Journey Surf Company was formed because of a love of surfing and family.

As parents of a young adult with moderately involved autism, my wife and I knew that the future for adults with intellectual disabilities isn’t always the brightest.

Diagnosed with autism at 2 years old, Noahs Journey began very early. Numerous doctors, therapists, behaviorists, educators, medications, you name it, we did it and we are still advocating constantly.

One thing that kept me relatively sane during the really rough times was surfing. For the time out in the water was the only release from the reality on land. I think all of us surfers can relate.

As Noah ends his school career the vocational system for adults with intellectual disabilities is limited to say the least. There is an 85% unemployment rate among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

So, we thought how can we empower Noah with that sense of purpose, value, accomplishment and responsibility that comes with having a job, while increasing awareness, inclusion and acceptance for adults with intellectual disabilities.

Journey Surf Company was formed.

Our goal is to give Noah the opportunity to reach his full potential while leading a full and enriched life. Hopefully in the future, Journey Surf Company can employ other adults with intellectual disabilities to help them with their journey as well.

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Back in 2001, I had self published a book called a Surfers Guide for Flexibility and Conditioning. It was just a basic program that surfers could perform to help with flexibility as well as basic strengthening exercises. That was almost 20 years ago and to be honest my surf training at that time was pretty minimal, unless I had sustained an injury. However, over the past 15-20 years, my injuries have added up to include but not limited to: two herniated lumbar discs, a left shoulder reconstruction, a right meniscus knee surgery, right foot surgery and a few concussions. I also was made very aware, that my body does not recover half as fast as it once did.

Today, there has been significant advancements in the fields of injury rehabilitation, conditioning and fitness. Surf training programs seem to be everywhere. It seems as though everyone has jumped on the surf fitness bandwagon with apps, programs, books, equipment, etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing but sometimes it is difficult to filter through all that information.

One thing that I have noticed is that there is not a lot of information on training the aging surfer such as myself. There needs to be differences in training as we age even though we don’t want to admit it.
Let’s face it —staying in shape especially surf shape is much more difficult as we age.

Lets take a quick look at what happens to our bodies as we age:

Age-related muscle loss, called sarcopenia, is a natural part of aging. After age 30, we begin to lose as much as 3% to 5% muscle strength per decade. Most people will lose about 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetimes.

Even worse, as we age we tend to lose power almost twice as fast as we lose strength! Our muscles take much longer to respond to brain signals starting in our 50s, and we begin to lose the muscle fibers that are responsible for making us move swiftly such as in surfing.

You know how stiff you feel first thing in the morning? Well, we also have bone and joint changes as we age. Joint movement becomes stiffer and less flexible because the amount of lubricating fluid inside our joints decreases and the cartilage becomes thinner. Ligaments also tend to shorten and lose some flexibility, making our joints feel stiff.

Does this sound somewhat familiar? You have an amazing surf session and you are out in the water a little longer than usual. You convince yourself you will finally go in “after one more wave”. But that turns into another 30-45 minutes. Your arms feel like jello and when you lift your board it feels like it weighs 100 pounds. Later that night or even the next day, our bodies start to talk to us. Maybe it’s your neck that hurts or your shoulders. It could be your low back or a number of other places.

Tissue recovery takes more time and more effort to support that recovery. We need to focus more on recovery after 50 years of age.

But here’s the good news, it’s not to late and you’re not to old to start improving your overall health and fitness. It is not that difficult it just takes a little time, education and effort.

The Solution:

On one of my first days of physical therapy school over 30 plus years ago my professor described four things needed for proper quality of movement. They were: Mobility, Stability, Controlled Mobility and Skill. What does that mean for you as a surfer?

Simply put you have to be long, strong and move correctly to be a better surfer.

Surfing is a very powerful and coordinated sport. Mechanically, it is very super stressful on our entire body. As we age it becomes very difficult to improve or even maintain our bodies quality of movement.

The training philosophy that I employ is functional/foundational movement training. What this means pretty simply is that there are approximately 7 functional/foundational movements that the body performs.

They are:

1. Pushing
2. Pulling
3. Hinging
4. Squatting
5. Lunging
6. Rotating
7. Walking/Running

If we look at surfing, it encompasses most if not all of these movement patterns.

Functional training focuses more on movements not just muscles. Muscles do not work in isolation, they need to work together to perform quality movements. Functional training is goal specific such as improvement in surfing technique but it also encompasses a few common components such as training in multiple planes and multiple joint actions. Programs should include strengthening the core, improving flexibility, balance and coordinated movements to mention a few.

