Re: Post your daily exercise routine

It was a bit like surfing in a washing machine today, but surfing it was, and I am one happy person for having frozen everything top to toe to get a few waves in.

Every year it gets a little harder to pop up and today was more fun than any one person deserves but also a reminder that there are a few more rings around my tree than there used to be.

Challenge 1: Getting past the shorebreak. The waves come in quickly and break hard. This is the most dangerous place in surfing when the surf is big. You have to deal with slamming surf and side currents in a very shallow area. Getting past the shorebreak involves bracing your legs against the current and pushing away from the shore with your board.

Challenge 2: Inside surf (near the shore). The waves break in fast intervals. You hop on your board belly-down and paddle with all your might, most especially the moments immediately after a wave breaks. Not doing so means you will be pushed back to towards the shore, losing ground. This is where I can get knocked around and provide a fair amount of entertainment for people on shore. There are days in which some people just can't get past this inside section. This is called being "rejected."

Challenge 3. Getting to the outside: To surf well, you have to paddle into the wave and pop up just as the wave breaks. This means you need to get past where the large waves are breaking, which is called the outside. Ideally, you never want to stand up in the frothy whitewater. If you are on a longboard (two or more feet longer than you are tall), it takes timing, but you essentially paddle over the top of the large waves to get to the outside. If you have a shortboard and you have the strength, you "duck" dive by digging the nose under the breaking wave and using your knee to push yourself and the entire board under the oncoming wave and pop out of the back of it.

Challenge 4: Timing the waves. Once you are on the outside, you typically sit on your board, catch your breath, relax for a minute, and sometimes chat with others surfers, always facing the horizon, and watching for the biggest wave in an oncoming set. This is pure heaven.

As that perfect wave approaches a few dozen yards away, you turn, move into a prone position, and paddle as fast as you can. The idea is to be in position to where the highest portion of the lip will break (learned with experience), and you moving at high speed as the wave breaks.

You pop up on two feet in a crouch position, stand up and use your feet to drop or fall into the steepest part of the wave, springing up and using your feet and board so the fins and rails (side of the board) catch the wave and you are surfing, ready to make carves and turns.

It's all much better when your feet aren't frozen and when you actually accomplish each of these steps. Ooo, that water was cold today.

I caught some really fun waves this morning, and fell off or missed enough to be surfed out and blissed out despite the big bruise on my shin and self-esteem. More surfing tomorrow...

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Love that description about how to surf, Surfermom. I understand in the UK there is quite a following involving the surfing sect but because of our very haphazard climate, the sport is nowhere near the level of expertise which you will be favouring. We don't have those types of waves for instance and our coastal areas around the UK vary greatly according to the current in each "resort".
I know it's a big event down at the South coast around Cornwall and Devon, and I've even seen a surfing club up North about thirty miles from where I am in a seaside town called Bridlington, so I guess it's a bigger sport in the UK than I realise tbh.

Well done on your albeit icy return to the surf today though. I bet you were happy to get out of the chilly water, dried off and warmed up with a nice mug of coffee

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Yes Surfermom, I can only echo Floydy's appreciation of a surfing lesson extremely well written. In fact, so well written I shall dismantle some sturdy flooring board and make my way down to the canal this very afternoon...Better known as 'Entry Level' surf....

If only....... 'WARNING' this post contains scenes of gratuitous moaning...

My back seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Sitting or standing in a fixed position for more than five minutes makes it extremely painful to move in any direction. Standing from a sitting position produces a stab of pain I can only imagine is similar to childberth, according to Mrs Fox who describes me as 'A Wuss'......
Fortunately, after years of Ultra-distance running I am no stranger to pain and will persevere for a couple more days yet before seeking professional help....

The pain and stiffness seems to have radiated away from the Piriformis Muscle and more into the Lumbar region, I do believe I could walk or even run if I tried, but with Lactic Acid still leaching from the muscles and then producing stiffness I believe my best option is to allow the muscles to settle down before attempting any form of exercise or stretching. That includes surfing on the canal....for now.....

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Foxy I recommend a Sports Physio

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

^ More later, OGF, but this!

Get on with it or Ruthio and I will be coming' round to deliver you ourselves.

I'll bring a large board for you to lie on, and we can just slide you into the back of the van.

While this might sound like a relaxing option, you might want to go yourself. There is the potential for much bossiness en route .

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Bob, you've obviously strained your back from helping your friend the other day with all that lifting. You should have been resting to be honest, but I know it's hard to say no to somebody and have to let them down.

You need to rest and get yourself to a physio pronto bud. Be told now


Well, if there's a 'wuss' around today it's definitely me.
We had a nice meal at my local pub yesterday evening and all through it I was sitting under the air conditioning and I awoke this morning with one hell of a stiff neck, which is still bloody painful. I really wanted to train today, but I can't even turn my head without moving my whole body to the right.
Driving isn't the best of things to so either as I'm relying on swivelling my eyeballs so far to the right that they feel like they're revolving around the back of my head.
So it's a night indoors babysitting tonight and with plenty of Voltarol on my neck. Hopefully by the morning I'll be fit enough to visit the house of iron once more

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Too right Surfermom!

Pssst...what he doesnt know is my masseuse skills are second to none, so Ill bring along my portable couch with me...believe you me once I get stuck into that soft tissue with my fists and elbows...

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

You two are just encourageable......
And I have read the small print Ruthio!...
Floydy, I just don't know why people use air conditioning at this time of year. A very good fish restaurant we regularly visit has it running all year so seating must be chosen with care..... Hope your neck is feeling better tomorrow.

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Thanks for your concern Ruthio and Surfermom, but you wouldn't massage a broken arm while it's still repairing itself would you...

You'd wait until it healed and then see the physio to regain suppleness and flexibility...

I might be wrong.....and just in case I am, I'll go and see my physio guy next week if it's no better on Monday.....

I'm sick of looking like 'Billy' on Coronation Street....(that won't mean anything to Surfermom)...Briefly: He's a fallen vicar who wandered on to the dark side and was chucked over a cliff by his accusers which left him almost crippled and racked with pain and is now hooked on painkillers and has to use sticks to walk.......Anyway, you get the idea.....

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Once you are on the mend, no longer looking like Billy, and want suppleness and flexibility, you might want to consider the pole dancing thread in General Discussions.......

But hold the phone, you just had an opportunity to have Ruthio's restorative massages.... and passed?

That's ok, the rest of the forum is now queuing up.