigger surf. I lacked the confidence surfing that I had paipo boarding. The other surfers used to make fun of me because on larger days I would stay well ahead of the break when six months earlier I would be paipo boarding and getting deeply tubed at the same break same sized waves. I would get flustered trying to surf well and it would snowball to where I didn't do well on any wave. Eventually I realized I was doing it to myself and I just got angry and channeled that aggression into focusing on my surfing and the waves and I quit worrying about what others thought of my surfing. I know surfing grabs us all for different reasons. For most of my life it has had nothing to do with others although it started with others I became a solo surfer mostly. I wanted to surf with others but mostly couldn't find people to go with me so I just went anyway. Now I surf mostly by myself and never with a friend other than those I meet by accident in the water. I guess for most people surfing is about sharing the waves with a friend or three. Some surfers want to be the best or do something they haven't done yet, a bigger wave, deeper or longer tube or a more radical maneuver. You might just look at why you are surfing and try to stay focused on that.

[drowningbitbybit]

At least you're realistic about where the problem is. I hear so many guys - always guys - blaming their board, the waves, the crowd, their fins, their choice of boardshorts, but the problem is completely internal.
I don't have a problem to the level you're describing, but I certainly have more days when it just doesn't come together than I'd like, and it's all to do with my own headspace.
Oldmansurfers term "self-fulfilling prophecy" is certainly true too. If I look at the waves (or more often the crowd) and think "oh, this isn't going to be fun" it just doesn't work out

The only thing I can suggest to get round it is to stop whenever it happens, change something and then start again. Rather than making it worse by going through the same thing over and over again, get out the water, take a break, and then get back in at a different peak, or with a different board, or take a drive down the road and surf a completely different wave. Break the cycle by changing something and then concentrating on that rather than on the problem.

[benjl]

As a random side question- are the days were you don't perform consecutive or how do they disperse with days when you are on your game?
Perhaps you are over-training or getting fatigued some days but trying to go hard surfing anyway and so your mental-physical connection is slightly off causing uncoordinated days?
you say that you're surifng 2-3 times a day everyway which is a hell of a lot.. for any sportsman to be doing that kind of training! I used to be a world ranked badminton player and also trained twice a day almost everyday for years but my performance would be average unless I also had enough sleep and rest for my body and brain to recover back to its peak.

I've only started surfing this year but for most of the 6 months or so doing it, have been going 3-5x a week. Some days when I went really frequently day after day with no rests or down time I would have a bad day and just be a bit sh*t all round.

Just a thought

[benjl]

Another random, almost silly but plausable reason..

Your feet- is there a chance you do something in your day job or perhaps wear a certain shoe with bare feet that may put some sort of residue on your feet which would slip on the wax on the surfboard?
Do you wax your surfboard enough to always have grip under your feet?

if your pop up technique is fine and you can do it perfectly but can't even get up on to the board sometimes than maybe its something to do with feet or grip etc.

I don't know how in-tuned you are with yourself but go through the list of variables that are constant on days that work and days that don't and see which ones you only be happening on your bad days? Change of board, change of wave, something negative thats happened in the day, physical / mental well being etc etc.
A few more ideas anyway

[Thedudeabides]

Nah my feet and wax are fine, but i think benji hit on something, mental physical causing uncoordination, that's how it feel totally uncoordinated,
Here it's almost impossible to surf by yourself anywhere, anytime, every single surf break is packed all the time.
And fatigue does add to it, but i cannot see a pattern

[jaffa1949]

Just a medical type question which is serious not joking! Does it happen that you go uncoordinated at any other time?

[BaNZ]

Are you trolling us?

[Thedudeabides]

Nahh i don't go uncoordinated any other time but it does happen sometimes with other sports, no i'm not trolling you guys it's serious.
Actually today was a massive relief, i watched adriano de souza surf today and then i was frothing to go surfing and i had the best surf i've had in months, like it used to be on a good day but my surfing will probably just go back into a slump.

[oldmansurfer]

So are going to be check out the J-Bay contest? I would be jealous of that but it's all online now. I am watching Pico Alto now.

[Thedudeabides]

Actually i'm also working at the contest, john john, gabriel and de souza have arrived in town and i see them around a fair bit, i had a nice chat with adriano today.
Watching them surf here just shows you why the pros are pros, they make us "good" surfers look like beginners.

[oldmansurfer]

Ok so now I am jealous LOL