Surfing my way towards better health
Have you ever wanted those six-pack abs? I do.. I do.. but I do not have the dedication to get them. I took a look through all my magazines and a light went off in my head. What if I become a surfer? Battling the waves should be a good cardio workout and in theory should work out my abs. All surfers look amazing.
My little sister, her best friend, and I signed up for a series of surfing classes at Venice beach. For the past two weekends we got up at 6 am; ate a power carb breakfast; and drove the 40 minutes out to the beach. When we arrived at the beach we were greeted by a truck with foam boards and wetsuits unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the rusted out truck with boards. After shimmying into wetsuits (they are very snug), we set off with boards on our head to the ocean. This was my second most disliked part of the lesson, getting out to the ocean with a big board on my head.
When we hit the ocean we were taught how a wave breaks, how to get through the waves, how to pop-up on the board, how to turn, and lots more of how to’s. Then came the implementation part of the lesson came into place when we placed our boards in the ocean.
The hardest part of surfing isn’t standing up on the board. It’s getting out past the breaking waves and dragging your board from your car to the ocean. You have to learn how to paddle and get past the whitewater where the waves are coming towards you and possibly breaking over you to the calm outside. As these waves come toward you they either flip you over or push you back to where you started. As a beginning surfer we were blessed and cursed with little waves the first weekend of surfing. The little waves were great for getting past, but then a curse when trying to ride them. The little waves have less momentum behind them so you can get past them with less risk of being flipped over. However when you’re trying to catch the wave, there is a lot more paddling involved to match the momentum of the wave. You also have to paddle much longer to stay with the wave because it won’t carry you once you catch it as a larger wave would.
The second weekend the waves were much bigger from 1-2 feet to 2-4 feet tall. Imagine trying to get out though 2-4 foot waves instead of 1-2 foot waves. It is much harder. We got flipped much more and spent a lot more time getting through the waves. (we learned later at brunch with a guy from Hawai that you need to find a channel on the side of the waves with less energy to get out inside of trying to go through the waves.
In summary, surfing is exhausting. It’s a great cardio workout and it tones up the arms. However I do not feel I got up enough times on the board to really have any effect on my abs.
Add comment August 29th, 2006
