The ancient Kahunas‘ hang out?

[BoMan]

Kahuna tip #1
I find it easier to get to my feet on bigger waves. (4-5 feet, haha) If I time my popup with the moment the board drops down the slope there's more room for my feet to slip under my body.

[BoMan]

#2
Burpees, leg squats and sit-ups REALLY help!

[oldmansurfer]

so far the only problem I have with th e popup is when I haven't been surfing in a while. It goes away if I keep surfing regularly so far. But what I am doing regularly while landlocked is walks. I try to go so that it gets my heart rate above 100 on average and once that seems easy I will go steeper faster whatever and try to get my heart rate above 110 and below 140 (apple watch keeps track) The I also do a variety of stretches and balancing exercises and band resistance stuff to keep my shoulders strong. Recently I broke my foot and had to take it easy for a while but I am now back to getting at it and close to what I was doing before. So far just the heart rate over 100 on average and I walk about 1.5 miles a day if I can. I do leg raises to strengthen my abdominals and it also helps with my back as I have some minor scoliosis. At this point I am not sure if I will ever get to go surfing again but I have hopes.

[BoMan]

Some effects of aging (at 73)...

On the plus side, my upper body strength hasn't deteriorated all that much. I can still paddle. The engine works.

Tip #3 I take a swim class at the local JC and free-style at a comfortable pace 2x week.

What's dropped? Resiliency, mobility, metabolism, and joints. I've gained some weight and this has done a number of things. It makes me more prone to throwing out my back, pulling muscles or straining my knees.

Tip #4 Extra baggage gives you nothing!

[oldmansurfer]

Haha old man war stories! I am 71 and have been much more fit than I am now. I am not really sure if I can ever get as fit as I once was but that is my aim for now. I am fairly sure all the degenerative things happening to my body will keep me from that goal. however I am retired so why not? Wish I could do swimming but what is stopping me from surfing is I am the caregiver for my wife who has had a stroke and then fell and broke her pelvis and then fell and broke her ribs. She has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, anxiety and is underweight. Well anyway until I was in my 30's and in college pursing an advanced degree I was skinny. I had zero body fat and could not put on weight at all. I tried lifting weights and taking extra calories in pill form. Nothing worked till I had to quit getting the exercise that I normally would want to do. My weight climbed up from 165 to 185. After graduation I started work which again kept me from exercising as much as I wanted to but I joined a gym and was getting in shape again but then I got married. Wife didn't want me to go to the gym so I quit and gradually put on another 30 pounds up to 215. I used to kid my wife that the reason why she didn't want me to go to the gym was because there were all these cute girls in tights and the reason I gained so much weight was because I wasn't chasing them all over the gym anymore. LOL there weren't many cute girls at gym then but there were a few who could do more weights than me. Interesting to me there was a machine there for back exercises and that was the only machine I could do with maximum weights for some reason more than these big muscular guys too. Well anyway I got in worse shape and quit surfing due to work and being on call all the time. But what I noticed about excess weight was I never got really cold in the water like I used to when I was skinny (no wetsuit). The other thing I noticed was I could make a much more powerful turn, putting more weight into it. I even made a turn so hard it bruised my heel and I sure it through buckets of spray although I never saw it. I had noticed previously the increased force put into my turns by my excessive weight. However more weight also means more degeneration and I have cut my weight down to 195. I see the female surfers like Caroline Marks she was a chubby kid when she first came on the world tour and she has transformed into a slimmer version. I am not sure if that has affected her power but it appears to have however she is doing more beautiful surfing now not so much power so maybe it's her choice to not be smashing the waves and do more flowing maneuvers. I don't know but I'm sure they all have issue with their public image because it will help them to make more money but also their own self esteem. Lost track of my dialog, but I am sure in my case the extra pounds helped me to put more force into my turns. however it is likely hard on my joints and makes it more difficult to get up off the floor LOL. I have noticed an improvement with losing the weight I have lost already. So not sure where I can go with my current training or how it will result in surfing fitness but for now it's all I have and I will keep trying to get back into the shape I was once in.

[oldmansurfer]

Everyone says I am skinny but in my younger life I know I was skinny then but now I am overweight. So you might say I am fat but identified as skinny therefore I am translender

[BoMan]

Everyone says I am skinny but in my younger life I know I was skinny then but now I am overweight. So you might say I am fat but identified as skinny therefore I am translender

[BoMan]

This Kahuna suffers more injuries than his younger self.

