Can Overweight People Surf

People often inquire whether overweight people can surf. It surely depends on a few things. The real issue is that overweight people often arrived at that condition by both eating too many calories and not exercising. It is the not exercising that is the greater problem for surfing.

Surfing is very physically demanding. The surfer has to push their weight off the board to initiate a pop up. The surfer then in the beginner pop up, has to place a foot under their butt flat on the surfboard and stand on that leg. As they are standing, they raise their hands in front of them and move the other foot to the front of the board. This is where they run into trouble.

The Fundamentals of Surfing

The beginner surfer begins with surfing foam waves near the beach on high volume soft top boards. The importance of beginning in foam waves and high volume surfboards is to make learning the fundamentals easier. A foam wave is easy to see and has a large window for getting in front of it. A high volume surf board is easier to paddle, stand up on, and ride.

When the surfer sees the foam wave about 20 feet away, he rolls onto the surfboard and begins to paddle easy. When the wave is about 3 feet away, he paddles hard four or five times to accelerate in front of the wave. He does not want to ride in the wave, but get in front of it.

Now its time to stand up. The surfer puts his hands next to his chest, behind his shoulders, in a man’s push up position. If the surfer places his hands in front of the shoulders towards the nose of the board, the ride will be over. Then the surfer pushes up. As he does this, he moves one foot, usually the right foot, under his butt and places it flat on the board so he can stand up on it.

This is where overweight people have the most trouble. They don’t’ have the flexibility to get the foot under their butt. They can’t place it flat on the board. Then they don’t have the leg strength to stand up on that foot. Then, their excess weight is still forward of the foot and they have difficulty getting their head and upper body into an upright position.

You can try to do this on your living room floor. To test flexibility, try touching your toes without bending your knees. This is where you will get the first indication you need more stretching. Then while lying down, push your body up and place the right foot flat on the floor under your butt. Some beginner students can do it on dry land but not in the water. Others find they have to use the other foot placed next to the first foot to stand up without driving it to the front of the board.

The problem with this sequence is that if both feet are on the back of the surfboard, the nose of the board will rise and the surfboard will lose the wave. If you cannot stand up on the back foot by having it flat on the surfboard, then you might move the second foot onto the board as well while still holding on with your hands. This places you in the yoga down dog position. If you nose is in front of your toes, then you will go off the front of the board.

If you body is not upright when you move the second foot from the back of the board to the nose, then you will go off the front of the board. The pop up requires that your hand and torso are upright before the front foot lands on the surfboard.

How to Improve the Pop Up

After reading the above, you see their are a host of problems. We haven’t even talked about the stamina necessary to try this several times in the water with paddling, riding in, and walking back out through the waves. The surfer needs upper body strength, flexibility, lower body strength, core strength, and a little agility.

The easiest way to build upper body strength is with push ups, or bench presses, or cable pulls. One has to be sure they are medically cleared to begin exercise so as not to create any cardiovascular or other health problems. The next way to build over all body strength, leg strength, and flexibility is to do squats. One can begin without weights. Once you can do sets of 25 squats without weights, you could begin by introducing light weights.

A sedentary person can begin an aerobic program first by walking. You can start with 10 to 15 minutes a day and progress to 30 minutes five days a week. Then try to move to an hour a day five days a week. In the progression to fitness, the exerciser can then begin to jog.

Nutrition will be important. It may precede the exercise program. Obese people may have to lose weight before they can safely begin to exercise. Once again, it might be best to consult your doctor for guidance. I once was teaching a person to surf and he did pretty well but he asked how he could get better. He was 220 pounds. I said losing weight would help. He said I just lost 160 pounds.

He was well on the way to being a better surfer and had learned how to lose weight. Now he had to continue losing weight and incorporate strength building into his program. It can be done.

Learn More

For Oceanside Surf Lessons, see the Home Page

See the Post Surf Lessons Begin with Foam Waves

See the Post What You Learn in a 2 Hour Lesson

See the Post How to Progress in Surfing

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