Surf Cat

The good ol’ days of surfing, when, professionals would simply surf all day and party all night, are no more. These days, for better or worse, pro surfers are “athletes.”

And Kanoa Igarashi is amongst the gym rat, protein-drinking elite. “No matter where I am in the world,” says Kanoa, “I always have a gym that I go to. At every tour stop, I have a gym. During the laydays, I like to keep up on my workouts at all the events.”

The US Open is no different. But luckily, since the event is held in his own backyard, Kanoa has a little more options when it comes to where and how he works out. His preference? Surf Ready Fitness in Costa Mesa with his longtime trainer, Paul Norris.

In between heats, before his loss in Round Four, we caught up with Kanoa and Paul for a sweat-drenched workout to keep his legs limber and his muscles sharp for utter domination on his beloved HB Pier bowl. Here’s what went down.

“This is a warm-up exercise that fires up the core as well as the glutes,” says Norris. “It’s imperative that you do a proper warm-up before each training session to 1) turn on all your muscles and make sure they’re firing correctly and 2) decrease your risk of injury by loosening up your muscles and getting them to the correct length. Lots of athletes succumb to injury largely due to the fact that their posterior chain isn’t turned on or firing. I see a lot of surfers just throw their wetsuits on and paddle out, but as we get older our muscles and joints become less mobile and require more attention to stay injury free. Now, if you watch the webcast, you’ll see the top guys going thru their warm-ups because they’ve been taught these necessary routines and know how vital they are to their success.

“This specific exercise fires up the glutes by resisting the urge to let your knees come in towards the midline of your body and you’re constantly pushing the knees away from each other. It also warms up the core due to the fact that you’re holding the band out in front of you and your core has to engage to resist the urge of the band pulling you to the side. It’s a two birds with one stone kind of exercise, which I prefer if you’re strapped on time.”

Exercise Tips:

“This full-body power exercise increases output in the entire body while also training the central nervous system due to the fact that we’re linking multiple movements together,” says Norris. “I like to start with power training when I work with Kanoa because these types of exercises require max output on each repetition, and he needs to be fresh when performing each one. This specific exercise helps develop lower body power which helps with surfing larger waves and you’re having to push hard into the wave to hold your rail.

“By slamming the ball into the ground, you engage your lats which help with paddling so this exercise covers a lot of movement patterns we use when in the water. Power training helps your muscles contract harder and you’ll need those strong and powerful legs when surfing larger waves. I have Kanoa do a 180 at the top of the jump to add more difficulty to the movement and it also helps with body control.”

Exercise tips:

“As surfers, we create a lot of force production with our legs and hips as well as our core,” says Norris. “If our core isn’t strong enough to control our body, then we can’t apply as much force as we’d like. In simpler terms, the stronger the core, the stronger the turn and the stronger the turn, the more water we spray.

“The rotational slamball toss is another power exercise that trains our core to contract hard as well as the hips. We use our core during our entire surf session whether you recognize it or not; from balancing on our boards while waiting for a set to pumping down the wave and linking turns together. Kanoa and I do this exercise a lot and his core has gotten a lot stronger, so we’ve had to increase the weight of the ball every year.”

Exercise tips:

“Wall sits have been around forever and are sometimes overlooked but it’s always great to get back to basics,” says Norris. “It’s an isometric exercise that provides great muscular endurance in the lower body and you can do them anywhere. We like to toss them in at the end of our workouts or we’ll have Kanoa hold them for one minute then go directly into a surf specific movement. Doing this helps us emulate the Huntington hop then finish off the wave with a dynamic maneuver. The best part about a wall sit is that it works your entire lower body, there are multiple variations and it easily increases your muscular endurance.”

Exercise tips:

“This is actually an exercise that we came up with years ago because we think it mimics doing a turn thru the lip or a nose pick,” says Norris. “It’s a dynamic stability movement that teaches the body more control while rotating, as well as how to absorb force which is extremely important when dropping in late, doing turns off the top, and surfing in general. I really like this exercise because it helps teach the body to move as one unit and you’ll see what I’m talking about if you ever try it.

“ It’s definitely one of our more difficult exercises but the payoff is huge if you can master it. There are a lot of different variations but Kanoa is such an advanced athlete that we add a Bosu to increase instability in his landing surface. I would recommend starting with a lower box, then advancing up to a higher box, then adding a bosu once you’ve mastered it.

Exercise Tips:

“Adding some instability to your training is always going to benefit surfers as long as it’s in a controlled environment,” says Norris. “We all know how hard surfing was when we first started, largely due to the fact that we’re trying to stand on an unstable surface and the waves are constantly changing gears on us. We had to adapt to mother nature’s playing field and as time went on, we got better and ‘more stable.’

“There’s nothing special about this exercise, other than the fact that it’s done on an unstable surface, but it will make you more stable in the water. If you own an Indo Board or any unstable piece of equipment at home, then toss this exercise into your program and watch your surfing elevate within two weeks.”

Exercise Tips:

“I know most of us aren’t doing tailslides when we surf, but for Kanoa, this exercise is a must,” says Norris. “The exercise looks just like it sounds in that we’re sliding our leg out to the side, transferring most of our weight to one side, all while maintaining our balance. I’m a huge fan of this exercise because we’re promoting dynamic flexibility of the adductor muscle as well as developing single leg strength.

“You can do this exercise at home because all we’re using is a furniture slider and an Indo Board disc to add instability. You can substitute a towel and hardwood floors if you want to get crafty. Master this exercise without the Indo Board disc first and then you can add it in to increase difficulty; it also helps to strengthen the tendons and ligaments around the ankle. Quick note: If using the Indo Board disc, be sure to place your heel in the middle or slightly towards the back to prevent the knee from coming forward over the toes.”

Exercise Tips:

“When surfing,” says Norris, “we torque a lot with our trunk so adding some rotational strength exercises is always a smart move. I like to incorporate the single arm trunk twist because it forces our core to work harder and it’s a different variation which allows the body to continue to progress and not get bored.”
Exercise Tips:

• Grab the band with your inside arm (arm closest to the band) and find a resistance that’s challenging enough so that it forces your core and hips to really be the main movers
• Take a wide stance just outside of shoulder width and bend your knees while keeping your chest up and back flat
• Keep your arms wide like you’re hugging a large tree, slightly bend your elbows and try to keep them in this position for the remainder of the exercise
• Now rotate your trunk away from the band by using your hips and core while also pivoting your inside foot
• Try not to drag your inside arm across your body, this will allow the core and trunk to provide the right amount of movement
• Return to starting position and repeat

“This is a great partner exercise and one of Kanoa’s favorites because it gets the heart rate up, provides lower body power as well as rotational power,” says Norris. “Top surfers need to be fit and the more fit they are, the better maneuvers they can do when starting to fatigue. As your heart rate starts to rise, the more fatigued you get, and the more fatigued you are, the more likely that your form will start to break down. So being able to operate with proper form at a higher heart rate, the better surfer you will be.”

Exercise Tips:

• Place a box, hurdle, or basically anything you can jump over laterally on the ground. Don’t start with too high of a box. Master this exercise with something around 10-15 inches and then you can increase the height
• Stand next to the box while your partner stands in front of you holding a medicine ball
• Quickly jump laterally over the box and prepare to catch the medicine ball from your partner
• Your partner should toss the ball so that you catch it over your outside hips which will cause you to rotate by engaging your core and using your hips and legs to absorb the force
• Toss the ball back to your partner and jump laterally back over the box, preparing yourself to catch the ball again on the opposite side
• Kanoa and I did 20 reps with a two minute rest in between three rounds