Ask Carroll

[petulance]

Nick, would mountain biking and fast 10km runs improve my surfing?

[Nick Carroll]

petulance, from what you've explained about your surfing habits, I think what would enormously help is if you stopped mountain biking and running and spent all that recreational time in the water surfing. ALL of it.

Concentrated surfing time - hours and hours over consecutive days, weeks, and months - is the only guaranteed sure fire way of improving your surfing that I know of.

Mountain biking and running might help your lower body strength but that's useless without a well honed instinct for wave movement, a lot of board awareness and a practised technique, plus a growing understanding of your capabilities.

Indeed biking and running may well work against surfing in other ways - the ways in which muscle structures form in such sports aren't necessarily gonna fit the needs of surfing so your body might actually end up fighting itself to move well on a board.

[spork]

I've noticed that since I've made slight improvements to my general surfing ability that I now tend to stand with a more modern(?) weight on front leg, back foot tilted forwards towards the front of the board stance. I also feel I am putting more weight and stress on the front knee when I pop up, compared to the older style where weight is more evenly distributed between the feet and the body assumes the classic poo stance. After a few sessions lately Iv definitely noticed general muscles soreness in the front knee area. Will mountain biking help do you think? It is a similar motion. I will add that I've got good knees and never had issues with them. I also do squats and stair running as well as a fair bit of stretching and a smattering of yoga.

[Nick Carroll]

Nah what you have is just generic soreness. No strengthening will help it but I suggest you get even more religious about the stretching. It's definitely a more modern stance and it does work better but it puts some funny pressures on the front knee, probably affecting the iliotibial band down the outside edge of the knee. To free that up a bit, try a foam roller - it's less of a stretch than an personally enforced massage tool and it'll hurt like shit at first, but you'll immediately feel a difference.

[petulance]

Thanks for the input, Nick and spork. My original post was slightly tongue in cheek in response to the comments on fun runs in the Tangents section but I definitely appreciate the input in this thread.

I'll be getting more time in the water now that there will be more hours of daylight and I have also finished my running commitments for the year. I'll still be mountain biking though, as that is too fun to give up. Spork, the only part of mountain biking that I think will help surfing is the feel of flow and momentum on a bike. Of course, doing it on a surfboard involves completely different positions / movements but everytime I do that on a bike I am reminded of the importance of doing the same down the line on a board.

Front foot weighting is something that I have been getting better at over the last year or so. Speaking of muscle soreness, I have noticed soreness in the legs when I started skateboarding this year. Knee-wise, I have been lucky to only have suffered ITB and it has more or less gone away in the last few years.

Oh, and foam rollers definitely hurt.

[Beerfan]

I can vouch for that, my ITB is constantly sore after my drama, foam roller it often and now isn't too bad, but it can be a biatch to get looseish. The foam roller does work great though, just painful to begin with.

[offshore1]

probably most important, relax! it'll be a great few days of surf, you're gonna enjoy the shit out of it. pass on the stoke to others around you, enjoy their company etc. The rewards of it can be felt in enriched connection with your family and friends. No one ever says that about surfing but I reckon it should be a part of every surfer's life, it keeps you spiritually healthy.

Thanks, all great advice.


What about sex?

if Nick's up for it, who's to say there's anything wrong with two consenting old hodads having a roll in the hay.

[steve shearer]

gross.

Nicks balls hang down to his knees. Imagine that coming near you in a dark room.

[Nick Carroll]

with hair all over them.

[crabmeat thompson]

[steve shearer]

well I'v been trying to stick to the prescription as closely as possible. Diet has been A1.....
Sundays wipeout, headfirst on the sandbar, left me feeling a bit torqued out Mon but I surfed heavier waves and copped a lot of heavy donuts.....you know, you're surfed Big Groyne when it's raw and ragged....you can't hesitate if something comes to you when you are in the slot.
I didn't realise how much that took out of me.....felt pretty twisted up Mon, had a light yoga stretch and core workout Mon arve to try and keep the blood flowing around.
Bath and good stretch.
Poor sleep.

Felt washed out and stiff all day but spent most of it in front of the 'puter watching Chopes. Surfed after the event in windy, ragged, solid Point surf. Big paddle. I thought of your advice not to surf if tired but there was only three blokes out and really mellow local crew BS'ing in the carpark and it felt like a good idea and I thought I'd kick myself if I missed it. Lot of work for a few waves. Good times, good feelings in the water, no competition whatsoever for waves.

Haven't really grabbed hold of anything and lit it up but enjoying the hell out of uncrowded lineups with familiar, competent crew. Lot of love, nothing to prove.
Enjoying the family, feeling tender with the kids, and so grateful to be part of this hard core committed surfing community. Feeling sensitive to the beauty of the headlands, the sand flow, swell direction, wind changes, tidal pulses, marine life, moon phase.

