I own and run a surf travel company on Australia's Gold Coast. My business basically pulls together all the services offered on the Gold Coast that a travelling surfer needs. We then go the extra step of renting our surfboards to our clients, for the duration of their holiday. The idea is simple, we want to ensure our clients have the surfing holiday of their life, without the hassle of sorting out the logistics when they arrive.
One of the great things about this business is I deliver the surfboards myself. This gives me the opportunity to have a brief chat with every surfer coming through the Gold Coast using my services. I really enjoy this part of the business as being a surfer myself, I enjoy the contact with people who have a similar passion to mine. Also, it gives me the opportunity to get into the heads of my clients, so I can understand what their expectations are for their surfing holiday and can continually improve my services based on their desires.
"I wish I was a little bit fitter for this holiday", so many of my clients tell me when returning their surfboards. This is the number 1 desire of the travelling surfers who use my services. The want a higher level of surfing fitness for their holidays. It makes sense really. When you go on a surfing trip, you end up surfing 2 - 3 times a day, which will probably equates to 4 - 6 hours a day in the water. This you do consistently over a period of 5 - 10 days. It is a lot of surfing. No matter how much you surf at home, you will be surfing more when on holiday.
So how can we condition ourselves for a surfing holiday. (Ie. When on holiday, you will spend much more time in the water paddling than you will at home, your fitness needs to be much higher) In this article we will look at a 3 point plan. The first 2 points should be part of your commitment to general fitness, the last will be to give your fitness a quick boost before your holiday.
The first thing you need to take care of is your general level of endurance. You need to be fit enough to go hard for 10 - 15 minutes minimum, as often this is the minimum paddling requirement for getting through the breakers and out the back.
I believe this fitness requirement needs to be a little more specific than "general endurance". I believe you need to have a base level of "water endurance" or water fitness. Surfers and swimmers have an inate feel for the water. It is very different to exercising on land. It has a different type of co-ordination and efficiency. The fittest runner can be a disaster in the water, burning up all their energy and getting nowhere.
So get in the pool and swim at least twice a week. If you have a break near you, surf at least twice a week. No matter what you do, just make sure you are getting wet twice a week, every week of the year. Your water fitness will just come. It will just be something that develops, you will become more and more familiar with the water environment simply because you are being in it. Don't make any excuses, go on, get wet.
The second key to surfing fitness is flexibility, balance and core strength. Once again, this is not something you want to leave till the last minute, rather something you want to develop over time as part of your commitment to surfing, health and fitness.
There is one thing I do to take care of my core strength and flexibility. Yoga. Yoga is so good in this regard for surfers, its almost as if yoga was invented for surfing. My suggestion, get yourself a yoga for surfing dvd and do the program twice a week. Its a little bit cheaper than going to the yoga clinic twice a week anyway.
One of the great things about yoga also, is it corrects the imbalances which surfing brings to your body. Just think for example of the strain which paddling puts on your back. Yoga brings all these over extensions back into balance. I can't recommend it enough for surfers.
The final thing you can do is a surf specific, functional training program. If you have taken care on the first and second items above, surf specific training is the ideal pre holiday fitness preparation. It should be short, (Ie a fitness program which runs from 4 - 12 weeks) it should gradually increase in intensity over those weeks and it should be designed specifically for the muscles you use in the water. The point with such a training program is to give your surf specific fitness a massive boost prior to arriving on your holiday.
You've got your base level of fitness sorted out already by ensuring point 1 and 2 above are part of your lifestyle. This training program recognises though, that there will be a short period of time where you will need a higher level of fitness (Ie. For those long sessions while on holiday) and prepares you specifically with those higher needs in mind.
I hope that points you in the right direction if you have a surf trip on the horizen. Fitness like everything these days is a lifestyle choice, the rest is just adding some cream to the top. - 15343
One of the great things about this business is I deliver the surfboards myself. This gives me the opportunity to have a brief chat with every surfer coming through the Gold Coast using my services. I really enjoy this part of the business as being a surfer myself, I enjoy the contact with people who have a similar passion to mine. Also, it gives me the opportunity to get into the heads of my clients, so I can understand what their expectations are for their surfing holiday and can continually improve my services based on their desires.
"I wish I was a little bit fitter for this holiday", so many of my clients tell me when returning their surfboards. This is the number 1 desire of the travelling surfers who use my services. The want a higher level of surfing fitness for their holidays. It makes sense really. When you go on a surfing trip, you end up surfing 2 - 3 times a day, which will probably equates to 4 - 6 hours a day in the water. This you do consistently over a period of 5 - 10 days. It is a lot of surfing. No matter how much you surf at home, you will be surfing more when on holiday.
So how can we condition ourselves for a surfing holiday. (Ie. When on holiday, you will spend much more time in the water paddling than you will at home, your fitness needs to be much higher) In this article we will look at a 3 point plan. The first 2 points should be part of your commitment to general fitness, the last will be to give your fitness a quick boost before your holiday.
The first thing you need to take care of is your general level of endurance. You need to be fit enough to go hard for 10 - 15 minutes minimum, as often this is the minimum paddling requirement for getting through the breakers and out the back.
I believe this fitness requirement needs to be a little more specific than "general endurance". I believe you need to have a base level of "water endurance" or water fitness. Surfers and swimmers have an inate feel for the water. It is very different to exercising on land. It has a different type of co-ordination and efficiency. The fittest runner can be a disaster in the water, burning up all their energy and getting nowhere.
So get in the pool and swim at least twice a week. If you have a break near you, surf at least twice a week. No matter what you do, just make sure you are getting wet twice a week, every week of the year. Your water fitness will just come. It will just be something that develops, you will become more and more familiar with the water environment simply because you are being in it. Don't make any excuses, go on, get wet.
The second key to surfing fitness is flexibility, balance and core strength. Once again, this is not something you want to leave till the last minute, rather something you want to develop over time as part of your commitment to surfing, health and fitness.
There is one thing I do to take care of my core strength and flexibility. Yoga. Yoga is so good in this regard for surfers, its almost as if yoga was invented for surfing. My suggestion, get yourself a yoga for surfing dvd and do the program twice a week. Its a little bit cheaper than going to the yoga clinic twice a week anyway.
One of the great things about yoga also, is it corrects the imbalances which surfing brings to your body. Just think for example of the strain which paddling puts on your back. Yoga brings all these over extensions back into balance. I can't recommend it enough for surfers.
The final thing you can do is a surf specific, functional training program. If you have taken care on the first and second items above, surf specific training is the ideal pre holiday fitness preparation. It should be short, (Ie a fitness program which runs from 4 - 12 weeks) it should gradually increase in intensity over those weeks and it should be designed specifically for the muscles you use in the water. The point with such a training program is to give your surf specific fitness a massive boost prior to arriving on your holiday.
You've got your base level of fitness sorted out already by ensuring point 1 and 2 above are part of your lifestyle. This training program recognises though, that there will be a short period of time where you will need a higher level of fitness (Ie. For those long sessions while on holiday) and prepares you specifically with those higher needs in mind.
I hope that points you in the right direction if you have a surf trip on the horizen. Fitness like everything these days is a lifestyle choice, the rest is just adding some cream to the top. - 15343
About the Author:
Damian Papworth is the owner of Gold Coast Surfboards, an organisation that finds products for travelling surfers' needs. From board hire to surf fitness, they'll sort it out for you.