It's all about riding more waves! I got my first real ride when I was 12—a two-footer in West Palm Beach that peeled left for 30 seconds, amazing! That night, the ride replayed in my head for an hour before I could fall asleep. The next morning on the drive back home to Miami, I starred out the family station wagon's back window, daydreaming about my next ride: the wave would be a little bigger than that last one. This time, though, I'd pull off a roundhouse cutback like the one in the poster pinned up over my bed!
I'd bet you've had a similar intro to wave riding. And today, we all still fantasize about that next trip to the beach—to ride more waves. I've been at it for more than 20 years. Off and on as I've moved from Miami to Chicago, then New York City, Oregon, Los Angeles, and back to NYC. I've traveled to surf in Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Costa Rica.
While most of my surf outings have been super fun, there have been way too many that have left me bummed out. All mostly for the same reason—I wasn't in good enough shape! The story goes something like this: I paddle out and my arms and shoulders start to feel tired. I miss the first two waves I go for and my arms really start to feel it. I barely get on the third wave I try for; fun ride, but as I paddle back out to the peaks, I can barely keep enough speed to avoid getting caught inside. My arms, shoulders, back, neck, hips, butt, and legs all feel tight and weak. I'm lucky if I get a second ride and make it back to the sand without pulling a muscle or getting a cramp. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone else is catching all the waves they want. No fun!
As I look back, my best surf years were in LA, my apartment was right behind the Venice Boardwalk. Two to three times a week, I'd get up at 6:30am, walk to the beach for 45 minutes of surfing then jump in the shower and head in to work. On weekends, my buddies and I would drive north or south looking for the best place to paddle in and surf like mad. I was in great surf shape back then.
Now that I'm back in NYC, I surf once a week if I'm lucky and, of course, there's the yearly Surfari travel trip—not nearly as much as I'd like, but I'll take it. Given these limited opportunities, I'm determined to make the most out of every chance I get by being in as good as surf shape as I can.
I've looked everywhere and found a few surf-specific workouts, but nowhere a comprehensive step-by-step, week-by-week surf workout program so I decided to build one. I spent months reading every article and book and watching every video. I brought my findings to a top-notch Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and we developed the AmpedSurf workouts to help me and thousands like me to ride more waves!
J. Velez
December 2008 Castlepoint, NEW ZEALAND
