[SeaCliff]

Man...yesterday was a strange day. Mostly weak to very weak waves early in the morning, somewhat better (but wayy too crowded) on the midday low tide, and surprisingly punchy and fun on the other side of the high tide as the sun went down last evening. The only real consistent thing about it was how inconsistent my surfing was.

On any given wave, I ranged from surfing nearly as well as I can, to surfing nearly as badly as someone who just bought a board off the rack at Costco, didnt wax it, and paddled out for the first time in their life.

I've battled inconsistency at times before, and for a while, I felt I was doing better. Maybe never surfing great by anyone's standards but my own, but surfing pretty well for me, and having overall reasonable sessions without too many kook-outs. The last week or two of sessions, tho, have been marred by these wild swings in apparent ability (or lack there-of).

I'm not sure that there really is an answer or a cure, but of course if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears. Anyone else go through these spells? If so, did you just let it work itself out, or did you do anything to sort of break out of it?

[The Lone Surfer]

I think inconsistency is the mark of mere mortals. That is, most of us non-professional, regular recreational surfers will always be inconsistent to a degree. even some really good surfers I know lost some consistency as they got older.

However, if there is one surefire way to be more consistent, besides just putting the water time in, and I know you know this already, it's working out regularly when you are not in the water, and I mean like everyday, or nearly everyday--strength, cardio, and stretching.

Consistency goes way down when you're tired.

[SeaCliff]

I think inconsistency is the mark of mere mortals. That is, most of us non-professional, regular recreational surfers will always be inconsistent to a degree. even some really good surfers I know lost some consistency as they got older.

However, if there is one surefire way to be more consistent, besides just putting the water time in, and I know you know this already, it's working out regularly when you are not in the water, and I mean like everyday, or nearly everyday--strength, cardio, and stretching.

Consistency goes way down when you're tired.

Funny you mention that - I actually have ramped up my "off field" workouts a great deal in the past 6 or 8 weeks - and I was actually thinking that the inconsistency was my body telling me to take a day or two off!! I've worked out either semi or hard or hard virtually every single day, either in the water or out, or both - perhaps it's time to give it a brief rest and see what happens.

But overall, I totally, totally agree - in general, the better conditioning has translated to better results. 

[Kdropin]

to me inconsistentcy comes from speed or lack of.. if i get a wave and generate speed from the sweet spot i can do some really good cutbacks, throw some fans etc. etc. but if i don't hit the sweet spot or the wave doesn't offer one i feel like i try to do too much on the wave and kook out. harder to stay over the board when you don't have speed and are trying to do too much

[Mims]

Would consistent waves help?

[Looseness]

I think inconsistency is the mark of mere mortals. That is, most of us non-professional, regular recreational surfers will always be inconsistent to a degree. even some really good surfers I know lost some consistency as they got older.

However, if there is one surefire way to be more consistent, besides just putting the water time in, and I know you know this already, it's working out regularly when you are not in the water, and I mean like everyday, or nearly everyday--strength, cardio, and stretching.

Consistency goes way down when you're tired.

Funny you mention that - I actually have ramped up my "off field" workouts a great deal in the past 6 or 8 weeks - and I was actually thinking that the inconsistency was my body telling me to take a day or two off!! I've worked out either semi or hard or hard virtually every single day, either in the water or out, or both - perhaps it's time to give it a brief rest and see what happens.

But overall, I totally, totally agree - in general, the better conditioning has translated to better results. 

man, I hear ya. I have screwed myself before by overtraining myself into a fatigue state by not taking regularly spaced recovery days where I do only stretching or very light cardio. Recovery becomes way more important as we get {sigh}.....older, and seems to work differently especially with strength training. When I'm overworked and haven't recovered well my muscles don't fire consistently so reactions are just bad. I now tend to not do strength training the day before forecasted decent day of surf and if it looks like it will be really good I go easy on all training and just stretch/yoga. My main point in training is better surf performance so why defeat that by being all tired from training when the surf shows up?   

SLEEP is really important for me. Good sleep for enough time {7 hours}. I can pull off a bad sleep night before surfing once, trying to do it twice in a row pretty much guarantees a bad session.

Then there's the mental aspect and the surf itself. I can surf smaller, weaker waves if my head is in the right place, if it isn't well it just isn't that fun. But then I have been staying off my longboard for quite a while now which makes small, weak waves way easier to ride....I try to ride my groveler in everything lately. maybe I should take a log out once in a while. 

[Looseness]

to me inconsistentcy comes from speed or lack of.. if i get a wave and generate speed from the sweet spot i can do some really good cutbacks, throw some fans etc. etc. but if i don't hit the sweet spot or the wave doesn't offer one i feel like i try to do too much on the wave and kook out. harder to stay over the board when you don't have speed and are trying to do too much

yup.
good waves, make everything SO MUCH easier. 

[snaggletooth]

Don't think about it!! just shrug it off. it always makes me feel better when onefin wipesout or does something silly - he doesn't get all upset about it, he just sort of laughs. i laugh at myself A LOT. (i also get really pissed off at myself - that doesn't make anyone happy. laughing is better). i wouldn't worry about it - i suspect everyone feels pretty much the same. 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. just move on and focus on the 3 steps forward part (well, this is what i tell myself. unfortunately, i don't listen to myself)
 
riding smaller weird boards on the really small days helps me (the beater, the waveskate, which is now back with its righful owner, etc) - it feels more like you are just playing and goofing around rather than trying to surf in total crap conditions. and it helps me to be faster and more nimble for when i get on a more normal board and have better conditions.
 
and, if you are working out a lot, forgive yourself. you are building strength for the good days. but, also take some days off - muscles need rest!

