Uncategorized – Get Fit to Surf

How to Be A Good Surfer

Mark Kaplan — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:23:52 +0000

How to be a Good Surfer is a pursuit of many new beginners. Surfing looks easy in the movies, but the reality is found out quickly and that it is very technical and very tiring. The new surfer realizes they have a challenge before them if they wish to accept.

What It Takes to be a Good Surfer is a common question before people sign up for surf lessons. A lot of people have it on their bucket list to try once and others are considering what kind of investment in time and money does it take to be good.

This is a fair question. It varies for most every individual. There is not one answer for everyone because everyone begins with a different set of capabilities, physical attributes, and learning abilities that are not discovered until the person is in the water the first time. Then as a coach, I can tell what investment it would take to become improved. There is much more to being a good surfer than people imagine although some start with a great advantage.

The Basics of Becoming a Good Surfer

Surfing is physically demanding. People in good physical shape by the Body Mass Index which labels normal weight, overweight, and obese have a distinct advantage. Overweight is a problem in surfing not just because it takes more power to get the body off the surfboard into a standing position but because the person has probably stopped exercising. This causes the double problem of being heavy and not having the strength to deal with the weight in the water.

Being in good physical shape or fitness is an advantage to improving surfing. Surfing requires upper body strength, lower body strength, core strength, flexibility, and stamina. Each has to be improved as one learns more advanced techniques. The first start is to learn the techniques of riding a surfboard straight to the beach.

Many find this a challenge for a few reasons. They have difficulty learning the techniques. They have muscle memory from other sports like snowboarding and skateboarding that make it more difficult although athleticism is an advantage. Surfing is technical. A person must be able to move their body into the right stance on a surfboard to ride and especially to advance. Many can ride, but they don’t do it through the right techniques.

There is a feel to surfing. One learns the timing of waves and when to paddle and when to pop up. This is taught in lessons, but not everyone can get the feel. So there is a natural talent that has to be a part of the equation. There also has to be a commitment or opportunity to get to the water often. Like most sports, surfing has to be engaged in frequently. Once a week is probably minimum for advancing although some could do it every two weeks.

Training while not in the water is important for professionals and for surfers wanting to advance and not going in the water frequently. All the strengths listed above must be advanced to progress. Surfing is tiring. There must be stamina for paddling. Surf students should practice the correct pop up in their living room to hone the surfing muscles and timing. Courage is a big factor. The ocean is intimidating and each move to bigger waves is a little frightening to everyone.

Read a good book to get ready.

Visit the Home Page for Surf Lessons

Learn More

Get the Learn to Surf Guide Course in Kindle, Paperback or Audio

A great 29 page course on the fundamentals of catching waves, doing beginner and advanced pop ups, riding real waves, how to do maneuvers on real waves, which surfboards to ride, and how to progress. Great for lesson preparation, after lesson review, or learning on your own.

Kindle price $2.99 on Amazon. Paperback price $6.95 on Amazon. Audio download price $7.95

Get Fit to Surf

A great guide to strength, flexibility, stamina, and leanness for surfing. Beginner strategies for getting stronger, more flexible, stronger cardiovascular system, and nutrition to lose weight. An improving surfer or one who wants to prepare must meet the whole body physical demands of surfing. Getting stronger improves ones ability to perform better.

Buy on Kindle for $5.99 or the Paperback for $7.99

Every Body Can Surf

To read a great book for getting in shape to surf or getting in better surfing shape, read my new book Overweight People Can Surf, a Health, Fitness, Nutrition, and Surfing Adventure

Description:

Get healthy and fit to surf or set a goal of surfing to improve weight, fitness, nutrition, and health. This guide by a surf instructor/health coach/personal trainer gives the short version of how to lose weight, get strong, build stamina, develop nutrition, and learn to surf. Surfing is a lifestyle enjoyed by millions and so is fitness. Fitness creates opportunities to enjoy life through lots of different kinds of recreation. No need to stand on the sidelines while others are having a great time. Start your program to health with easy steps and progress at your own pace. That is the secret to maintaining a lifestyle. Do it at your pace. This book will start you on the path.

Buy the E book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

Seniors Get Fit to Surf

Description:

Seniors often ask if it is too late to learn to surf. Age is functional not chronological. If people have been exercising and maintaining body strength, surfing can be accomplished. If people have not been exercising, then getting in shape to surf could be a life changing move. Learn how to develop strength, flexibility, and stamina to learn surfing. If you are in surf shape, you could pursue most any recreation.

Buy the E-book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

The post How to Be A Good Surfer appeared first on Get Fit to Surf.