Last year I paddled out on a small day (4 feet, 18 sec). I took the first wave of set, made the bottom turn and was caught by the lip which was moving faster than I was. As I fell my hand struck the board and quickly swelled up. It didn't feel too bad at the time because of the cold water and I foolishly decided to keep surfing. When I eventually got out I couldn't see my knuckles and had to go to urgent care. It was a wakeup call.

Tip #5 - Pay attention to injuries and address them before they get worse.

[oldmansurfer]

In my life I had 2 injuries that affected my surfing over a long course of time. Both of them happened because of my love for animals. The first was a back injury. A friend of mine called me and said his dog (90 pound Doberman)was hit by a car and needed something for pain to be transported. I am a veterinarian so I took some narcotics and headed over to his house. He had to go to work so I said hello and goodbye to him and sedated the dog where it was along the side of the road. His wife said she couldn't lift the dog so I was in good shape and lifted dogs that size or bigger no problem at least once a week as part of my work. I knew how to not use my back although as I mentioned above I have a really strong back. Unknown to me the owner had placed a leash on the dog and in it's struggling the leash was under neath it. When I lifted the dog I was standing on the leash and came up about half way then the leash pulled me over. I didn't fall and it didn't hurt but it felt like something happened in my back. We went in to my workplace and when I bent over to pick the dog up out of the car I was suddenly in severe pain. I wasn't surfing at the time but even to this day I need to do back stretching exercises or I will have problems and that was like 30 or so years ago. The other injury wasn't surfing but playing with my dog. It was during the 12 year period when I first quit surfing and I was out of shape. I was out doing search and rescue training with my dog and in between having to do anything so I was playing with my dog and I was playing a kind of chase game and made a sharp cut to the side and felt something give in my knee. It didn't hurt too much initially but swelled up slowly. I haven't had problem with my knee for the last couple years but I do knee exercises regularly. My advice is don't get out of shape an don't quit surfing if at all reasonable. If I were surfing my recent foot injury from walking my dog on the beach would have stopped me for a while. I was walking my dog on the beach and he jumped over a log and I did too not paying much attention to that log as there were more right in front and I kicked the log. I didn't go see a doctor and treated it myself and it's all better now. See the pattern here 3 injuries from dogs. So my final bit of advice is don't get a dog. (just kidding)

[BoMan]

It didn't hurt too much initially but swelled up slowly. I haven't had a problem with my knee for the last couple years but I do knee exercises regularly. My advice is don't get out of shape an don't quit surfing if at all reasonable.

You continue to exercise your knee and I still feel the need to stretch my hand. I suspect that Kahuna injuries are for life and never really go away. At some point to stay salty I'll probably have regimens for most of my body!

[BoMan]

As I get older it's more difficult to paddle. I used to easily get through the shore break and hunt peaks where ever they appeared. I took pride in making the extra strokes to catch rolling waves on the incoming tide. I could angle my takeoff early and not get left behind. All this used to be easy on a 6 foot fish and now is hard on a longboard.

To address this -
I wait for lulls in the sets before paddling out. I'm retired and in no hurry to get out.

I'm more selective about the waves I paddle for. I no longer go for "good waves." I paddle for the ones that are good for me. Right now that's a slow breaking 3-4 footer that has a long run inside. I surf where this commonly occurs and study the forecast for the best days and times.

Foam is my friend. I may treat myself to a 9'6"

Tip #6 - Conserve energy!

[oldmansurfer]

I think an important aspect of performance is to pay attention to yourself. How do you respond to a particular situation in the ocean or to an exercise or stretch. Are you injuring yourself? How does your body deal with that type of injury? There is a mid ground where it's not too little and not too much. That is the level of training that you will respond positively to. This will vary from person to person and with the same person from time to time.

Also pay attention to the ocean. What are the waves doing and where are they doing it? Where are the rips, where are the good waves, meaning the waves that you can ride good. Lots of beginner surfers just use others to figure out the lineup but you need to figure it out in relation to what you can do not what others can do. Again the lineup will vary from person to person but also for the same person over time. The waves break in a certain manner and with reef breaks the size and direction of the swell and the wind and tide will affect how it breaks on any particular day. In sand breaks over the short period of time you are surfing the bottom may change which changes the way the waves break as well as there may be different swells at different angles at the same time, although perhaps this doesn't occur as much when there is a continental shelf. You need to know your limits to surf safely. Always keep some reserve ability in case of emergencies. If you are a borderline dangerous break and you figure you can get back in if you get in a bad situation but just barely then if you are injured and need to get back in you may die so to be safe don't go out. I guess you can't predict a lot of things but if you allow yourself to have a safety buffer of ability then if the amount needed to get you back safely is within that buffer you will still do well.

