Welcome to Swaylocks Maquiro. We have people from all over the world posting. Just do the best you can with the English. Hell most of those here that have English as their first language screw it up.
Be 54 in 3 weeks, total hip replacement surgery in 4!! Been limited this past year, but determined to get it handled and back in the water!! Riding a 6’8" big boy (6’3"/230) and will have to make a bigger “rehab” model for the initial surfs after the new hip! Pic is from last year at 52…Plan on going till the end! Yeew!!
I finally found a few short boards that this old man can ride. I bought the Channel Islands Average joe 5’7" and the Strive Magic Pill 5’8". Both have the volume and width to make paddling easier and wave catching easier. They look like short long boards. Seems to be a new trend.
I have been body boarding on bigger days, just had two days of 15 feet+. Doing that to get my cardio up and my muscles back in shape. Lost 30 pounds and I have ten to 15 to go to get me back into my old surfing shape. Just getting out there for 2 to 3 horus does wonders fo rthe mnd and body. I look and feel younger.
I see a lot of peopel at Huntington Beach my age or older, and they are tearing it up. Not gettign air, but on short boards and getting some nice waves.
The pic above is pretty cool. Good for you.
If it were not for this site I probably would have not got back in the water. I was really concered with my age. Thank you everyone who posts.
Due to attrition, my “surfers over 50” blog is in need of contributing writers. If you’d like to share the stoke of surfing in your senior years, pm me.
http://surfersover50.blogspot.com/2015/08/crowd-surfing-for-senior-set.html?m=1
Gonna be real here, so excuse me for replacing levity with truth. I hear people say "Age is just a number…You are only as old as you feel, etc. etc… These are utopian statements, and they are not true. I am 53, and I have been surfing for 33 years and rock/mountain climbing for almost 40 years. Life after 50 is diffucult for the active person. Up until I was 40, all the injuries I sustained surfing and climbing went away on their own. Now, they require lots of stretching and physical therapy. I still charge, but I spend a lot of time rehabbing for things that I used to need only a few days rest to recover from. Whether it be getting pitched on a 20 foot wave or taking a 10 foot whipper climbing at Red Rocks, life changes after 50 so be forewarned. I would highly suggest a core strengthening/stretching regimen for anyone wanting to maintain this lifestyle post 50’s. I still charge, but it does take a lot of work. I remember my physical therapist telling me, “I see people in poor shape from inactivity and lethargy, and I see people in poor shape due to over acvity.” Either way, we arrive at the same place eventually. Life don’t last forever, and neither does surfing.
haha, how often have I heard those words of the uninitiated! The body goes through physiological changes that come with aging, and it ain’t all in your mind. I think the active life style is worth fighting for, and a fight it is! One of the reasons I started the “surfers over 50” blog is so that those interested in maintaining an active surfing life could swap stories, compare notes, and share the stoke.
BTW, love your avatar!
52 and surf well enough (still better than my kids). My oldest daughter is at UCSD so I get out there about three times/year and get to surf Blacks (love that place). My current quiver is 5’9", 5’11", 7’7" and 10’1". I might shape a 6’8" performance board for the upcoming east coast winter in NJ, RI and OBX. And I have a very full time job as an engineering manager at a very large telecommunications firm in Philly. It’s not like I get out that often. I run a 5k, three days per week and lift (surfer specific exercises) two days per week. I eat well, not too much and avoid junk food most of the time. I try to sleep at least 7 solid hours/night. Weekends I rockclimb or surf or snowboard or mountain bike and always drink beer. Still feel like a kid in the surf and shape boards in the evenings. YMMV.
“Youth is wasted on the young.” –George Bernard Shaw
Yeah, I wish I was 50 again! Just turrned 66 last Wednesday. We moved to the Central (CA) Coast in July and one month later I severed a tendon working on a dishwasher. Didn’t even get to unpack my boards. Now it’s another 6-8 weeks of healing and rehab. 66 ain’t the new 50. It’s still the old 66. But years of surfing does pay off in the health benefits you derive. No laying around for this boy. Just trying to maintain 'til I can get back in the water. Still searching for the secret spots here and can’t wait to get wet again .
on the cusp of 60 here
seems like everything you did to abuse your body during your youth eventually catches up with you later
after 50 especially 55 its harder to recover although GTate has some secret sauce stuff he told me about and it’s not blood replacement/oxygenated treatments like the pro athletes do.
