Pool-Based Surfboard Elicits Activation of Posterior Shoulder Muscles During a Surfing Stroke

ABSTRACT

Pexa, BS, Johnston, CD, Elder, EE, Ford, KR, Patterson, MQ, and Myers, JB. Pool-based surfboard elicits activation of posterior shoulder muscles during a surfing stroke. J Strength Cond Res 38(7): 1300-1304, 2024-Surfboard paddling may activate posterior shoulder muscles, which are critical to baseball pitchers' injury risk and performance. The purpose of this study was to measure posterior shoulder muscle activation during different phases of the surf stroke (propulsion vs. recovery) on a pool-based surfboard. Twenty healthy active adult subjects completed a familiarization and testing session with the pool-based surfboard. During the testing session, electromyography (EMG) sensors were placed on 6 posterior shoulder muscles: latissimus dorsi, infraspinatus, posterior deltoid, upper trapezius, middle trapezius, and lower trapezius. Subjects completed 4 laps in a pool at 3 separate resistances (low, moderate, and heavy) in a randomized order. The peak EMG signal during each phase (propulsion and recovery) was recorded. A 2-way within subject ANOVA (resistance-by-phase) with post hoc Bonferroni's corrections was used to identify differences in EMG activation. There was a significant main effect of phase for the latissimus dorsi (F = 91.3, p < 0.001), upper trapezius (F = 36.5, p < 0.001), middle trapezius (F = 33.8, p < 0.001), and lower trapezius (F = 21.6, p < 0.001). The latissimus dorsi demonstrated higher activation during the propulsion phase (p < 0.001), and all trapezius muscles demonstrated higher activation during the recovery phase (p < 0.001). There was a significant main effect of resistance for the posterior deltoid (F = 3.4, p = 0.043), with higher muscle activation in the low resistance trials compared with the heavy resistance trials (p = 0.036). Recreationally active individuals demonstrate activation of the posterior shoulder when using a pool-based surfboard. This pool-based surfboard may be beneficial to activate the posterior musculature and may be more accessible than standard surfing to baseball athletes.

Understanding the relationship between surfing performance and fin design

This research aimed to determine whether accomplished surfers could accurately perceive how changes to surfboard fin design affected their surfing performance. Four different surfboard fins, including conventional, single-grooved, and double-grooved fins, were developed using computer-aided design combined with additive manufacturing (3D printing). We systematically installed these 3D-printed fins into instrumented surfboards, which six accomplished surfers rode on waves in the ocean in a random order while blinded to the fin condition. We quantified the surfers' wave-riding performance during each surfing bout using a sport-specific tracking device embedded in each instrumented surfboard. After each fin condition, the surfers rated their perceptions of the Drive, Feel, Hold, Speed, Stiffness, and Turnability they experienced while performing turns using a visual analogue scale. Relationships between the surfer's perceptions of the fins and their surfing performance data collected from the tracking devices were then examined. The results revealed that participants preferred the single-grooved fins for Speed and Feel, followed by double-grooved fins, commercially available fins, and conventional fins without grooves. Crucially, the surfers' perceptions of their performance matched the objective data from the embedded sensors. Our findings demonstrate that accomplished surfers can perceive how changes to surfboard fins influence their surfing performance.

Surfboard riders are at risk of low energy availability - A pilot study

BACKGROUND

Surfing is a rapidly growing sport and recreational activity. The previously reported, intermittent high-intensity energetics of surfing place athletes and recreational participants at risk of low energy availability (LEA).

AIM

As such, this pioneering study aims to be the first to investigate LEA risk and the second to investigate dietary intake in surfers.

METHODS

Twenty-one intermediate and advanced surfers (female - 5, male - 16) were recruited to complete an online self-administered questionnaire and 4 consecutive 24-hour food logs to establish LEA risk and asses dietary intake. The Low Energy Availability in Female Questionnaire and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire were used to identify at-risk individuals in females and males, respectively, with respective cut-off's of ≥8 and ≥2.3.

RESULTS

Fifty-seven percent were classed as at-risk of LEA (50% and 80% in males and females, respectively). No significant relationship of competitive status, surfing ability and body mass index on risk classification was found. However, a non-significant medium effect of age was observed (p = 0.338, R = 0.549). And 77% of the 70 total analysed food records showed inadequate carbohydrate (CHO) consumption.

CONCLUSION

In summary, an alarmingly high portion of surfers are at risk of LEA and dietary inadequacy. Future studies should confirm whether surfing organisations need to intervene, by addressing limitations of the present study including a small sample, which was heavily biased away from female and high-level competitors.

