Surf Physiotherapy in Cornwall: 3 Proven Training Methods to Improve Your Surf Fitness

Surfing is meant to be relaxing, fun and a blast. If your fitness is not up to the mark it can be a complete slog.

As a physiotherapist based in Truro, Cornwall, I work with surfers from Newquay, Perranporth, and Falmouth who struggle with nagging pain or injury and build their paddling endurance and stop them getting caught inside between sets.

Here is a summary table of how I would program it.

Surf fitness pillar 1: Build a big engine capable of paddling for minutes on end from the impact zone into the take off zone

The paddle back to the take off zone after you’ve caught a steamer on beach breaks like Fistral or Perranporth, can feel end less. Data from elite national and international surfers suggests it can be as long as 4 minutes (Farley et al., 2012) and in a single 30 minute heat 50% of the total time is spent paddling (Farley te al., 2018; Minghelli et al., 2019). During this surfers are predominantly working in their aerobic zone gas evidenced by heart rate averages between 56-74% of their age-adjusted max rate.

Unsurprisingly, we tend to spend more time paddling than resting on beach breaks compared to reef breaks (Farley et al., 2018) which should come as no shock given the often deep and wave-less channels that run up the side of point breaks. The next time you surf Porthleven reef and then a big session at Praa Sands, make a note of the difference in fatigue you feel between the two sessions and you'll see what I mean!

How then does this influence our training?

It suggests that surfing is largely an aerobic sport interspersed by short bouts of high intensity periods of wave rising and sprint paddling. If we want to dominate the line up and ensure a good wave count during competition then we need to be able to paddle for up to 4 minutes and have the capacity to repeat this for over a 20-30 minute period!

Here is how I would go about building a solid aerobic base to improve surf fitness and have you dominating the line up at the next big day at Fistral beach or Boardmasters.

I would suggest 2-3 sessions over a week of steady state work in the aerobic zone. The gold standard of knowing this zone would be a VO2 max test and then using heart rate values based off that, but this is an expensive approach and not something most of us have access too, certainly not if it means getting that new board you want! Instead you can estimate it based on a heart rate of no more than 70% of your age-adjusted max or an even simpler field test not requiring any equipment… the talk test!

If you can still have a conversation whilst on the bike, erg or rowing machine then you’re in the aerobic zone, if you start speaking in short sentences or singular words then you’re probably well above it.

As competition draws closer, you can play around with some Norwegian 4x4 training to emulate periods of high intensity work (like your sprint paddling and wave riding) with low intensity periods of paddling. This method has been shown to deliver the same result in improvements in VO2 max as steady state training. Some people might suggest that shifting to a ski erg closer to competition would be more specific to surfing… I would disagree as nothing can emulate paddling a board other than surfing itself, the kinetic, kinematic and energy system demands are unique to surfing - the ski erg doesn’t get close to this!

Surf fitness pillar 2: Why building a strong pop up is great for riding the big stuff

A strong pop up gets to your feet quicker and allows more time to react to the changing wave face. Peak ballistic pop up force and pop up time show a strong positive correlation in elite, experienced surfers and there is a strong correlation between wave pop up time and pop up time on a force plate in the gym (Parsonage et al., 2020)!

This tentatively suggests that increasing upper body horizontal pushing force and power could reduce pop time out in the surf! Whilst I would certainly focus on increasing upper body pushing strength for this reason and paddling power, correlation does not mean cause and effect. The pop up requires skill to perform and likely is more important than strength as the weaker riders in Parsonages’ study could pop up equally as well whilst being weaker!

So don’t put all your eggs in one basket…

In steeper sections of a wave or taking off in broken sections, I would argue that increasing push strength and power would be of more importance as the larger external forces of the wave acting in the board and rider would require greater peak force during the pop up to overcome these external forces and maintain stability throughout the transition from lying to standing. How would I go about training it? I would look at focusing on increasing upper body pushing (horizontal) max force through repeated strength blocks using exercises like dips, bench press, weighted press ups and upper body ballistics like medicine ball throws. If you were around to surf the rogue storm last August 2025 at Godrevy beach by the lighthouse, you will know why having a strong pop up is good for the big stuff.