What Surfers Do to Improve Abilities

Mark Kaplan — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 15:16:12 +0000

What Surfers Do to Improve Abilities before and after a surf lesson. Most new students find that surfing is more technical and more tiring than they expected. Very few people have daily routines that prepare them for the vigor of surfing.

Surfing is one of the most physically demanding sports because it is full body and one doesn’t move at their own pace but at the pace required by the ocean and the technicalities. One can walk, bike, and swim at their own pace with easy movements, but surfing demands full body strength, flexibility, stamina, and lets mention courage.

The Basic Abilities Necessary to Surf

Surfing requires upper body strength, leg strength, core strength, flexibility, and stamina. How does the non surfer prepare and then engage after a lesson to build these requirements? Professional surfers spend more time conditioning out of the water than in the water. Nothing builds surfing abilities like surfing, but most people need additional work to train the body.

Surfing requires paddling to catch a wave. Then the surfer pushes their body off the surf board in a full extension like a man’s push up. Amazing how many people can’t do this. Then while in the push up position, the surfer has to move one foot under their butt like a coil and put it flat on the board. Few people have this flexibility. Most put their foot down on the ball because that is all the flexibility they have.

Next the surfer stands up and moves their front foot to the nose. If the foot was placed flat on the surfboard, this final step is easy. If the foot was not placed flat, the final step to standing up is tricky. So, it would seem flexibility is key. Overweight people have lost flexibility because they have not been exercising. Their weight also requires more strength. So more weight and less strength is often what they have.

To get in surf shape, people may need to lose weight while building strength a flexibility. This would be a perfect goal. At the same time with good routines, beginners can build upper body, lower body, core, and flexibility then add an aerobics routine. Sounds like going professional, but this would meet the basics for surfing.

All this can be accomplished with a good program practiced daily. Be patient. Progress is slow. Consistency makes progress steady and it is readily recognized in improved surfing abilities. To get the whole program together, you might invest in my quick reads Everybody Can Surf or Get Fit to Surf listed below. Everybody Can Surf includes how to surf while Get Fit to Surf is only about conditioning and losing weight. (See below)

Read a good book to get ready.

Visit Surf Lessons in Oceanside for a Surf Lesson

Return to the Home Page

Learn More

Get the Learn to Surf Guide Course in Kindle, Paperback or Audio

Kindle price $2.99 on Amazon. Paperback price $6.95 on Amazon. Audio download price $7.95

Get Fit to Surf

Buy on Kindle for $5.99 or the Paperback for $7.99

Every Body Can Surf

To read a great book for getting in shape to surf or getting in better surfing shape, read my new book Overweight People Can Surf, a Health, Fitness, Nutrition, and Surfing Adventure

Description:

Buy the E book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

Seniors Get Fit to Surf

Description:

Buy the E-book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

The post What Surfers Do to Improve Abilities appeared first on Get Fit to Surf.

Seniors Get Fit for Surfing

Mark Kaplan — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:48:16 +0000

Seniors Prepare for Surf Lessons by getting their bodies to move. Surfing is a full body sport and all the limbs, joints and muscles must join in the party. Surfing requires strength, flexibility, and stamina. If seniors have been exercising, they are much closer to being surf ready.

The first thing seniors need is flexibility. Most have spent a lot of time being sedentary and their muscles have tightened. Touching the floor with the palms of your hands is a good goal. Lifting one leg and holding onto your toes is a good indication of flexibility. Walking for an hour is a good indication of aerobic capability.

Seniors Get Fit to Surf

Upper body strength is important for pushing the body off the surfboard and paddling. Both are tiring after 5 or 10 rides. Upper body strength is built through resistance. Pushups, bench presses, and cables can all assist building the arms, shoulders, and back. If a senior can do 10 push ups, that is a great start.

Building core muscles is important for the pop up in surfing. Planks are a good start. The weight exercises of squats and deadlifts build core and all the flexibility into the hamstrings, buttocks, and lower back that is necessary. Squats and deadlifts can be performed without weights.

When beginning with a personal trainer, there are lots of these floor exercises that start without weights to help build balance, form and cardio. The muscles may not have been exercised in a while and do not have receptors to pull in glucose for fuel. Starting with lots of reps begins to build receptors which are necessary for exertion and stamina.

Weight is an important factor in surfing. Overweight is a BMI above 25 and it will impact a surfer’s ability by requiring more strength in proportion to the surfer’s weight. Check your Body Mass Index. Just add your height and weight into chart. A good nutrition program will fuel the muscles you are building and start reducing fat.

