The Break-Water Series No.1

Summer rolls around again, and many of us sink into the rhythm of knee-high peelers, easy paddle-outs, and catching up with friends between sets. The water is warm, the vibes are mellow, and it feels like the season we’ve been waiting for all year.

Surfing, for me, has always been a kind of reset: no phones, no notifications, mind on airplane mode. I’ve never had a traumatic wipeout that scared me off, but I’ve also never been a “charger.” From my first lessons at 13, I remember the mix of excitement and dread on the drive to the beach: I wanted to surf, but what if it was too big?

Even now, shoulder-high surf rattles me. Sometimes I find excuses not to paddle out; other times, I just sit in the lineup watching others charge. I’ve accepted that the washing-machine adrenaline might not be my thing — but part of me still dreams of tapping into my inner Leah Dawson or Coco Ho, even just for a bottom turn out of my comfort zone.

This post isn’t a step-by-step on riding double overhead or pulling into barrels. Instead, it’s about how to equip yourself — mentally and physically — so that when the waves do get challenging, you can quiet the panic, trust your abilities, and enjoy your time out there!

Let’s break it down into some actionable steps.

Dial Into Your Equipment

For a long time, I told myself I could ride a shortboard the same way I ride a log — if only, ha. I knew it wasn’t true, but it was a convenient excuse to avoid putting in the time on smaller boards.

The truth is, catching waves is just one part of the experience. When things get bigger, you want your board to feel like an extension of your body, so muscle memory takes over while your brain deals with everything else.

For me, that means scheduling long paddle sessions on my smallest board when it’s tiny out. No wave expectations — just sitting on the board, mimicking takeoffs, slow paddles, fast paddles, duck dives. Repeating until the board stops feeling like a stranger. The more second-nature your gear feels, the more headspace you’ll have when the swell’s pumping.

Actionable steps: On a small day, take two boards. Start with your shortboard and do a steady-paced paddle, then switch to your log to actually catch waves. If it’s flat, turn it into a pure paddle session — no waves needed. Push your pace. Bring a friend to race, or have them tug on your leash for resistance. No shortboard? Post on socials to borrow one, check local rentals, or scan Marketplace — there’s always a way to get your hands on one.

2. Get Friendly With Hold-Downs

Underwater resistance training is a game-changer for confidence. It’s part breath-hold, part underwater movement, part mindset reset — all designed to keep you calm when the ocean turns the volume up. The work builds CO₂ tolerance, teaches you how to move efficiently underwater, and helps you stay collected during wipeouts or longer hold-downs.

These courses are popping up more and more, but if there’s nothing near you, look for on-land apnea or breath work sessions. Plenty of yoga teachers run them, and freediving intro courses also share a lot of crossover skills that carry straight into surfing.

And if you’re in Cornwall — lucky you. We’re running an Underwater Resistance Training for Surfers session in Penzance on August 30th. A few spots are still open. Pop us a message.

3. Buddy-Up + Share The Load

Chat to your friends about fears and struggles, share what goes through your mind on bigger days, - you’ll be surprised how a lot of it overlaps. Also, speak to male friends who surf heavier conditions, what’s their approach, what goes through their mind and how they push through.

My male friend who charges chunky barrels once said to me, ‘My approach is simple, when things get hefty, I tell myself: just go in and get 3. ’ Another friend of SBC, Chloe Calmon, once said, ‘If it’s heavy for me, it’s heavy for everyone, we are all on the same boat’.

Actionable steps: Buddy-up, put a word out there on your local women’s surf community channels and surf groups for people who are keen to team up and be paddle-out buddies on bigger days, - going on your own can be daunting, and you quickly get in your head. Buddy-up and share the load!

4. Be A Surf Muscle Mummy

Surfing is probably one of the few sports for which training for performance is very often mocked (unless you’re a pro-surfer). No denial, the stigma of being a natural inflates the ego of many, and inhibits others from taking up training, cause everyone is born bottom turning, right?

When I moved away from my local spots for a few years and had very little access to surf, the one thing that helped me keep was to shut practice my pop-up every damn day. And, I just kept adding: searched up surf-focused resistance training programmes, practised by cross-step on kerbs, did a bunch of swimming and so on. No, I didn’t get the call for the Olympics, but it definitely helped to keep that muscle memory activated. You’ll notice that your body will start reacting to scenarios much quicker - a quick pop-up on a hollower wave -, and adapting even faster.

Actionable steps: Training your resistance, balance and mobility with compound strength training, and endurance with swimming and running/cycling/and HIIT training really helps to build lung capacity, agility and strength.

Look up @surfnorip and @surfstrengthconditioning for inspiration; they even have online programmes that you can follow at home. You don’t have to go fancy, whether you have access to a yoga mat or a gym membership, a pool, the road or a bike, there’s always something that you can do to complement your surfing out of the water.

Go train!

5. Auto-Pilot Your Pop-Ups

Sounds simple, and it is. Get a mat, lie belly down and pop-up. One of, if not the prime move to set you up right for the wave. Build that muscle memory, practice looking left and right, and correct hand placement.

Being comfortable with the slow-faded pop-up on longboards, I ate some shit when trying to drop in on hollower waves on a smaller board. Feet placement went out the window, balance completely thrown off by the habit of paddling for waves with knees bent up, wrong stance on the board, and the list goes on. Practising your pop-up will help your body record how it should react when you’re surfing different board lengths and therefore waves. You can also play with the speed of your pop-up. Hollower waves always demand more speed and centred pop-up, which you can play around with many times on the mat.

These are just a few actionable steps that would put you on the right track to build self-confidence and trust in your abilities to do hard stuff! Ultimately, getting wet is what will get you there, but the above will make scoring and enjoying punchier surf much more pleasant and serene.

Hope we’ve helped somehow!

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