Fitness tips for surfers over 40
Its tough, so tough.. so here’s some friendly advice to get more from your sessions.
It’s pumping, sunny, glassy, head high & all you want to do is surf it a new one. Unfortunately your over 40 yr old body is not in agreement with you & it’s not long before one of the following strikes :
Shoulder Pain
The best tip I can give you is to regulate your surf session. By that I mean chill out. Seriously. Try & imagine that you are WALKING out back, and paddle at a leisurely pace. Weird. Every bone in your body (and the adrenalin from your last decent wave) will be screaming at you to sprint out back. No-one likes a wave on the head so the instinct is to hit it & get out back fast. This works on a fast pacific beach break but a UK estuarine longboard wave is LONG. it could easily be 2–300 meters out back which when punching through a 12 sec groundswell is exhausting. Take your time, pace yourself & get out back in a good enough condition to catch the next wave in style. Remember, breathe!
Shoulder pain is probably the most common surfer complaint. The moment shoulder PAIN strikes, you should stop surfing. If it is consistently painful, go see a decent Physio & do exaclty what they say. This can be Chronic so the longer you leave it, the longer it will take to come back. But you will come back, oh yes.
Exhaustion..Diet..Hydration
Hmm. Just not as fit as a 25 yr old? Learning how to manage your reduced stamina is part of accepting the limitations forced upon us by decrepitude. It’s a fact of life, however, we have the maturity to accept it & make the most of it, right? Number one tip here is to pace yourself. Its tough when it’s exciting & you’ve been driving for hours while drooling over the Saunton webcam (oi! eyes back on the road!). All you want to do is get in & get frothy with stoke. However it’s amazing how quickly you can burn your reserves up. Pace your self, take it easy, save that energy for when you need it most, just before you catch the WOTD. (Wave Of The Day). Protein is great for slow energy release, so though it flies in the face of health, a fry up can actually be good for you. Just leave out the bacon if you can.. eggs are best. Avocado also has a delayed energetic effect. Bananas are good too. I’ll try & eat a protein flapjack, a banana & drink about a litre of water before a session. This is a good prep for a 2 hr session. Weirdly being in salt water is actaully dehydrating so it’s easy to forget that. A sympton of dehydration is fatigue, so this is a major factor. Uh.
Knees
Knees. When surfng we load up (compress) our knees & then unload them everytime we make a bottom turn. If your knees are not adequately supported by your glutes (that’s technical for bum) & ankles not strong enough, your kneecap will not align correctly & over time this will become a chronic wear injury & gradually get more painful. Overcome this by adding 20 bum strengthening squats to your workout. Use a balance board or similar for 10 mins a day to build those balance muscles in your ankles. It will also allow you to fine tune your board more readily while on a wave. Which is a good thing.
Skin
OK so this isn’t really fitness. I can reccomend an expensive cream that protects your lovely face from the harsh, cruel & vindictive elements. I use Brodie skin care sports rehydration which is an anti-bacterial cream for swimmers. It seems to work though it’s a bit on the pricey side. Prevention is better then cure so generally slather on some Surfers Skin sun cream whatever the weather, it’ll create a barrier that may even have atiny insulating effect, something you will notice when the water is 7 degrees.. To avoid your face being covered in white milky slime & have stinging eyes, apply the cream at least 20 mins before you get wet, allowing it to dry. Finally the original Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise method was to apply foundation cream from a make up set. Yep, it really evens out your skin tone too.