If seniors have been sedentary, they should begin 90 days before surfing to build all their physical capabilities to yield the best results in the water.

Read a good book to get ready.

Visit Surf Lessons in Oceanside for a Surf Lesson

Return to the Home Page

Learn More

Get the Learn to Surf Guide Course in Kindle, Paperback or Audio

Kindle price $2.99 on Amazon. Paperback price $6.95 on Amazon. Audio download price $7.95

Get Fit to Surf

Buy on Kindle for $5.99 or the Paperback for $7.99

Every Body Can Surf

To read a great book for getting in shape to surf or getting in better surfing shape, read my new book Overweight People Can Surf, a Health, Fitness, Nutrition, and Surfing Adventure

Description:

Buy the E book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

Seniors Get Fit to Surf

Description:

Buy the E-book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

The post Seniors Get Fit for Surfing appeared first on Get Fit to Surf.

Surf Lessons Are Necessary to Learn

Mark Kaplan — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 14:21:50 +0000

Oceanside Surf Lessons Begin Surfing Life for so many locals and vacationers. Many people have surfed in their past but forget what they learned. Many have had it on their bucket list. Others are looking for fun outdoor recreation.

Surfing is a great beach activity. People who don’t live at the beach dream about it during the year and it is one of the favorite family vacations. Camping is fun, but that involves camping. Beach goers want nice accommodations for their vacation.

The Benefit of Surf Lessons

When I started at the age of 16, I did not have the benefit of surf lessons. I spent the summer driving to the beach at Malibu and didn’t learn how to surf. Over the years I gradually got the idea but didn’t really improve until I moved to Oceanside where I could surf every day.

Surfing is more technical than anyone realizes and not as easy as it looks in the movies. Even given the right techniques in the dry land lesson, new students often struggle with the preciseness required.

A surfboard is designed for performance. It is therefore sensitive to where you place your weight, because weight is what makes it go straight or carve. Catching a wave, doing a pop up and landing in the right stance are all timing and rhythm.

A surfing body is strong, flexible, and has stamina. All the body parts contribute to a smooth transition from laying down to standing up while moving 10 mph on a relatively unstable platform. Balance is not as important as technique. Most people have adequate balance.

At the end of a lesson, most people are riding a surfboard or know what to do so they can practice on their own or spend time on their vacation renting a board and having fun. New students can progress as fast as they are capable of learning. It is an individual challenge with no ceiling to what can be accomplished.

Get a useful book for getting in shape or learning the surfing fundamentals.

See the Home Page for Surf Lessons

Learn More

Get my new book Get Fit to Surf

Its time to get back in shape. This book discusses strength, flexibility, stamina, and nutritional needs for getting in shape and losing weight. It is the great guide to get back to fitness for all your recreational desires. If you can surf, you can do most anything.

Buy on Kindle for $5.99 or Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

Get the Learn to Surf Guide Course in Kindle, Paperback or Audio

Kindle price $2.99 on Amazon. Paperback price $6.95 on Amazon. Audio download price $7.95

Everybody Can Surf

To read a great book for getting in shape to surf or getting in better surfing shape, read my new book Everybody Can Surf, a Health, Fitness, Nutrition, and Surfing Adventure

Description:

Buy the E book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

Seniors Get Fit to Surf

Description:

Buy the E-book on Amazon for $5.99

Buy the Paperback on Amazon for $7.99

The post Surf Lessons Are Necessary to Learn appeared first on Get Fit to Surf.

How to Get Fit for Surfing

Mark Kaplan — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:37:52 +0000

Many of my surf students ask How to Get Fit for Surfing. During the pandemic era, we have all been closed out of various forms of exercise. When gyms closed, many lost their three times a week opportunity to burn calories and fat. Surfing utilizes muscles specific to the sport and yet surfing is a full body workout.

Many athletes who participate in running and triathlons say after their first surf session that they need to get in better shape. Imagine how those who don’t exercise regularly feel. Beginners take one to two hour lessons and feel a lot of new muscles activated. If they could surf several times a week, they would find the dream exercise for fun, weight control, building muscle, and losing fat.

The Basics of Getting Fit for Surfing

Surfing requires upper body strength, lower body strength, flexibility, and cardio power. Paddling is like interval training. A surfer paddles out for waves and then paddles hard to catch waves. Then he paddles out again. Paddling is like swimming, but not the same.

Upper body strength can benefit from weight or cable training. Bench presses, military presses, and cable pulls can strengthen the arms, shoulders, back, and core, Push ups are great for the necessary pop up to stand up on the surfboard.

