Is your "hang five" more like a "hanging out on the beach, bored?" It might be time for you to find more recreational fun than sitting on a towel, eating a smoked pretzel or hot dog and watching everybody else going wild and having bodacious fun out in the waves. It gets lonely sitting in the hot sun. Well, you can start by getting surfing training tools. Surfing is a fun sport and much more thrilling than sun bathing and working on that cellular degeneration.
Build Up Your Body
Surfing is all about the balance. You need reflexes like a cat. A cat that... likes water? The main kind of training tools you'll want are balance boards and strength training gear. So get out your exercise ball and start doing some curls. Another great way is to use that same balance ball to, well, practice balance. Shift your weight from knee to knee and try and keep your spine in line so that you feel comfortable on a constantly tilting surface. If you get better at this it'll be less intimidating when you hit the water. Some options for exercise balance balls are Valeo, Isokinetics, YogaDirect, and Gaiam. Another thing to do to build up your core and back muscles for enhancing balance is to use those physical therapy medicine balls. They're weighted so they will tone and target your core muscles when you use them properly with the right exercises. You can watch plenty of good exercise techniques and body training on surfing training DVDs.
Balance Boards and Surf Knowledge
This is the part of the article where you hear a booming, but pleasant, narrative voice much like Goofy does in the old Disney cartoons, saying, "How To Be A Pro Surfer. Step One: Learning The Lingo." Well, instead of going too far down that road, let's stick to the basics and avoid the mishaps. It can't hurt to buy yourself a book that explains the different kinds of surfboards you can choose from, equipment, wetsuits, and surfing technique like George Orbelions "Essential Surfing" or "Wingnut's Complete Surfing." Another thing you should invest in is some kind of balance board set. Indo boards are a fairly popular, and come in different designs (with a DVD explaining how to use it if you buy the complete training set). you should also maybe start off with something more simplistic when you actually get in the water- like boogie boarding. So get yourself a boogie board for starters and work your way up.