So, make sure when you start looking at surf training programs they are designed by a reputable expert who has some sort of medical/conditioning training background. I always say if the exercise looks stupid then it probably is not worth doing.

There is a reason why the pull up, push up, squat and lunge are still around and it’s because they work.

Improving muscle balance, strength, power and endurance is essential to continue surfing and reducing injuries into your 60s and beyond.

If you are interested, you can check out my website and or You Tube Channel at Surf Fit 50 or surffit50.com. I am not looking to sell you any program, it is just an informational site that is designed to help the older surfer continue to surf longer and stronger.

Dr. Rick McAvoy, PT, DPT, CSCS

Rick is a physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach who specializes in aquatic training and sports performance. Rick is passionate about year round surfing and has been surfing the Maine Coast for the past 25 years. He started Surf Fit 50 as a labor of love to share his knowledge with fellow aging surfers so that they can keep surfing well into their 80’s and beyond.

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Many people confuse the word mobility for flexibility. Flexibility has to do with your muscles where the term mobility is a broader term for many elements that contribute to movement such as your muscles, joints, movement patterns, etc.

For example a person can have flexible hamstrings and calf muscles but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can move well.

Stability is the ability to maintain a position against external forces or resist an undesired movement. An example would be performing a plank exercise holding it against gravity.

Your body is an ingenious system of joints that are either more prone to mobility or to stability. Even though each joint contributes to both, some favor one over the other and they tend to be stacked in an alternating pattern.

The figure above demonstrates which joints are predisposed to mobility or stability.

If a joint is more predisposed to mobility and it does not move well, then the force will attempt to find movement elsewhere. It is usually the joints above or below that don’t tend to favor mobility. This creates movement imbalance and hence injury.

For example,when surfing if your ankle lacks mobility especially on your back leg, you’ll get it from your knee. This compensation will almost inevitably result in some sort of pain/injury.

When we think of improving our surfing performance, we need a controlled balance of both mobility and stability.

In the coming weeks I will discuss some ways to help improve your mobility and stability. 

This will help you to surf longer and stronger well into your golden years.

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We convince ourselves we will finally go in, but we all say “after one more wave”. 

Later that day or even the next day our bodies start to talk to us. Maybe it’s our neck that hurts or our shoulders. It could be our low back or a number of other places. What is going on here?  This pain didn’t happen in my 20’s, 30’s or even in my 40’s. 

Let’s face it — staying in surfing shape is much more difficult as we age. On average, we lose about 30 percent of our muscle strength between the ages 50 and 70. Even worse, as we age we tend to lose power almost twice as fast as we lose strength! Our muscles take much longer to respond to brain signals starting in our 50s, and we begin to lose the muscle fibers that are responsible for making us move swiftly such as in surfing.

Have you ever seen an older surfer paddle or maybe it was you? The forehead is stuck to the surfboard because the rounded posture that we assume all day has created significant muscle imbalances. We now want to take that  jumbo shrimp like posture we assume all day and ask it to do the exact opposite. We get on our boards with significant anterior muscle tightness and weak posterior muscle strength. We now want our bodies to paddle efficiently, powerfully, pop up and turn well, then repeat.Well sometimes our bodies just can’t do what our brain is asking it to.

Improving muscle balance, strength, power and endurance is essential to continue surfing  and reducing injuries into your 60s and beyond.

I will be covering some topics in the coming weeks to help keep you surfing longer and stronger.  

Dr. Rick

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I started Maine Surf Info to provide Maine surfers some information about surf conditions around Maine. Being a Physical Therapist and Strength and Conditioning Specialist I plan on including useful information on surf injury rehab, injury prevention, fitness, conditioning and some other cool stuff.

As an aging surfer it has become more apparent how time has taken its toll on my body.

Back in 2001 I self published a book called a Surfers Guide for Flexibility and Conditioning. It was just a basic program that surfers could perform to help with flexibility and strength.That was almost 20 years ago and to be honest my surf training at that time was very minimal.

Now as I approach 55 my injuries have added up over the years to include 2 herniated lumbar discs, a left shoulder reconstruction, right meniscus surgery and a few concussions.

So stay tuned for some information for you aging guys and gals to help keep you moving better, feeling better and hopefully surfing better!

Dr. Rick

The post Why I Started Maine Surf Info appeared first on Maine Surf Info.