I love surfing.  I’ve been into it for probably about 8 years. But I’m pretty crap at it if I’m honest. I’ve always put that down to the fact that I cant get to the water often enough, but I’ve come to realise that it’s more about surfing fitness – I’m just not fit enough, and I can’t get enough practice in the water to allow me to get surfing fit.

I’m not talking about general fitness, I’m talking specifically about “surfing fitness”


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This is a distinction that you need to understand if you’re a beginner surfer (or like me you’ve been pretty much a beginner for years) and you want to get better & enjoy the sport more.

Being generally fit is great, and  you need to be generally fit to put up with the amount of effort you have to put in when surfing – but getting more fit & healthy in general doesn’t mean you’ll get any better at surfing.

You could train to be a champion sprinter, it wouldn’t help you a great deal with surfing. You could train to be a formula 1 driver, you wouldn’t have the right kind of fitness to help you to become a better surfer.

I’m not that unfit, I can run 10k without too much of a problem, I have lost some weight over the past 6 months, I still have some weight to lose, but I’m fairly fit.

But if you’ve recently started to get into surfing, or if you’re like me & you’ve been into surfing for quite a while but you’re still not able to enjoy it anywhere near as much as you’d like to, due to not being as good as you’d like to be & you find it difficult to improve due to not being able to go surfing on a regular enough basis – then you may want to read this, as I’ve just discovered something which will help people like us!

I’ve been working on getting fit, for quite a while. I’m in my early 30′s, and in my late teens I was very fit, but like many people my metabolism started to change & my activity level dropped through my 2o’s, and I gradually started to put on weight, and get less & less fit. Learning to drive didn’t help, as I suddenly forgot that I had legs, and a bike, and a skateboard icon wink Total Surfing Fitness Reviews Honest Surfing Fitness Review. , and just began driving everywhere instead.

Don’t get me wrong, I never got ridiculously unfit or dangerously overweight – but I certainly wasn’t (and still I’m not) in peak condition. I’ve carried around a few stone of extra weight, and I’ve still got a stone or two I’d like to lose, but to increase my fitness for surfing – and also just to be healthier & to feel better about myself, not to mention that it would be great not to be at risk from all the issues you’re at risk from when you carry extra weight stored as fat.

Getting into surfing in my mid 20′s gave me a focus, something to get fit for – which is a great thing, but what has been frustrating is that as my fitness levels have increased, it’s made very little difference in the water.

Recently, I spoke to my friend & client 9 x British longboarding champion, surfing coach, highly accredited ASP & ISA judge, & author of A Shortcut to Longboarding, Lee Ryan, and he reminded me that when he’d given me some one to one surfing coaching a few years previously he had told me that standard fitness training & weight training will make little or no difference to your fitness for surfing.

It makes sense when you think about it – the muscle groups that you use when surfing are completely different muscle groups than you would use with standard exercises such as running & cycling, and even rowing – and when you’re surfing you’re using these muscle groups in completely different ways.

Consider all of the different steps to surfing, even just lying prone on your board & lifting your head up uses back & neck muscles in a different way than you would train for as a part of any normal exercise routine. Then there’s paddling, which is a different stroke from swimming, and uses various different muscles in a way which is difficult to train on land. Popping up to your feet is a maneuver which requires intense & very fast action from many different muscle groups all at the same time – an action which you’ll need to perform over & over again while out in the water.  Staying balanced on your board requires a mixture of core strength & balance, and different turns & maneuvers require the flexibility & strength of a wide range of muscle groups. I think most of us underestimate just how much physical exertion is required to surf.

Is it any wonder that most of us who can’t get in the water very often, struggle to get any better, and find it common to take long times to recover from surf sessions, and very easy to sustain injuries? (as I’m writing this I’m in agony with my right shoulder from surfing over  a week ago, and the pain in my ankle has just gone enough for me to now walk without a limp!).

Lee told me that he & other pro surfers mainly trained in the water. For instance on flat days he would go out on long paddle practice sessions, even sometimes trawling mackerel feathers behind the board to catch his lunch while he’s at it. And, that the very best form of fitness session for surfing, is surfing itself.

I don’t think anyone would argue that there is any possible better practice & fitness routine for surfing than actually getting out there & surfing – but what about people like me who can’t get in the water very often?

