![]() If you know where you’re likely to surf when it gets big, then it’s worthwhile considering in advance how you will get back to shore and maybe even what you will do should you break or lose your board. Prior Preparation Prevents Panic and Poundings It won’t be old-faithful because it’s not your everyday board, but you should at least know what it feels like to paddle and catch waves on, so surf your big wave board on small wave days, ignore the funny looks in the line-up and reap the rewards when the swell of the year hits. If the only time that you ever dust-off your step-up board or gun is when the waves are big enough to justify using it, then it’s almost inevitable that you won’t be as comfortable with your equipment as you could and should be when the big day arrives. ![]() Several of the coaches at Surf Simply increased their static breath hold from 1 minute to over 3 minutes during a 3 day course with Performance Freediving. Even just knowing that you can hold your breath for a long time, actually helps you to hold your breath for a long time. A wave hits everybody the same.īreath-hold training, of the sort undertaken by free-divers, increases confidence when facing the possibility of wiping out in large surf and in doing so decreases the heart rate, thus increasing the time that you can hold your breath for. Another technique is recognizing that other surfers, who are comfortable in these conditions, are made of the same stuff as you, and are surviving. Calming techniques can be as simple as imaging yourself in a safe and familiar environment, visualizing as many details of that environment as possible and all of it in vivid color. Over 2-3 seconds this will seem ineffective but over 2-3 minutes it’s incredibly powerful. ![]() If you become anxious or stressed then before too long your heart rate increases, your breathing speeds up, and you may start to sweat and develop muscle tension: the impact of the automatic physiological “fight or flight” response that still lingers in our DNA. Your body reacts physically to what you think about, and vice-versa. How close can you get before being sucked over the falls how deep does the impact of the falling lip penetrate and can you swim between the turbulence and the sea floor? Take the surfboard out of the equation and demystify what lies beneath. Develop an understanding of how they move and break, and what happens underwater when a wave passes overhead. Swim out with fins and a mask on and spend some time diving under waves. Is it a lack of confidence in your riding equipment caused by unfamiliarity, or an uncertainty over how you’ll respond if you break your leash or your surfboard? Acknowledge the barrier, and then set to work breaking through it. Do you fear deep water or shallow reefs, for example? Because they are two very different concerns. Recognizing, isolating, and addressing those that apply to you is the necessary first step. The first thing to note is that there are several different possible barriers to surfing bigger waves. “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” It’s not about charging giant Jaws: It’s about being able to paddle out and have fun riding waves in the widest possible range of conditions. ![]() Like most things in life, it is the aggregate of incremental advances in skill and confidence that get you there, but the effort is worth it because the pay-off is huge. There isn’t a golden ticket to riding bigger waves. A “big” wave to Greg Long might be 40ft, whilst your big could be a 4ft wave, but many of the same techniques can be used to increase your confidence and push you beyond the edge of your comfort zone however you classify “big”. Every surfer rides big waves it’s simply how they define “big” that varies.
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