Surfing Fitness – How To Train for Surfing and Improve Surfing Skill

Surf Fitness

Watch the video here

In order to answer that I want you to understand what is NOT surf fitness. That pic, that is NOT surf fitness.

Yeah, maybe it’s somewhat fun, maybe it’s entertaining, but it has absolutely no carryover to you actually performing better in the surf. It is no way physiologically prepares your body for what being a surf athlete requires. *Yes, you are a surf athlete, because you are a human that surfs, therefore you have athletic requirements and need athletic capacities.

True surf fitness builds, reinforces, or restores the true athletic capacities you need as a human that surfs, and wants to do so for the next several decades of life, and do it fluidly while remaining free from injury.

Blindly throwing yourself into movements, exercises, or positions that try to overly replicate the actual technique of surfing is NOT surf fitness.

The world of the so-called functional fitness has bastardised surf fitness and turned it into an amalgamation that I often have to eye-roll and smash my phone against a wall when scrolling through social media.

I want you to do better with your fitness as it relates to surfing. I want to give you a legitimate approach to surf fitness-based of sound strength & conditioning principles and though processes.

Yes, standing on an unstable surface has its place at times, but the large majority of surfers would gain much more benefit if they just had a basic understanding of SAID principles and bio-motor profiles of sport.

Luckily for you, I cover exactly that in the video above. I want you to watch that video. I need you to watch that video so you can filter through the bullshit the fitness world throws at you because the fitness world is rife with bullshit, big steaming piles of it.

Have you finished that video yet? Good. Now on to your next lesson. If you’re a beginner surfer, intermediate, or even old dude shredder, and you want to get more specific with what to work on, I strongly urge you take a quick look at this blog: How to Improve Your Surf Fitness Training

I even use a Jonah Hill gif in the article…. all the more reason to read it!

From the article:

What “surf fitness training” means to me is taking a realistic look at the movement requirements of the sport, and then taking an honest appraisal at your own strengths and weaknesses. Then it comes down to filling the gaps with smart and efficiently applied training.

First, put yourself into one of the following categories.

1. Surfs a LOT, and is an upper intermediate to advanced surfer
2. Intermediate surfer but also a bit of weekend warrior
3. Beginner to lower intermediate surfer and doesn’t get to surf much

Where you fall into those categories will largely dictate how you should effectively train. If you truly look at the demands of the sport, and what will have the most impact on your body when you get in the water, it’s easy to determine what surf fitness training will look like for you.

I want you to have an understanding of what your body actually needs and how you can support your fitness because you’re a human that surfs. And I want your hard efforts in the gym to actually carry over to your time in the ocean.

I hope this helps give you some clarity. Now go train or go surf!

-Cris