RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Anyone ever put surfing at the bottom of the list for a period of time? I've been told recently by the physio I can start cranking up the leg work, to build back the muscle I lost with my knee surgeries. I'm also looking to increase my fitness levels to more than just average, via swimming. I'm sure both will help my surfing but to do it properly, surfing is kind of taking a back seat, as I need to really commit to it.

I'm still getting out when I can but I'm focussing on the other stuff. If I can spend 6 months really hammering the fitness and leg work it'll for sure help.

I'll probably grab a longboard in the meantime, just so I can throw it in the car and surf whenever I can.


Anyone done similar??

Yep. Actually been a bit on the back burner this year. Funnily enough due to my current other fitness activities I'm surfing pretty well for me when I get in the water. Looking forward to chasing waves for a week or two after Xmas.

Wouldnt say I was having a break from surfing just my focus has been elsewhere.

Best surf this year was Balian last January.

Yeah that's kind of what I mean. Not actively avoiding it, it's just not as high on the priority list as it usually is.

I barely surfed at all from my mid 30s to 40s: too focussed on travel, building a career, chasing gristle and then having young kids.
Got obsessed with it again for the past 10 years or so.

Strangely, this year since getting back from the Maldives I have really struggled with motivation. Probably surf once a fortnight, love it when I do but seem to be just as happy to go for a bodysurf. I hope it's not the beginning of the end.

Been missing from surfing for about 5 years!! Back issues and then KIDS.
Trying to keep up my swimming, helps with the back issues but unfortunately the kids need to get a little older before I can consistently gt back in the water.
My biggest issue is consistency in anything fitness wise I do, kids seem to throw all sorts of curve balls that throw the best plans out the window at times.
Priority is kids fist, everything else is a VERY distant second.

Butts wrote:Been missing from surfing for about 5 years!! Back issues and then KIDS.
Trying to keep up my swimming, helps with the back issues but unfortunately the kids need to get a little older before I can consistently gt back in the water.
My biggest issue is consistency in anything fitness wise I do, kids seem to throw all sorts of curve balls that throw the best plans out the window at times.
Priority is kids fist, everything else is a VERY distant second.

Great to see you back Butts!

Best wishes for xmas & the new year

Yeah it's the fitness. I hate huffing and puffing out in the water. Fine in small days but decent surf it sucks. Then you miss waves, or blow waves. I find that frustrating as hell. As you say, kids means you're busy doing something most days. When I was surfing 2-3 times a week it didn't matter, now it's once a fortnight and fark you notice it. Mostly why I'm swimming, to help with that. Don't need swell or the right wind to do laps haha

Not having a break but not the highest priority.
Wife is now working part-time on weekends so I have responsibilities with the kids. Work has been really busy this year. A lot of things really. Often I only have a window on weekend mornings but need to be home by 7.30am and can only get out after 4pm so depending on conditions I'll go out. Some weekday mornings have worked out alright but again need to be home before 7am.

I kind of accepted that this period in my life with young kids means sacrifices need to be made and water time is one of those sacrifices. It's getting slightly easier as they get older. I do have a surf trip in the planning stages with a few old mates in Autumn so looking forward to that.

The wife working makes it much harder. Summer is ok with the early light ( lucky Steve isn't here huh?! ) but the rest of the year it's hard to get out regularly

Mate, I've had two breaks from surfing. Once when I was living in Sydney. I went and spent 10 two weeks in INDO doing the boat charter thing, came back to the shit surf and crowds in Sydney and lost interest very quickly. I had 10 years out of the water until I met my new brother-in-law who lived down the South Coast of NSW. Went for a wave with him one afternoon and the bug bit me back HARD!
Second time I was out was after having lower back surgery. This was a lot harder because I loved my surfing but I hated being in pain. Surfing was not enjoyable and I'm one of these guys that has to do everything good i.e. golf, surfing, football etc. Now I'm not amazing at any of these sports, but I'm a competitive little prick and when I do something I like to be the very best I can. I was out of the water for about 16 months but I worked hard on my rehab and came out the other side fitter and better than before I left it. The time out of the water was actually good for me because I appreciated it so much more.
My advice is take the break and don't go back too early. Get you're body back in shape because it's just not your surfing that's important, it's the rest of your life.
After 16 months off all sports I now have a low golf handicap, can easily do a 5 to 6 hour session in the surf and at 44 am probably as fit as I was when playing competitive sports as a grom. I used to wake up every morning in pain, now I wake up and go surfing feeling great.
And the long board... leave it at home! That's the worse thing for you knees, go cold turkey and do the time, you'll come out the other side better than ever..... Oh, and lastly, no use doing this without eating correctly, piss the sugar off out of you diet and keep up the exercise. It's really that easy, you just need to get your head around it!

agree with ledge, scrap the whole longboard thing if you want to keep your knee intact. they're the worst. you can't rewire your brain how to surf, and if you jump on a longboard and try and ride the same lines and do turns on a longboard (which your brain will naturally direct you to do), they way you used to on a shorty, it's when you buckle the knee. not if.