Surf fitness pillar 3: Prepping the legs for high forces during aerial landings

Landing from aerials like reverse airs or even floaters off large overhead sections involve high impact forces through the ankles, knees and hips.

The larger the drop from peak height to the ocean surface, the greater the vertical ground reaction force (that’s basically the force that goes in the opposite direction to you when you land on the waters’ surface), and this force is absorbed through your whole body with your lower limbs taking the biggest hit!

Forsyth et al., (2020) found the two components used by elite surfers during a landing phase from an aerial were a larger degree of ankle dorsiflexion and maintaining their weight over the centre of the board. The larger ankle dorsiflexion on landing helps to absorb greater impact forces and the central weight placement of the rider over the board would mean that the resultant reaction force is less likely to cause the rider to fall off sideways but, it means more force goes through the lead leg during landing than it otherwise would!

This is supported by video analysis by Monaco et al., (2024) who found that during a World Surf League completion, the riders more likely to score points and land aerials were those who were more centrally positioned and had greater lead leg dorsiflexion on landing.

To enable this approach to riding, we have to be able to produce high eccentric (breaking) force in the legs rapidly, and at longer muscle lengths! Which is even more demanding on the tissues and nervous system.

Higher breaking forces means more stable landings, and all other factors equal, likely corresponds to greater possibility for scoring points during competitions!

One of the staples in my approach to building legs capable of producing high breaking forces would be a mixture of heavy squats and lunge-based movements and the primary goal would be to increase max force production. For sake of argument, we’d be looking at lifts in excess of 75% of your daily max, for a block of six weeks and plyometric exercises to address the rate of force component of landing aerials - remember the body has produce high forces very quickly!

Look at any video of John John Florence, Kelly or Gabriel Medina and count the seconds it takes from point of contact of the board on to the waters surface to being in a low stance and ready to continue wave riding.

I’d wager you didn’t even get to 1 second! You’ve got to be able to produce high forces in the muscles to overcome the landing forces in less than a second.

So the key training components to building surf fitness for your training are:

• Increase work capacity so you can dominate the line up by being the first into the take off zone without gassing, and to steam back out through the impact zone once you’ve caught a steamer all the way in.

• Push heavy objects with your upper body so you can pop up with confidence in broken sections or steep lips without getting sideswiped.

• Build strong, powerful legs with heavy squats, lunges and plyometrics so you can stomp the front side airs without your legs folding underneath you like deck chairs.

If are ready to take your surf performance to the next level, reduce your injury risk and shred the line up then get in contact with me at info@tidephysiotherapy.com

References

Minghelli, B., Paulino, S., Graça, S., Sousa, I., & Minghelli, P. (2019). Time-motion analysis of competitive surfers: Portuguese championship. Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira, 65, 810-817.

Farley, O. R., Secomb, J. L., Raymond, E. R., Lundgren, L. E., Ferrier, B. K., Abbiss, C. R., & Sheppard, J. M. (2018). Workloads of competitive surfing: work-to-relief ratios, surf-break demands, and updated analysis. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 32(10), 2939-2948.

Farley, O. R., Harris, N. K., & Kilding, A. E. (2012). Physiological demands of competitive surfing. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 26(7), 1887-1896 X

Parsonage, J., Secomb, J. L., Sheppard, J. M., Ferrier, B. K., Dowse, R. A., & Nimphius, S. (2020). Upper-body strength measures and pop-up performance of stronger and weaker surfers. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(10), 2982-2989

Forsyth, J. R., Riddiford-Harland, D. L., Whitting, J. W., Sheppard, J. M., & Steele, J. R. (2020). Essential skills for superior wave-riding performance: a systematic review. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(10), 3003-3011.

Monaco, J. T., Boergers, R., Cappaert, T., & Miller, M. (2024). A Comprehensive Needs Analysis on Surfing Performance Factors and Training Methodologies. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 46(5), 534-551.