Surfing contains a lot of arm work paddling towards and away from the waves and in order to minimize this work, surfers maximize their ride (Connor and Tessa, personal interviews). The body is exceptionally engaged in surfing. Each stroke of the arm and shifting motion engages a different muscle. When you hear about people surfing you think of the stereotypical muscles used in your core. Often the first thing that comes time mind is the intensity of balance and the strain it must place on those core muscles. While this information is true, there is a part of your body being used even more than your core. From my experiences on the water, the biggests working muscles while surfing are your arm and back muscles. As Connor McMurdo puts it, “The arm and back muscles are essential to surfing and will be the sorest after a long day on the waves” …show more content…
The actions of surfing are paddling, standing up, holding balance, and maneuvering the board along the wave. The first action, paddling, engages many muscles all along the back and into the arms. Paddling works your Latissimus Dorsi (found in your lower back), your Trapezius (found in the upper, back of your neck) and your deltoides (found in the shoulders) (Tessa Bolter, personal interview 1). According to Hypervibe.com; “Paddling out uses deltoides, biceps, and triceps, which is all upper body and found in the arms and shoulders” ( ). From my observations of surfers, paddling takes up the majority of the time on the water. Paddling out to the spot on the water you would like works all of these muscles for long periods of time. Likewise paddling away from the wave as fast as you can in order to catch and stand up on the wave is another chunk of a surfers time. Popping up on the wave and riding it as well as maneuvering the wave can be a mere 30 seconds of working your muscles. Pushing yourself up on the board while on a mo While so many muscles are engaged In just standing up it takes more than just strength to
Imagine yourself laying on your surfboard in the cool ocean water with the hot sun beating down on you. Surfing is a sport as old as time. Created in 1,000 A.D surfing caught on quick and never left. As surfing grew in popularity, more and more people began competing. By 1930 surfing competitions started but wasn’t popular until 1978 when the first place winner got a cash prize.
As I looked backed at what seemed to be a decent sized wave, I started paddling with all my might, digging through the water, deeper and deeper. The wave came closer and I felt a push from my cousin as I caught the wave. “Stand up” my cousin yelled behind me as the monstrous wave began to swallow me up. I stood up, rode the wave all the way to the shore, and fell in love with the sport of surfing. Since that day, I have loved everything one could ever love about the sport: The salty water as it touched my body, the push of the wave as it stood me up on my smooth yet sticky board, and the exhilarating rush that I felt after every perfect ride. But not quite everything about the sport came easy to me, it took a long ride to find the love I have for the sport today. When I first started competitively surfing, I
Imagine you are at the beach. You are laying down a towel and setting up an umbrella when something catches your eye. Out in the ocean you see a surfer catching some waves, and it looks so fun and exciting that you almost grab a board and join in. However you don’t know how to surf and would rather not embarrass yourself in front of all these beach goers. Surfing, however, isn’t complicated at all and can be accomplished in these simple steps.
I believe surfing is the best teacher. It teaches you motivation, strength, and balance. Not many things in life teach you all these things while still allowing you to have fun. You have to pick your battles. You have to decide how you will respond to failure. You have to decide to surf. You have to let the waves carry
Some would say it's like snowboarding, whereas others would say it's like skateboarding. I, on the other hand, believe surfing is unlike any other sport. Besides it being loads of fun and freeing your mind, it is also a great workout. Problem is, though, many people wonder how to get started and learn what to do. That's where I come in.
Surfing: Cardio, conditioning. Surfing requires constant core balance and upper body strengthening by paddling. It's similar to an interval-type workout because you are paddling for waves, popping up on your feet, and maintaining full body motion with balance. This activity strengthens and requires various muscle groups.
It isn’t clear how the Polynesians actually discovered surfing, but we can all conjecture. Assuming that these ancient people were familiar with paddling in the ocean, they surely understood that while paddling with a swell, one could feel the next wave building behind them. As the wave begins to peak, it pulls you down, and then draws you up, then allowing one to fall along the face of the wave, skipping forward across the surface. It seems to be the best guess that surfing started much like that, a fisherman catches a lift to shore
Now on my back, I began to swim a stroke the complete opposite of the more commonly known freestyle. My arms started to swing like they had lost all attachment to my body, but my legs seemed to refuse to kick. I kicked and splashed the water as hard as I could, but my arms seemed to be doing the only work. My arms were already tired enough from swimming butterfly, I didn’t know how long I could actually keep this up.
I grew up loving everything about the ocean because I spent so much time playing and swimming in the sea and during all that time, I have never come across waves of this size with this amount of wild seahorses. The first time I surfed, I couldn’t even position myself to catch the wave, let alone stand on the board without falling back into the ocean. It looked so easy but was much harder to control the surfboard than what I expected. I was, however, determined to surf properly and after trying many times, I eventually succeeded and I loved it so much that I could not stop.
To add on, Bethany Hamilton, author of Soul Surfer, undertook the mission of surfing again after a shark attack and wanting to become a professional surfer. No one thought she was able to, but she did. The writer states,“Seemingly level-headed about the incident and the radical change to her body, she vowed to return to surfing as soon as possible” (Biography.com Editors para. 6). This shows that ever since she got attacked by the shark she wanted to and was going to surf again. The writer states, “Even more important, Hamilton demonstrated that the loss of an arm was no obstacle to fulfilling her surfing goals” (Biography.com Editors para. 8). This shows that she was determined and she wasn’t going to give up and is going to surf. The writer states, “The author states, “Hamilton resumed surfing just one month after the attack, her determination helping to keep the story alive in the
There are different parts involved in making a surfboard but the most essential of all is the surfboard fin. This is the part which controls the movement of board on the wave. This is much more like a rudder of a boat which is used to stabilize and steer the surfboard according to the wave direction.
Paddle boarding is a simple fun exercise. If you are a beginner it is simple, follow these easy steps: first, slowly get up to your feet. After you have steadied yourself make sure your feet are shoulder length apart. After you have accomplished those two steps make sure your grip on the paddle is nice and secure (make sure to grab the top of the paddle). The final step is to dip the paddle completely into the water and using your back muscles push through the water.
At first, surfing was stressful for her, but she managed to learn to do it with one arm. Surfing is hard enough but with a big disadvantage it proved to be even more difficult. Bethany did a lot of competitive surfing, and at first she didn’t get great rankings because of what had happened but she kept training and got better at competitive surfing. One of the first competitions Bethany competed in when she started competitive surfing again, was very stressful for her. One of the girls in the competition tried using Bethany’s disadvantage to her advantage. Bethany was so stressed that day she gave away her surfboards, and felt like giving up. But with the help of her family she went back in the water to keep on living her
“In surfing, water streams past the hand and can cause what’s called lift force. Lift force can only be created when I my hand is a curved surfaces designed, which gives the best ratio of lift to drag. When the water passes over the hand onto a longer surface area, the water is forced or propelled at a greater speed than it would when travelling under the hand, similar to my wider paddling technique. The lift force is in the opposite direction of the force, this gives a surfer greater traction against the water, to catch a wave (Amezdroz, et al,. 2010).”
that the surfer use. A longer board allows a to paddle fast enough to catch the wave and is more stable. But it also limits maneuverability and surfing speed.