Surfing
Get Fit and Be a Better Surfer Now
The overwhelming importance of sharp fitness to optimize your performance.
Jamie O'Brien North Shore Action
© Brian Bielmann/Red Bull Content Pool
There's a school of thought out there that recoils at the thought of hitting a gym to sharpen your surf performance. I'm one of them.
Look at Noa Deane, I'll shrill. Or Dane Reynolds. Or John John Florence. Apart from photo-ops, they never go near a set of barbells.
And therefore, why should I?
But then I talk to someone like Tyler Jewell, whose job it is to help perfect the games of Red Bull's surf team including Jamie O'Brien, Ian Walsh and Maya Gabeira.
"I don’t believe in talent, I believe in hard work," says Tyler. "I would bet that the surfers you mention did not one day magically step on a board and assassinate waves. I can imagine they have spent a lot of time in the water from a young age gaining skills that will never be achieved anywhere else other than in the water."
In other words, they trained. They just didn't know it.
What's interesting about Tyler's take is he says training depends more than anything on your age, and when you developed your surf jams.
"Some people believe that leading up to puberty the opportunity to learn coordinative skills is peaked," says Tyler, "and after puberty coordinative skills could become harder to learn. The flip-side of this is that the opportunity to gain strength is greater during and after puberty due to the influx of hormones.
"For pre-puberty athletes, I would focus on flexibility and skill development and maximize these qualities during a developmental stage. Then the gears shift again as the athlete grows older or gets injured.
"I view the process a lot like a puzzle," says Tyler. "There are so many pieces that need to be developed but when you get a couple of key pieces in place all the rest fall into place easily. Many athletes assemble their puzzle in many different ways and many create beautiful pictures without all the pieces. I believe fitness is a key puzzle piece that allow many others to fall into place to allow a complete picture."
At the Red Bull High Performance center, we find Sean Hayes, who acts as High Performance Manager, to "guide what our athletes may or may not need."
And you ask why he thinks fitness is so important to surf performance.
"Speed, power, flow. We hear the words all the time in the 'judges' criteria' and they are the foundations of good surfing and, if done properly, a good style may come with it.
"Fitness is important to achieve this yet how athletes get there may have very different paths. The sport today changes weekly and bodies need to be physically and mentally prepared to move and react quickly and adapt to new wave-riding styles and approaches if the athlete wishes to remain current. This works as preventative medicine, too.The degree of difficulty in today’s maneuvers, their recoveries and landings all require optimal physical ability. Without it, there are more and more injuries."
As for guys like Noa and Dane and John John and that whole should-I-train conundrum, he says, "These athletes and several others may or may not utilize a gym, but they are extremely active and physically fit from water time only. Sure, one could argue they could do more training outside their surf sessions and I do know that some of them have had, or continue to train in lower profile environments, that works for them"
"However, more often than not, if they haven’t done much supplemental training, then it’s usually an injury that gets them either in the gym or opens the door to consider maintenance training for injury prevention."
Prevent blown hams? Squeeze in more turns? Land higher airs? Let's train!