Surfing
Surfing
Control Your Breath, Control Your Life
Breathing through the impossible with "The Iceman" Wim Hof and his loyal following of action sports athletes.
To me, God is cold. I do not only endure the cold. I love the cold.
OK, that’s fine, but for most people, cold is something to be avoided and guarded against, usually with outrageously expensive down parkas or very fancy wetsuits. Flannel sheets are nice too. But then again most people aren’t devotees of Wim Hof, a strangely cold-resilient Dutchman, 57 years old, who looks like a biblical prophet just wandered in from north of Westeros’s Wall. Through a combination of exquisite genetics (probably) and a unique dedication to breathing and meditation practices that might be described as “extreme,” if it’s possible for either of those things to be considered extreme, Hof has set more than 20 Guinness World Records in various unpleasant categories of adverse temperature exposure. Through that, he’s established a growing cult-like following of people — increasingly adventure-sports athletes are part of this group — looking to tap into the physical benefits his methods seem to bestow.
What benefits are those? He’s climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in shorts, and though he’s often credited with climbing Mt. Everest in just a pair of boardies too, he actually tried but turned back at 22,000 feet, which is still plenty impressive. He runs marathons above the Arctic Circle and the dude can sit in ice baths for 90 minutes at a time (while smiling). Perhaps most Jedi-like of all, Hof appears to have the miraculous ability to control his immune system through sheer force of will. Understandably, people want in.
The iceman in his element
© Boogert Fotografie
It’s difficult to imagine an action sports environment that wouldn’t benefit from absorbing some of Hof’s abilities. Calming the body down at will in harsh, cold, high-altitude environments would be a game changer for alpinists and backcountry skiers. Surfers in extreme oceanic environments would be like superheroes with the abilities to ignore the cold, and to calm their bodies and their breathing in the face of beatdowns by powerful surf.
Though he’s mostly famous for the whole extreme cold-training thing, the Wim Hof method’s first lesson is simple: Breathe. Breathe a lot and breathe really fast. This is essentially the foundation of his entire approach. It’s also basically a kind of controlled hyperventilation. Science explains that hyperventilation does all sorts of weird things to the body, mostly because hyperventilation expels lots of carbon dioxide. These things include: increasing the alkalinity of cells; inducing oxygen saturation of the blood; sending little jolts of adrenaline coursing through the body; and occasionally producing mild hallucinations. The most obvious and potentially bad thing that happens with hyperventilation is that it constricts blood vessels in the brain, leading to dizziness and, sometimes, passing out.
Kelly Slater knows all about that last one. The million-time world champion of surf famously collapsed while at a Wim Hof breathing clinic this spring, and the embarrassing moment was of course captured on Instagram and shared with millions of people. But Slater’s not alone. Surfers who take on titanic waves all over the world are dabbling in some Wim Hof themselves, like Hawaii’s Koa Smith, a pro surfer who’s freakishly comfortable in very scary waves. “I’ve been practicing the Wim Hof method for about a year and it still blows my mind, Smith says. “People always ask if it helps with big-wave surfing and breathholding and it does, but I do it because it helps me to live to my full potential. It teaches me how to control my emotions. It’s a tool to bring me to an optimal state. Anyone can do it.”
Hof is also very big on ice baths. Cold exposure reduces inflammation and can boost fat metabolism, but Hof insists that it also provides an inroad to harness mental strength, especially when paired with his breathing techniques. If you can willfully sit in freezing water, you can deal with pretty much anything. Big-mountain freeskier Johnny Collinson knows from experience. “The ice bath is where it hit me that the breathing actually works,” Collinson said. “I didn’t think I could stay in very long, but once you calm yourself, you find you can actually control the impulses that want to shut your body down. I got out the ice after 10 minutes and wasn’t even shivering. It was mind blowing.”
Wim Hof is a master of body control.
© Getty Images
Everything Hof preaches is designed to increase the control one has over the body. The forced hyperventilation appears to provide a little tool to force adrenaline into the system on command, but also allows for a better understanding of the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. It also provides a reminder that the body is far, far tougher than us weak-willed, parka-wearing weanies realize. Learn to Hof properly, and athletes just might discover control over body functions they’d never even dreamed of. That’s probably cooler than it sounds.
For athletes who can already control their bodies to the point of landing tweaked-out triple corks on skis, or air reverses on a surfboard, the Wim Hof method represents a different, more advanced dimension of body control, and would radically and immediately elevate them above their competition. “Hof’s training can help skiers, or action sports athletes of any discipline, really,” Collinson says, “because its using your mind, and a technique to overcome an impulse in your body, whether it's the cold or nerves or self-doubt. It’s about fully focusing and being in the moment, which every athlete needs to do to perform at the level they want.”
Imagine a Wim Hof-trained big-wave surfer at a place like Northern California’s frigid hell wave Mavericks. The Hof has taught this hypothetical surfer inhuman levels of breath control, mind calming, and a level of cold tolerance that far exceeds that of the typical person. It should be immediately apparent that an advanced Hoffer (no, not a particularly enthusiastic David Hasselhof fan) would have an incredible advantage over the rest of the freezing surfers in the lineup with their inferior, average lung capacity and susceptibility to cold.
Should everybody hyperventilate 'til they collapse like Kelly Slater and strip down and head for the North Pole? Probably not. But …maybe? Naturally, world-class athletes have a lot to learn about the mysteries of blood chemistry and how to better control it, if it’s possible at all. And Hof himself is actually doing things like chilling in ice baths for hours at a time, running around naked in the snow, and fending off disease with only his mind. So clearly, it can be done. But Hof has been practicing all of this for years and years. He’s a professional Wim Hof, basically. Our mileage might vary. In the meantime, there’s a lot to gain with deep breathing, some increased body awareness and with toughening up a bit. Also, a really good parka. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
Five incredible things Wim Hof has done
- Once ran a half marathon, barefoot, in the snow, in Oulu, Finland.
- Stood buried to his neck with ice for 72 minutes on a street corner in the middle of Manhattan.
- Swam underneath ice-covered water for distances of greater than 200 feet. In shorts.
- Ran a marathon in the desert without drinking any water.
- Remained smiling while doing all of the above.