The effects of a land-based home exercise program on surfing performance in recreational surfers

Surfing has become a popular, non-age dependent sport that can be performed at most beaches. Hence, coaches and athletes have recognised the importance of physical preparation to enhance athletic performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a sport-specific, land-based-home exercise programme (LB-HEP) on sport-specific assessments related to surfing performance in recreational surfers. Twenty-two year-round recreational surfers divided into two groups: the exercise group (EG) performed the LB-HEP 3 times a week for 8 weeks while the control group (CG) maintained their current exercise. Both groups were instructed to continue surfing during the study period. Each surfer completed sport-specific measurements related to surfing demands both pre-test and post-test (8 weeks). There was a significant interactive effect of time and group (p = .009, η_p² =.298) on the surfer's performance questionnaire showing greater improvements in the EG. Additionally, the EG had an improvement on time to pop-up when compared to the CG (η_p² =.160). Based on the results, the LB-HEP is an effective training programme for all experience levels of recreational surfers to improve surfing performance measures short term.

Traumatic surfing injuries in New Zealand: a descriptive epidemiology study

Background

New Zealand (NZ) has nearly 14,000 km of coastline and a surfing population of approximately 315,000 surfers. Given its popularity, surfing has a high frequency of injury claims, however, there remains a lack of data on traumatic surfing-related injuries from large population studies. The primary purpose of this study was to examine traumatic surfing injuries in NZ specific to injury incidence, duration, location, type, mechanism of injury and associated risk factors.

Methods

A sample of self-identified surfers currently living in NZ participated in an online retrospective cross-sectional survey between December 2015 and July 2016. Demographic and surfing injury data were collected and analysed.

Results

The survey yielded 1,473 respondents (18.3% female); a total of 502 surfers reported 702 major traumatic injuries with an overall incidence proportion of 0.34 (95% CI [0.32-0.37]). When comparing the number of injured surfers who sustained an injury at various body locations, a significantly higher proportion of competitive surfers, compared to recreational surfers, had an injury at the neck (6.8% vs 4%, χ ² (1,1473) = 5.84, P = 0.019); shoulder (7.4% vs 4.3%, χ ² (1,1473) = 6.34, P = 0.017), upper back (1% vs 2.4%, χ ² (1,1473) = 4.77, P = 0.043), lower back (7% vs 3.1%, χ ² (1,1473) = 11.98, P = 0.001) and knee (7% vs 3.4%, χ ² (1,1473) = 9.67, P = 0.003). A significantly higher proportion of surfers who performed aerial manoeuvres compared to those who did not reported a higher proportion of knee injuries (9.7% vs 3.9%, χ ² (1,1473) = 13.00, P = 0.001). With respect to injury duration, the shoulder represented the largest proportion of chronic injuries (>3 months) (44.4%), and the head and face represented the largest proportion of acute injuries (≤3 months) (88%). Muscle and tendon injuries were reported most frequently (25.6%) and direct contact injuries accounted for 58.1% of all injury mechanisms. Key risk factors for traumatic injury included: competitive compared to recreational status (41.0% vs 30.1%, Relative Risk (RR) = 1.36, P < 0.001), ability to perform aerial manoeuvres (48.1% vs 31.8%, RR = 1.51, P < 0.001) and intermediate or above skill level surfers compared to beginner surfers (35.8% vs 22.7%, RR = 1.58, P < 0.001).

Conclusion

One third of recreational surfers sustained a major traumatic injury in the previous 12 months. For competitive or aerialist surfers the risk was greater, with this proportion approximately half. Overall, the head/face was the most common location of traumatic injury, with competitive surfers being more likely to sustain a neck, shoulder, lower back, and knee injury compared to recreational surfers. The shoulder was associated with the highest proportion of injuries of chronic duration. Future research should investigate injury mechanisms and causation using prospective injury monitoring to better underpin targeted injury prevention programs.

Injury Epidemiology of 626 Athletes in Surfing, Wind Surfing and Kite Surfing

Introduction/Background

Surfing, wind surfing and kite surfing enjoy a growing popularity with a large number of athletes worldwide. The aim of this study was to identify and compare the injury profiles and compare the injury profiles of these three extreme water sports.

Materials and Methods

These data for this retrospective cohort study were collected through an online standardised questionnaire during the 2017–18 season. The questionnaire included questions about anthropometry, skill level, injury diagnosis, injury mechanism, environmental conditions and training regimes.

Results

The 626 athletes included reported 2584 injuries. On average, each athlete sustained 4.12 injuries during the season. The most frequent injury location was in the lower extremity, in particular the foot, with 49 (16.4%) injuries in surfing, 344 (18.3%) in wind surfing and 79 (19.7%) in kite surfing. Surfing demonstrated a particularly high rate of head injuries (n = 37; 12.4%). Other frequent injury types were skin lesions (up to 42.1%) and contusions (up to 40.5%). The most common injury across all surfing sports was skin lesions of the foot (wind surfing: 11.7%; kite surfing: 13.2%; surfing: 12.7%). In surfing, skin lesions of the head were frequently observed (n = 24; 8.0%). In surfing, a ‘too large wave’ (n = 18; 24.7%) was main cause of the injury, while in wind surfing (n = 189; 34.5%) and kite surfing (n = 65; 36.7%) ‘own incompetence’ led to the most injuries.