Flexibility is of major importance. Professional surfers can bend like pretzels. Some of the simplest most effective exercises for flexibility are burpies, squats, deadlifts, and just putting your palms on the floor without bending your knees.

Aerobics are a key to cardiovascular fitness. Building better circulation by increasing the stress on breathing can be accomplished in every way imaginable. Intervals are on everyone’s pedestal. Staying in peak cardio condition requires consistent engagement. A surfer notices they are out of shape after two weeks of not paddling. Top runners start losing conditioning after 36 hours.

Nutrition is crucial. Muscles have to be fed to grow. They need a well balanced diet. Athletes learn how to feed the body before and after exercise. When muscles need nutrition, they will first look to the glucose in the muscles and in the blood stream. When glucose gets depleted they will look for fat. Athletes train their body to burn fat with long slow aerobic workouts. Weight lifters train their body to burn fat with intense workouts.

Have patience and begin a program that can be followed without burn out. Set a long term goal with lots of interim markers. You can never get too fit.

The post How to Get Fit for Surfing appeared first on Get Fit to Surf.

Overweight People Learn to Surf

Mark Kaplan — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:23:56 +0000

Overweight people can surf. The pandemic has caused a lot of weight gain and now people are looking for exercise in an outdoor fun experience. People learn that size is not necessarily as big a problem as the time they spent not exercising. Surfing is physically very demanding and a full body sport.

Surfing requires upper body strength, leg strength, core strength, flexibility, and stamina. Surfers may talk about power to weight ratio as the strength needed to get your body standing on the surfboard.

Fundamentals of Surfing for Overweight People

Beginner surfers start in foam waves near the shore. They roll over on their surfboard and start paddling to catch a wave. When the wave is close, they execute a pop up and ride to the beach.

Surfing is about timing and rhythm. I give my students a count for the pop up. They have to be patient to paddle long enough to catch the wave and then smoothly execute 5 steps in a sequence to pop up. Students are a little anxious about the ocean and learning a new sport. I ask them to say the count out loud to block their thoughts and create focus .

The first technique is rolling over on the surfboard correctly. The surfer holds the surfboard with the top side facing their chest. Then they roll over throwing their feet up at the tail so their body is straight as a pencil and they are in the exact center of the surfboard. If the surfer is off to one side or out of balance, they can’t catch the wave.

The surfer wants to accelerate to get in front of the foam wave. This takes the average surfer three or four strong paddles. You paddle with your forearms in the water, not just your hands. You have to paddle evenly with both arms. So many surfers paddle harder with one and turn the surfboard sideways into the wave.

Once the nose comes up and the board is plaining, the surfer puts his hands on the board in a man’s pushup position. Then he pushes up and places his back foot on the surfboard flat so he can stand up on it. Then he stands raising his hands and places the other foot near the nose. Try this in your living room.

While doing it he counts, paddle, stop (placing hands on board), push, back foot, stand, front foot. This count out loud can also slow a racing mind. Counting in your head does not help.

The right posture on the surfboard is feet shoulder width apart. Hips and shoulders square to the front. Weight equal on both legs. Knees flexed. The board will go straight without work.

The Over Weight Surfers Difficulties

First, many have trouble rolling onto the board in a balanced position. This prevents them from catching the wave. Sometimes too much belly or body weight makes balancing on a 9′ and 24 inch wide difficult. This is a high volume surf board.

Secondly, many have trouble pushing their upper body off the board. They lack upper body strength that could be improved with pushups. Thirdly, the biggest problem is getting the back foot under their butt and standing on it. This requires flexibility and leg strength not to mention core strength.

The final issue can be stamina. After the student has made several attempts, they get tired because they do not have cardiovascular fitness. Paddling is tiring and so are failed attempts. It also becomes discouraging.

Overweight surfers may have to combine losing weight and getting in shape. The best exercise for strength and flexibility are squats. Do them at first without weights and then slowly add weights. Dead lifts are equal and work the same muscles. They both build flexibility for the pop up.

Pushups, bench presses, and cable pulls can build upper body and paddling strength. Jumping on the treadmill or doing aerobics like biking, swimming, or stair climbing can help recovery in the water.

If you haven’t been exercising, you may need to start slow. Start with walking 10 minutes a day and try to build to 30 minutes and then an hour. Everything else can progress from there. A good nutrition program with long term goals will be most successful. Sometimes a doctor, a clinic, or a commercial weight loss firm like Nutri-Systems makes it easier or necessary.

Set a long term goal of getting healthy and fit with surfing as the ultimate reward.

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