If You Can Snowboard, Can You Surf?
Two extreme sports that have seen a huge upsurge in their popularity over the last decade are surfing and snowboarding. Despite the fact these two sports couldn’t be further away from each other in terms of climate needed and location, a lot of people still enjoy taking part in both sports. But does the fitness and skill sets that you pick up taking part in one sport, go any way to help you in the other? Let us take a look at three important elements that these sports require.
Upper Body Strength. As any surfer will tell you, if you haven’t got great upper body fitness, there is not much point even getting in the water. You need endurance in order to repetitively paddle surfboards out to see against breaking waves, and power is need in the ‘pop-up’ phase of getting upright on the board when you have caught a wave. Snowboarding however, does not demand anywhere near as from the upper body, as it is only really used for balance and core-stability support
Timing. This is one very important factor that is shared by both sports. In snowboarding it is vital to time your turns perfectly and even more important when doing jumps as lining up for the correct entry to the kicker can mean the difference between a clean landing and a face full of snow. Surfing also requires perfect timing and instincts not least when catching a wave when you have to paddle, pop-up, drop in and turn just at the right times.
Lower Body Agility & Fitness. The legs play a very important part in both snowboarding and surfing, but it’s snowboarding that requires the most from the lower limbs. Snowboards require great skill and agility to turn and carve, and if your leg muscles are not in good condition you will simply not be able to ride well. Don’t for one minute think though that surfing does not require you to have good lower body fitness and flexibility, because it certainly does.
Tags: fitness, skills, snowboarding, snowboards, surfboards, surfing
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