[oldmansurfer]

I saw a new type of foil surfing I have never seen before. The foiler was being towed by a miniature remotely controlled (most likely) jet ski looking device. He had about 5 to 10 yards of tow rope. I was driving my car so couldn't really gawk at it. Might have been one of these

https://youtu.be/KCwNjCQjMqY?si=48Owyo_V6B7yyDuA

[oldmansurfer]

I wondered what is the advantages of this form of foiling. The first thing that comes to mind is you can abandon it to ride a wave and then direct it to come back and pick you up. In which case you will be riding a regular foil board on the wave which has better performance than an eboard (electric self propelled foil). Much to my surprise eboards have become the thing here. I guess because most of the foilers only do it when the waves are junk. I imagine it also has a longer range so you could go out to sea more and ride further from shore without worrying about running out of charge for a longer period of time.

[BoMan]

I wondered what is the advantages of this form of foiling.

Youth = Time + Energy + No Money
Middle Age = Money + Energy + No Time

and the answer to your question....

Old Age = Time + Money + No Energy

[oldmansurfer]

Yes but I was comparing to the usual efoil board which has the propellor on the fin not requiring an extra appendage or towing. It is self propelled. So why use a separate unit to tow it when they come self propelled?

[BoMan]

So why use a separate unit to tow it when they come self propelled?

Agree! I imagine there are legal issues too. Who is liable if you fall and the unit injures someone or damages property while trying to get back to you?

[BoMan]

With age I need more recovery time.

Every time I over do it, I pay the price! Too many hours in a session, too many days in a row, or paddling out in powerful conditions puts me into chronic fatigue.

These days I focus on Just enjoying the waves and doing what I can!

[BoMan]

No surf injuries but now I'm recovering from playing red light-green light with 7 year olds. I accelerated too fast and pulled my hamstring. Jeez!

[oldmansurfer]

Re telling an old story .
I was out surfing at my usual break and the only other person out was a guy who was my classmate in high school and I had only recently graduated. He paddled over to me to say "I don't want to see you on my waves. What I mean by my waves is if I am on a wave then it is my wave. I don't care if you were on first or after me if I am surfing it then it is my wave." I responded "Don't you remember me? I grew up with you. I just graduated with you from high school." He responds " I don't care. I don't want to see you on my waves."

It was easy enough since there were plenty of waves, I just made sure he caught a wave then I caught one. I caught a wave and got completely tubed and on the end of the section the tube collapsed but I managed to stay on my board and pop out of the whitewater. My classmate was there trying to take off then he just stopped and looked at me. I surfed past him and tried to make sure he didn't take off on that wave which he didn't so I finished off the wave and paddled back out. He started paddling over to me and I thought I might have to fight him now but he just asked me "How did you do that?" I asked him back "Do what?" He said "Stay on your board when the tube collapsed on you." I thought about it a bit and answered "I just lean into the wave so the force of the wave is pushing me down into the board instead of sideways and hope it lets up quickly like it did." I used to get tubed on the closeout section of the shore break and stand up while leaning into the wave to cut out. I think I managed to stay standing up like one out of 30 or 40 times doing this. It was automatic to me to lean into the wave if it was hitting me. Anyway we surfed some more and he never gave me any problems.

I think perhaps that when I surf I don't have a preconceived notion of what I can and can't do so I just do things and not worry about how I do them or if I should be able to do them. I was surfing a bit later with a guy I met at the local community college when I started college. We surfed a break by a hotel near the harbor here. I was still not using a board leash, my board was made with no plug before they were available. He had never not surfed with a leash and wondered how I managed but I caught one wave and got hit by the lip for a few seconds and managed to stay on my board. He asked me "How did you do that?" I thought he was wondering how I managed to hang on to my board when I wiped out so I answered "It's a skill you develop from surfing without a leash. You just grab your board if possible and hang on for your life." He said "Yeah that too but I was wondering how you managed to not fall down when the lip hit you." I told him "You just lean into the wave so that he lip pushes you down onto your board."