THE DRIFTER'S JOURNALS 

HOLD YOUR BREATH / APNEA FOR SURFERS

Article written with assistance from and thanks to Russel Pollard - @bornwithgills

 Let’s face it: none of us is getting any younger.

When we’re in the halcyon days of youth, we are impervious to injury, dauntless to danger, and insusceptible to self-preservation. We will throw ourselves into, onto, over and under any heaving wave that the ocean can throw at us.

But as time wears on and responsibilities rise in relativity to dwindling fitness and expanding waistline, we tend to be a little less invincible-slash-stupid.

There’s no fixing this - life is what it is and, aside from spending gruelling hours at the gym day in and day out, our levels of fitness are going to wane. This can have a big effect on our surfing. Endurance is just down to breaking sweat and doing the time, but there’s a little hack that is easy to learn and quick to benefit; apnea.

Apnea, so Wikipedia tells us, is the cessation of breath...when there is no movement of the muscles of inhalation. Obviously, we hold our breath when we duckdive, cop a set on the head or go over the falls, so we’re already practicing apnea to some degree, but training in it, making your breath-holds better, longer and more comfortable, is an amazing and simple way to step up our surfing game.

Most people come to apnea through want for freediving. Apnea training was developed to increase the human ability to stay underwater. Spearfishers also get great benefit from apnea training so that they can stay down for longer and improve their chances of nabbing tonight’s dinner. But surfers don’t stay down that long, and the idea of holding your breath for two minutes plus is kind of pointless.

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Article written with assistance from and thanks to Russel Pollard - @bornwithgills