Braithy wrote:agree with ledge, scrap the whole longboard thing if you want to keep your knee intact. they're the worst. you can't rewire your brain how to surf, and if you jump on a longboard and try and ride the same lines and do turns on a longboard (which your brain will naturally direct you to do), they way you used to on a shorty, it's when you buckle the knee. not if.

ledge71 wrote:Mate, I've had two breaks from surfing. Once when I was living in Sydney. I went and spent 10 two weeks in INDO doing the boat charter thing, came back to the shit surf and crowds in Sydney and lost interest very quickly. I had 10 years out of the water until I met my new brother-in-law who lived down the South Coast of NSW. Went for a wave with him one afternoon and the bug bit me back HARD!
Second time I was out was after having lower back surgery. This was a lot harder because I loved my surfing but I hated being in pain. Surfing was not enjoyable and I'm one of these guys that has to do everything good i.e. golf, surfing, football etc. Now I'm not amazing at any of these sports, but I'm a competitive little prick and when I do something I like to be the very best I can. I was out of the water for about 16 months but I worked hard on my rehab and came out the other side fitter and better than before I left it. The time out of the water was actually good for me because I appreciated it so much more.
My advice is take the break and don't go back too early. Get you're body back in shape because it's just not your surfing that's important, it's the rest of your life.
After 16 months off all sports I now have a low golf handicap, can easily do a 5 to 6 hour session in the surf and at 44 am probably as fit as I was when playing competitive sports as a grom. I used to wake up every morning in pain, now I wake up and go surfing feeling great.
And the long board... leave it at home! That's the worse thing for you knees, go cold turkey and do the time, you'll come out the other side better than ever..... Oh, and lastly, no use doing this without eating correctly, piss the sugar off out of you diet and keep up the exercise. It's really that easy, you just need to get your head around it!

Cheers guys. Ledge, that's the plan, take a bit of a short break to build water fitness and my leg, then come back with better fitness and strength. I surf longboards like longboards, not like a shortboard, so I'm not worried about that. I really enjoy longboards as well.

Braithy, I'm almost tempted by a kracka, though I could only prone paddle it. I'm worried if I try to prone paddle it too long I'll get stiff/sore. Can you paddle them for an hour or so prone without issues? No chance I can knee paddle one. Gotta help with general water fitness.


I can surf now, and I don't plan on actively not surfing, just putting other fitness goals first.

yeah, you can prone paddle them for an hour pretty easily – at least in time you can. get your technique down pat and get into a good rhythm and you go on a 3-4km paddle no worries.

i think in nick's paddle thread in the shortboard forum he talks about technique.

Beerfan wrote:Anyone ever put surfing at the bottom of the list for a period of time?

Ask smnmntll, he'd know for sure.

Use it or loose it! At least paddle a couple of km a few times a week, swimming is not a good replacement for paddling, it's good to do as well but does not do a lot for you paddle fitness.
Putting surfing at the bottom of the list, I thought this was realsurf?

Prone paddling is great. You can certainly prone paddle for distance rather than knees, as long as you have the fitness base and technique to do it. You don't have to go to your knees though if you are racing then knees is faster and also helps mix it up. Prone is a good place to start.

I have found paddling a racing board has helped my surf fitness a great deal however you need to keep in mind that the angles are different to that of paddling a surfboard. In fact its awesome fitness all round and gets you out in the ocean. You can build up the distance once you have laid a base and had some good water time.

As for swimming well there is no substitute for actual paddling but I reckon swimming is the next best thing. It certainly can help your paddling as long as you are paddling as well. In other words paddling plus swimming is great. If you just swim but don't do much paddling then it will probably have little benefit (but will certainly help your overall fitness and at least keep you in the water). I think this is pretty much what ol mate Shaun was saying.

In fact talking with one of the best race paddlers in the world a couple of weeks ago and he puts swimming up there as the best thing you can do other than paddling itself. Swimming is a key component of many of the elite paddler's training programs. Swimming is certainly something I will be focusing more on in my 2016 training program. I need to get better at it.

Natho wrote:Prone paddling is great. You can certainly prone paddle for distance rather than knees, as long as you have the fitness base and technique to do it. You don't have to go to your knees though if you are racing then knees is faster and also helps mix it up. Prone is a good place to start.

I have found paddling a racing board has helped my surf fitness a great deal however you need to keep in mind that the angles are different to that of paddling a surfboard. In fact its awesome fitness all round and gets you out in the ocean. You can build up the distance once you have laid a base and had some good water time.

As for swimming well there is no substitute for actual paddling but I reckon swimming is the next best thing. It certainly can help your paddling as long as you are paddling as well. In other words paddling plus swimming is great. If you just swim but don't do much paddling then it will probably have little benefit (but will certainly help your overall fitness and at least keep you in the water). I think this is pretty much what ol mate Shaun was saying.

In fact talking with one of the best race paddlers in the world a couple of weeks ago and he puts swimming up there as the best thing you can do other than paddling itself. Swimming is a key component of many of the elite paddler's training programs. Swimming is certainly something I will be focusing more on in my 2016 training program. I need to get better at it.

have done a lot of swimming for fitness over many years...back injury based...and I think doing a heap of laps at pretty much the same speed isnt of much benefit...even if you swim long distances. If you change up the speeds, sprints with short breaks, then some slow laps...more sprints...this type of swim training can be super beneficial

Cheers guys