There are lots of people like us who live hundreds of miles away from any surf break, and who can’t get to the water on a regular basis, who find it frustrating that they never really improve on their surfing due to the fact that there is very little land practice they can do which will help them to increase their fitness for surfing.

Many people who get frustrated by not being able to improve as they can’t practise enough, probably don’t even realise that it’s down to fitness for surfing, but I’m adamant that it is in most cases. You need to be fit & strong & flexible in all the key area’s to enable you to be able to get in the water & pull off all of the fundamental elements of surfing with ease, so that you can get onto practising more advanced stuff & having fun.  If you struggle to get out back, struggle to get to your feet, struggle to catch waves – then it’s due to surf fitness, and you’ll find it very difficult to improve until you do something about this.

And I reckon I’ve just found the answer!!

Last week I was in Bude for a week & got out in the water every day, I struggled with my paddling stroke, I struggled catching waves, I found popping up onto the board a real difficulty & kept reverting to sticking my knee down first (which REALLY does my head in!) and after the first session I had done something to my right shoulder which made it even more difficult to pop up.  I still enjoyed it, but I was pretty frustrated & had the feeling that I would never get any better at surfing until we one day are able to move down to Cornwall, which we will do one day but probably won’t be for a while.

But then this week, I discovered something which I think may well have the ability to change this, a specifically designed surfing fitness, surfing exercise program.

A surfer called Clayton Beatty (who also happens to be a Certified Fitness Trainer with a BSc Human Movement Degree from the University of Western Australia) specialize in functional fitness training programs for extreme sport athletes – and has put together a surfing fitness online course, called Total Surfing Fitness.

If you go to the total surfing fitness website you’ll see he makes some pretty bold claims, such as: “Triple your wave count in 30 days or less using the “new science” of surf specific functional training”

This is a pretty bold statement – but after subscribing & starting to watch the videos & go through the first module – I wouldn’t at all be surprised if I do get triple the waves after putting this training program into use for a month or so.

I wasn’t really expecting much, I’ve seen stuff that makes claims like this before – but sheesh, he’s put some real effort in here, as soon as you get into the members area & see all of the video’s & training session guides in each module, you realise that this is a really well put together program.

And as I’ve started to get into the exercises, I can see now that they really are starting to work the muscles that we use when surfing.

In fact I’d say that just the module 1 warm up session video alone will make a real difference!

The total surfing fitness program is a training routine which is aimed at those of us who want to get fit specifically for surfing. Yes, it includes a lot of cardio, and muscle training that will also help to lose weight & increase general health & fitness – however this is a specifically put together training schedule for surfers.

Surfing is an athletic sport, we probably put in more effort in a surf session than a long jumper, sprinter or triple jumper would put in during a performance  – so when you consider that, it’s no wonder we never get any better if we only do it every so often & don’t have a specific training program.

If you decided to get into any other athletic sport,  would you expect to become good at it by doing it every so often with no specific training program?

It’s the same in any sport, anyone who wants to get better must adopt a specially designed training program for that sport.

Take formula 1 for example. fitness experts put together very specific training routines for f1 drivers to ensure that they possess the right kind of fitness in the right area’s to enable them to handle the f1 cars & all of the stress that puts on their bodies while they’re out there racing.

It’s the same in pretty much any sport (apart from darts, which I’m lead to believe is a sport where the pro’s have specially formulated workouts which involve lifting up a pint of beer icon wink Total Surfing Fitness Reviews Honest Surfing Fitness Review. )

Do you think any F1 driver became professional with just good “general fitness”?

OK fair enough most of us aren’t bothered about becoming good enough at surfing to become a professional sponsored surfer, but still – you have to reach a certain level in surfing just to be able to enjoy it. If every session consists of frustration followed by weeks of pain & immobility, you’re not likely to continue to enjoy surfing for long.

I’m going to really put myself into the Total Surfing Fitness program for the next few months, and see what happens. I’ll report here how I notice my general fitness levels improving, and how I’m finding it – and then next time I’m fortunate enough to be able to get out in the water I’ll let you know if I notice a difference, and if I catch triple the waves!

If anyone has tried or is already using the total surfing fitness program – please reply & let me know how you’re finding it.

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