[little_nasty]

mostly mental imho

[Looseness]

mostly mental imho

yeah until your muscles simply refuse to fire.....
but yeah, so much of it is mental.

[SeaCliff]

It's amazing how much sleep and stress play into for me. Inadequate sleep/periods of high stress kill my ability for marathon sessions, let alone multiple days of marathon sessions.

[little_nasty]

mostly mental imho

yeah until your muscles simply refuse to fire.....
but yeah, so much of it is mental.

that's just cause you don't have any energy storage on ya aka fat.

[Jack Crank]

Came across a nugget of insight in this interview with Owen Wright on Surfline.  In the comment about "DOES GOING FOR VIDEO PARTS GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR CONTEST PERFORMANCE?" he mentions that a 2hr session in the am and a 2hr in the pm a few days in a row is enough surfing to get him too rundown to do well in contests.  That feels just about like my margin for where my performance starts suffering as well.  Like 3 days of 2, 2 or 3hr sessions definitely has me feeling it for a few days.


The sleep and diet thing is something that I've really turned around in the last year.  Since I started surfing I lost 30lbs and have gone from getting totally beat after a single 2hr in a 2-3' day to being able to put a solid 7-8hrs in the water in a day when it's closer to 4-5'.  Going from a diet of beer, meat, beer, and bread to salads, nuts, veg and high quality lean meat has totally helped this.  I definitely can't drink for brown trout anymore that's for sure. 



I guess even the pros are human. 

[Looseness]

mostly mental imho

yeah until your muscles simply refuse to fire.....
but yeah, so much of it is mental.

that's just cause you don't have any energy storage on ya aka fat.

haha  true, but the fat also slows one down. I eat a pretty good amount of meat and fatty things in the Fall/Winter and warmer seasons, but just never gain more than 3-5 lbs. hence the refuel necessity every 3 hours.  then there's the coffee addiction.....

[The Lone Surfer]

mostly mental imho

yeah until your muscles simply refuse to fire.....
but yeah, so much of it is mental.

that's just cause you don't have any energy storage on ya aka fat.

I can see how willing yourself to stay out is mental, but recovery, being more prone to injury, not surfing as well I'm not sure about. I willed myself into a long session a month ago and am still paying the price.

[Dorado]

IMO being from a swimming background is paramount to stamina in the lineup . That or if you paddle and surf a lot , but for the most part I personally feel my ability to stay out all day or for 5-7 hrs at a time is 50% mental 50% Heart/desire .


Like most sports developing muscle memory /specific muscles for the particular sport is what leads to success . While the act of riding the wave is what we strive for the ratio of paddling to riding has to be about 90% paddling /jockeying 10% riding .


Get in a pool or get on a paddle board .


I used to hate being on swim team since childhood through college but now as an adult and a surfer I am very happ I did

[little_nasty]

yea - i'd also mention that pacing yourself goes a long way.  Paddle battles are a waste of energy!

[snaggletooth]

sometimes i just have to get over a hump and then i get a second / third/ fourth wind. that saturday a few weeks back, i couldn't believe we spent 9+ hours in the water in one day. i was shot after my first session, but wrestled up the energy for the second and just kept feeling better through the day and into the third session. that said, we haven't had a drifty day in a while - it wasn't like i was fighting for waves.
 
i also have to let my pace ebb and flow. sometimes it's like a feeding frenzy, wave after wave after wave. then i have to reign myself in - can't treat every minute of a session like a heat. then i'll hit another little pocket of feeding frenzy, then dial it back. usually the conditions will fade or my interest will wane before my body does - i guess that's the part about it being mostly mental. except when it's cold. my body shuts down in the cold. 2-3 hour sessions in the winter. no longer.
 
i miss surfing.....

[Jack Crank]

After a bunch of 5 hour sessions this weekend I can officially say that potassium makes a massive difference.  Not cramping is definitely a wonderful thing.

[snaggletooth]

i started taking potassium before surfing, too. i think it has helped. my feet and legs are, generally, super crampy. bananas did nothing. as much as i'd rather get the potassium from a whole food, i have to say, i think the pills are working

[little_nasty]

i started taking potassium before surfing, too. i think it has helped. my feet and legs are, generally, super crampy. bananas did nothing. as much as i'd rather get the potassium from a whole food, i have to say, i think the pills are working

i can't exactly remember the scientific/physiological reason why - something about electrical firing of muscle contraction, but one of my parents told me back in my days of simultaneously playing on 3 diff't soccer teams and occassional back-to-back-to-back games that you have to have calcium with the potassium.  So i used to drink milk with my bananas and it really worked.  Just a thought.
 
 
oh, i found this on wiki which might help explain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletal_muscle#Cellular_physiology_and_contraction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_action_potential#Overview

[SeaCliff]

How to avoid cramping: bananas (potassium), orange juice (potassium and calcium)...and hydration. With hydration being the single biggest factor of the three.

[little_nasty]

and of course - there's always pickle juice!