I used to be able surf a full 3 board switch out 6-8 hr session session or work all day with my wood working stuff but now I’m find i’m getting exhausted in half the time these days.
Having major surgery every other year doesn’t help
Almost fatal suffocating epoxy sensitization, then an almost near death burst appendix, followed by 1 of 2 needed full knee replacement surgeries and then a frozen shoulder from a slightly torn rotator. That doesn’t include the every now and then bout with shingles from work stress and now a minor concussion that messed the stones in my inner ear leading to vertigo until the stones fal back into place. How that little girl won at good sized cloudbreak with a badly torn eardrum is beyond understanding and the stuff of legends. Better than my brother though who’s been hammered by heart attack after heart attack or by slicing parts of his body with his fins.
Sucks getting old for sure especially 60+
But I swear that as soon as I drop another 15 pounds (already lost near 20) , I’m back on all my fabulous big boy short boards that Greg, Mike, Peter and John made for me that have been on ice with all my injuries.
Just keeping the weight off and not getting tired are the two most difficult things to do after 50 if you don’t consciously put an effort in it. The surfing stuff i easy, The paddling and aerobics of duck diving under the big stuff is the hard part. If I can get into a wave I can still handle the rest from decades of muscle memory. Paddling back out is the part that sucks. I see why all the guys my age and under are sticking wth their longboards.
Thought I was invincible when I was young, not a single major injury outside of a torn achilles after running into a tree stump at whistler skiing the backcountry on a mono ski in the early 80’s. Never had any major surgery or broke any limb.
I guess enjoy it while you can but plan better if you want longivity.
WIsh I took up yoga and vegetarianisn decades ago like Gerry and all the others I see that still appear so limber and energized.
Also the kind of job you do makes a big difference in your health
The ocean will always be my healer for mind and spirit
Burnie, yikes! After reading your list of ‘‘events’’ it makes me like the $#!t I’m dealing with. (not really, as none of it is fun) I hope to follow your lead, and lose a goodly number of the extra pounds I’m packing. Goodonya, for your progress.
Most of us in our 60’s, if we surfed since kids and really went after it, are fairly beat up at this point, not even factoring genetics and other health issues. Seems most of us spend as much time these days recovering from our latest strains and injuries, not counting joint replacements, as not. Just the way it is after a life of hard charging.
Don’t matter, just gotta keep after it, maintain our fitness as best we can, work hard to recover from the latest whatever, get back on the board, put our head down and paddle over the edge. And a must to have the right boards for how we surf these days, not how we think we surf. And at our age, the more we surf, the better we surf, and the more we want to surf. Way too easy to end up an elder talking about it and no longer really doing it.
After a somewhat frustrating session yesterday with a handful of frothing young bucks, ended it with a deep one from way out the back that earned me hoots and put a smile on my face for the rest of the day… it’s why we still do this…
An old timer (in his 60’s) I know told me, “If you want to surf for a long time…don’t surf for a long time.”
Meaning, as you age forget the 4 hour surf sessions. I pretty much heed his advice and limit myself to 2 hours unless it’s all time. After two hour my shoulder (rotator cuff) starts to hurt anyway. I call it my 2 hour alarm.
Portuguese surfer, 44 yrs old. Though I’ve been surfing since I was 15, there was a huge time lapse in wich surf was not present. I became a regular again at 37 and since there I’ve never stoped. It’s inspiring to understant that I still can have a large amount of waves in the next 20 years at least! This forum is amazing! Keep posting! Keep surfing! Keep living!
I read some of this stuff and just have to laugh.
Living in San Clemente and working at the Surfing Heritage & Culture Center I’m exposed to surfers of all ages.
One thing I know for sure; Surfing keeps you young.
Our co- founder Dick Metz, was born in 1929 and still surfs.
Walter Hoffman, father of Joyce, grandfather of Christian & Nathan Fletcher, was born in 1931 and still surfs.
Kathy Kohner AKA Gidget, still surfing.
Fifty shmifty.
Wait, I’m Surfifty, but that was 13 years ago!
I think
When I was a punk
It was “Pop” Proctor.
Long lived legends that are popular
(Not saying’ there are not more older gents)
Dorian and Woodie come to mind.
Wouldn’t it be nice?
Thanks for posting that Gunkie.
I’m 59
Inspirational
Made my day