Had a bath tonight, another good stretch, roller work. Lots of tension in the hips, buttocks and back. Worked through some of it.
Been riding a 6'9" round pin thruster by Gunther. Super friendly board that will go anywhere you want and will carve as hard as you can lean over. Could go up or down in board length tomorrow or, most likely, stick with that.
Despite how I feel tomorrow I'll paddle out because it feels so good doing it.
I'm only looking for one special wave this swell and I could be close to it, or very far away. It doesn't seem important.

[crabmeat thompson]

nc ... you seen the synoptic for saturday down your way? cape fear will be go, huh?

what are your plans?

[Nick Carroll]

that's a good place to be shearer. That's all you need. Stay a bit loose, your moods will change with each day, let it unfold and your commitment will carry you easily through

braithy, yeah it feels as if the storm is coming upon us down here, the wind was light offshore until right on dark when it ripped around to the SE without warning.

Fcuken Cape Fear, something in me resists the marketing re naming of a surf spot, especially when it's stolen from a a place in Sth Carolina of all places. But it's not my spot so who cares.

I'm in the luxurious position of being able to respond to whatever the day brings right now, so hoping for a bombing 10' E swell hit then a SE swell as follow up. I am gonna surf it in exactly the opposite fashion to what we've just watched at Teahupoo, in other words, gonna put myself into wipeout type situations just for the fcuk of it until I get an epic one.

[Drailed]

Is Nick your shrink?

well I'v been trying to stick to the prescription as closely as possible. Diet has been A1.....
Sundays wipeout, headfirst on the sandbar, left me feeling a bit torqued out Mon but I surfed heavier waves and copped a lot of heavy donuts.....you know, you're surfed Big Groyne when it's raw and ragged....you can't hesitate if something comes to you when you are in the slot.
I didn't realise how much that took out of me.....felt pretty twisted up Mon, had a light yoga stretch and core workout Mon arve to try and keep the blood flowing around.
Bath and good stretch.
Poor sleep.

Felt washed out and stiff all day but spent most of it in front of the 'puter watching Chopes. Surfed after the event in windy, ragged, solid Point surf. Big paddle. I thought of your advice not to surf if tired but there was only three blokes out and really mellow local crew BS'ing in the carpark and it felt like a good idea and I thought I'd kick myself if I missed it. Lot of work for a few waves. Good times, good feelings in the water, no competition whatsoever for waves.

Haven't really grabbed hold of anything and lit it up but enjoying the hell out of uncrowded lineups with familiar, competent crew. Lot of love, nothing to prove.
Enjoying the family, feeling tender with the kids, and so grateful to be part of this hard core committed surfing community. Feeling sensitive to the beauty of the headlands, the sand flow, swell direction, wind changes, tidal pulses, marine life, moon phase.

Had a bath tonight, another good stretch, roller work. Lots of tension in the hips, buttocks and back. Worked through some of it.
Been riding a 6'9" round pin thruster by Gunther. Super friendly board that will go anywhere you want and will carve as hard as you can lean over. Could go up or down in board length tomorrow or, most likely, stick with that.
Despite how I feel tomorrow I'll paddle out because it feels so good doing it.
I'm only looking for one special wave this swell and I could be close to it, or very far away. It doesn't seem important.

[ctd]

Nick, do you have a particular warm up routine (pre surf) or just wave your arms around a bit and a few body squats, like most of us?

[offshore1]

Cape Fear is in North Carolina. Treacherous shoals running some thirty miles out to sea. Full of shipwrecks
. Don't fcuk with Cape Fear, it'll only end in tears.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, do you have a particular warm up routine (pre surf) or just wave your arms around a bit and a few body squats, like most of us?

yeah pretty much that, unless the surf's a bit bigger

I sorta feel the warmup is more mental than physical, getting your head into the right spot for the surf. Not being in a heat or some such, you can always use the first 10mins of a surf as a warmup. But its good to get a bit in tune with the surf rhythm first, watching waves, visualising the lines to take etc, you get a better overall view of the surf from a bit of distance so that's better done from land.

[Trev]

Interesting advice
Nick.....im returning from injury and been Surfing a little, mostly perfect little Town waves ( See my Sig.)

Im Finding Rather than Surf myself stupid, just having a casual Surf every Second Day is best. Im just cruising back into it. No matter how Good/Fun the Surf is....i just Surf for a hour than Bar it.

Do you think Thats the best Way back ? Or Should i develop some sort Of training plan

Are you sleeping in the park there with the locals? Or in one of the nearby highrises?