So, you’ve tried surfing and found out you need to get in better shape. It’s ok, it happens to many of us, but now there’s a way to cross that bridge in an accessible way. Even if you aren’t all that interested in surfing but want to work on your fitness this is a great way to do that in an unbeatable environment.

Venice Beach Surf Club’s Surf Fitness class is designed to help with all of the aspects of surfing that make it difficult for many who are still in the early to intermediate stages. We also have built things so the class can be as challenging as you want it to be for your fitness goals while also not being competitive with other classmates.

If you have taken any surf class with VBSC you can try the surf fitness class once for free.

Warmup to cool down time: 60 minutes

Free surf time (optional) 30-60 minutes

Class Structure:

• Warmup: Light jog with some dynamic warmups mixed in

• Stretching period: With a warmed up body we hit all of our stretches to help mobility and prevent injury

• 1st workout circuit: The first circuit is the same for every class. The time of this is the same for every class. Body weight exercises. As you get stronger your reps in that time will increase. This helps significantly with Explosiveness, Cardio, and Body as Unit.

• 2nd workout circuit: Varies from class-to-class may utilize bands, medicine balls, body weight. Designed to help Explosiveness, Cardio, and Body as Unit

• Cool down: Light jog

• Free-Surf session (optional): after the workout, participants are welcome to use any of Venice Beach Surf Club’s equipment (or their own) for a guided free-surf session. Instructor will give a quick point of focus lesson unique to the day. There is no better way to add to your surf fitness than to actually surf. We understand not everybody has the time to do the free surf session which is why it is optional, class without the free surf session is still a fantastic way to get in shape.

  Free-surf sessions are to be held at the discretion of the instructor. If conditions are hazardous it wont happen on that day. Free-surf sessions are a perk and not the focus of surf fitness classes. If you took the surf fitness class you wont be refunded if the free-surf session is not available for that day. Only open to participants who have either taken a surf class with Venice Beach Surf Club or have passed a surf fitness test with an instructor. Please respect our rules on this as we value safety over fun and want to continue to offer this great feature that is unique to our school.

Things we focus on, how we accomplish it, and how it applies to surfing:

• Mobility: Stretching is a big component of our surfing fitness class which not only helps you prevent injury within the class, but also in the water. To surf well we need to have flexibility, particularly in our arms, hips, back, and legs. Flexibility helps us clean up our form in paddling and wave riding, while being fundamentally useful in almost every aspect of surfing.

• Explosiveness: Being able to generate explosive movement is not the most natural thing in the world especially for those that don’t have backgrounds in sports that require it. With some work most people can develop explosiveness or build on any they already have. We use a number of bodyweight and medicine ball workouts to maximize this in a way that is functionally useful to surfing. Explosiveness helps us with our pop-up, paddling into waves, and advanced wave riding.

• Utilizing the body as a unit: Many workouts elsewhere focus on isolation of specific muscle groups to build size and tone, through various workout machines, traditional weighted dumbbells, or olympic-style workouts. These methods while very effective at their goal tend to not help much with functional fitness or more simply put, they don’t really help with surfing. We focus on using multiple muscle groups together to work in unison. Medicine ball and body weight exercises help us accomplish this. This creates not only strength and explosiveness, but stability when performing athletic activities. In the water this helps with paddling, popping up, balance, wave riding, and general control in all aspects of surfing.

• Cardio: Baseline stamina is essential to having any real fun surfing in the long term. Surfing is a unique blend of constant movement, explosiveness, balance, while also needing to hold your breath as often as once every 20 seconds (in more hectic conditions). Being able to withstand these factors and always have a little gas left in the tank is crucial to spending more time in the water, and making you a better surfer. The class is curated to keep you pretty consistently in motion with moments of explosiveness to simulate a lot of the strain of a typical surfing experience.