As a surfer not being in the water causes few challenges in maintaining one’s surfing skills and surfing fitness. In reality, a majority of surfers, aspiring surfers, and surf enthusiasts aren’t often near a body of water that they can surf on.
But today I will tell you about my five (5) tips and ways that you can do in maintaining your surfing skills while not surfing. Besides this, it can also help improve your surfing skills to a certain degree.
Don’t forget to keep your motivation up!
5 WAYS I USE TO KEEP MY SURFING SKILLS UP TO DATE
1. Use Of Balance Boards
Balance is an important skill in surfing so in times where going to the ocean isn’t an option practicing with a balance board would be best. One of the best ways to keep your balance and your stabilizing muscles active and strong is to invest in a balance board. If you don’t know how to use a balance board we have an article posted on how you can use it.
Developing muscular strength is best to improve and maintain your surf fitness. This is because every time we surf we engage certain muscles to keep our balance on the board. So how does using a balance board be the same? It’s simple, we use the same muscles in balancing in a balance board as we use in an actual surfboard.
Meaning when you’re using a balance board whenever you can’t surf you don’t only improve your balance. It is also my favorite way to maintain the strength and the muscle memory in my legs, my core, and my spine.
I use a Rev Balance board as my favorite. Here is a link for you if you'd like to check it out. You'll get 10% off with it. Let me know if you have any questions regarding how to use a Rev Balance board.
2. Skater On Land & Surfer On Water
Skate! You may have heard that skating helps improve and maintain surfing skills while landlocked, and that’s one hundred percent (100%) true. But you also have to consider what type of board that you’ll be using since like surfing there are plenty of skateboards. If you want to use skating as an alternative for surfing, then there’s one board, in particular, you can use. It is the Carver skateboard.
The design of the Carver skateboard stimulates the same movements that you make when you're surfing. Skating on a Carver is a great way to practice your style, your weight distribution in and out of turns, it's a great way to practice your compression and extension of your knees, which plays a big part when it comes to performing turns, as well as the balance that it takes to ride a skateboard. All these things together make up a really great way to keep yourself busy out of the water.
3. Go For A Swim!
Paddling is another important skill in surfing, so if you want to maintain your surf skills without surfing, then you can go for a swim. The strokes and movement we use while swimming is the closest we can compare to paddling. The reason behind this is fact that swimming uses shoulder, back, chest, and neck muscles. These muscles are the same muscles we often use while surfing. Remember that whenever you are not surfing, swimming would be best to replicate paddling motion, jumping in the water, and improve muscles involved in surfing.
4. Online Surfing Programs
I often remind my clients and students that surfing is not only a physical activity but also a mental wellness activity. Online education from surfing programs is what I’d like to call “brain training.” Check our website for some videos surf programs, and surf tips that you can use, such as this article.
Online education can include, watching or reading digital content around surfing. Think about it: why should we only train our body, when training our brain plays a huge role since surfing is not just a physical sport? If you repeat something in your mind over and over again, when you have to put it into practice, it becomes easier.
Something you have to remember though, not all digital material is at the same level. What you should look for should have a structure in place. That tells you what to do, but also in what order you need to do it. That lays things out for you in a clear way so that you are not left to connect the dots.
5. Land-based exercises and training
We’ve mentioned, using a balance board, skating, and swimming, all of which are physical activities. We’ve even mentioned brain training utilizing online education. So hearing this last tip shouldn’t be a surprise.
If you follow all of the four tips or ways mentioned above, you definitely could see results. However, to make that possible it is important to have land-base exercise and training specific for surfers. These types of exercises can help not only strengthen your muscle but it can also help your muscle memory to stay active and fresh.
If you are looking for what types of exercise we are talking about, we have an awesome free mini-training that you can get on our website!
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