[onefinookas]

snaggle already said it but there are to many days and to many waves to let one awkward session throw you off.  As is with everything in life sometimes your in the groove other times you cant even hear a beat let alone get a rhythm going.  So what, I remember years ago this guy punching his board cuz he was having a crappy session, I though he would have been better off punching himself as it wasnt the boards fault.  You just cant think about it, every session even the shitty ones, there is always a little something positive you can walk away with.  I always go back to my infamous waimea session where i got flogged snapped my leash plug and had to swim in, it was awful and I harped on it for what seemed like days.  But by the end of the week I had remembered how when I was paddling out I had to duckdive my 10'4 gun through the shorebreak and I made it.  That shorebreak is no freekin joke and that session was as terrible as terrible gets, but by weeks end I was so jazzed on that one silly duckdive I had all but forgotten about the snapped leashplug and 35 minute swim back to the beach. 


Then there is also the other option, take a not from Long Island expatriot turned North Shore Hawaii Mexican Food mogul and build one of these in your backyard for those flat spells.



oh yeah and wipeout and blown turns are kind of funny, think about how silly you probably looked biffing the wave, we all do it.  If you cant laugh at yourself...

[HydroGlide]

yes, consistent waves (so forget about that around here).

[surfnli]

agree with the laugh it off/don't worry about it/it's normal sentiments.  we're not pros, we don't live in an area with consistent waves, we have jobs, and so on and so forth.  stressing about what you can't do imho is only going to hamper what you can.

[Dorado]

I have been using a technique I coined " being at peace with your session " . That means I try and not get pissed if I see pictures of someone else which might make where they were bigger/better etc . I set realistic wave and manuever goals witht he main goal of having fun . Vanity in surfing is the enemy , everyone falls and digs rails blows takeoffs from time to time . My key to whatever consistency I have is , the days leading up to a good swell I stretch , stay away from alcohol , get a lot of sleep if possible eat well etc.


The best key is mental approach . Not wasting energy in the wrong spots , paying attention to where the best waves and secondary waves are breaking , reading the lineup and figuring out who the kooks are and who the alpha surfers are and where my place in the food chain is .


Cliff you revisit this theme all the time you are a solid surfer in a wide range of conditions IMO the thing you are most inconsistent at is giving your self credit where its due . In life there will always be people who are more talented than you are . The thing we all can control is how we focus our energy and attitude about our talent .

[Northstreet]

I've been working on the mental aspects....big crowds and self consciousness used to completely ruin sessions for me.  I've spent the last year focusing on dealing with crowds and trying to understand my home break.  I even have a stupid little mantra that I use to try to center myself and redeem the session.  If I'm tired and having a bad time, I just head in....

[SeaCliff]

Thanks for the thoughts...all good, and thanks even more for the kind words.


Dorado, you're right - it is a theme that I revisit, probably because of the perfectionist nature I carry with me at all times, which sometimes runs at odds with the nature of the sport.


(With apologies to NYCWipeout who hates when I call surfing a sport....) If you think about it, we play the the only sport where the actual playing filed itself is in motion, demanding constant adjustment to a third dimension of play. This makes it (at least to me) inherently harder than most sports, and esp "repetitive motion" sports like teeing off in golf, pitching a baseball, or bowling, for example - where much of the goal is to do EXACTLY the same motion over an over - and where if you can gain some sort of mastery over the motion, you can gain some amount or even a great amount of proficiency.


Ultimately, the motion of the playing field is what draws me back to our sport over and over because it presents the endless, ever changing challenge - but as evidenced by this thread, it's also what drives me somewhat crazy.....I guess I don't like it quite so much when the playing field plays me instead of the other way around. 


All that said, you all (or most of you, at least) know me - it's not like I'm not enjoying myself out there - heck, most every time I surf I leave the water wanting more and grinning ear to ear and can often be heard yapping (too much) about it....but there's always this part of me that wants not just more, but more and BETTER. And that's not a bad thing, right?


Ahh...I love surfing.....inconsistencies and all.


 

[ez_ed]

snaggle already said it but there are to many days and to many waves to let one awkward session throw you off.  As is with everything in life sometimes your in the groove other times you cant even hear a beat let alone get a rhythm going.  So what, I remember years ago this guy punching his board cuz he was having a crappy session, I though he would have been better off punching himself as it wasnt the boards fault.  You just cant think about it, every session even the shitty ones, there is always a little something positive you can walk away with.  I always go back to my infamous waimea session where i got flogged snapped my leash plug and had to swim in, it was awful and I harped on it for what seemed like days.  But by the end of the week I had remembered how when I was paddling out I had to duckdive my 10'4 gun through the shorebreak and I made it.  That shorebreak is no freekin joke and that session was as terrible as terrible gets, but by weeks end I was so jazzed on that one silly duckdive I had all but forgotten about the snapped leashplug and 35 minute swim back to the beach. 


Then there is also the other option, take a not from Long Island expatriot turned North Shore Hawaii Mexican Food mogul and build one of these in your backyard for those flat spells.



oh yeah and wipeout and blown turns are kind of funny, think about how silly you probably looked biffing the wave, we all do it.  If you cant laugh at yourself...

I was chatting with Steve the other day at Banzai. That guy's so OG and so stoked on skating. Love his energy. And he can straight up rip a skateboard.