Conclusion

This unique study compares injury epidemiology and mechanism in the three most popular surfing sports: wind surfing, kite surfing and surfing. Overall, injuries were sustained mainly in the lower extremity, while surfing also demonstrated a high rate of head injuries.

Development of evidence-based classification for para surfers with physical impairments: A narrative review

The sport of competitive para surfing is growing internationally without established classification procedures. A classification structure is essential for equitable sport competition and worldwide sport progression. This narrative review summarizes the existing knowledge on Paralympic classification and surfing biomechanics. Its primary purpose is to describe the development of an evidence-based para surfing classification structure that follows the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Classification Code. Two databases-PubMed and Google Scholar-were searched for three themes: "Paralympic classification", "performance determining factors in surfing", and "impact of impairments on surf performance". The IPC Classification Code and IPC regulations were obtained from the IPC website and official publications. Seventy-six relevant articles were utilized to guide the design of this preliminary para surfing classification structure. A conceptual framework on athlete characteristics, adaptive sport characteristics, and use of equipment is presented to build the essential knowledge base for continual growth of para surfing. This classification structure and conceptual framework will support para surfing sport expansion and help pave the way for its inclusion in the Paralympic Games.

Are the Kinetics and Kinematics of the Surf Pop-Up Related to the Anthropometric Characteristics of the Surfer?

The surf pop-up is a unique and challenging skill, critical to successful surfing. Hypothesizing that anthropometric characteristics of surfers influence the pop-up performance, we aimed to measure kinematics and ground-reaction forces (GRF) during a simulated pop-up motion, and to relate these variables with anthropometric characteristics. Twenty-three male surfers (age: 28.4 ± 10.1 years old; body mass: 68.3 ± 10.8 kg; height: 1.73 ± 0.07 m; time of practice: 12.4 ± 8.9 years; arm-span: 1.75 ± 8.9 m) perform a simulated pop-up in the laboratory, while GRF and 3D motion-capture data were acquired. The duration of the pop-up was 1.20 ± 0.19 s (60% push-up and 40% reaching/landing phase). During the push-up, the hands were placed 0.46 ± 0.05 m apart and generated a relative total peak-force of 0.99 ± 0.10 N/Weight, with symmetrical impulse of 0.30 ± 0.05 N·s/Weight for the dominant and 0.29 ± 0.07 N·s/Weight for the nondominant hand. Elbow angles were not different during the peak force application (110 ± 18° vs. 112 ± 18°, respectively) of the push-up phase. During the landing phase, the feet were placed 0.63 ± 0.10 m apart and generated a relative peak force of 1.63 ± 0.18 N/Weight. The impact force during landing was applied unevenly between the rear foot (28%) and the front foot (72%). In conclusion, most anthropometric-related variables showed no relationship with performance variables, with the exception of an inverse relationship between muscle mass and pop-up total duration. We also observed no differences in upper- and lower-body kinematics between the dominant vs. nondominant hands and among surfers who preferred a regular vs. “goofy-foot” stance. Finally, the force profiles between hands were similar and symmetric, while the lower extremities during the reaching phase were different, with the front foot applying greater force than that of the rear foot.

Performance evaluation of humpback whale-inspired shortboard surfing fins based on ocean wave fieldwork

We present field results revealing improved surfing performance when a novel approach (“Real Whale”, RW) is used for applying several of the humpback whale’s passive flow control mechanisms, including tubercles, to surfboard fins. It is also the first study presenting evidence of dynamic performance of tubercled designs rotating on all three axes. We evaluated low aspect ratio, thruster-style 3-fin configurations used in high-performance surfing. Fieldwork involved surfing almost 2,000 ocean waves from around the world, comparing standard commercial fins with straight leading edges to RW fins. We collected surfing data from instrumentation attached to surfboards, including GPS and 9-axis motion sensors. Eighteen turn performance values were measured and calculated, including novel, surfing-specific rotational power coefficients. ANOVA revealed surfers using RW fins showed significant improvements in power generation compared to when they used standard commercial fins. Turn rates using RW fins also improved, although not significantly. We found using RW fins allowed a skilled surfer to improve their surfing performance relative to a professionally ranked surfer.

Real-Time Surf Manoeuvres’ Detection Using Smartphones’ Inertial Sensors

Surfing is currently one of the most popular water sports in the world, both for recreational and competitive level surfers. Surf session analysis is often performed with commercially available devices. However, most of them seem insufficient considering the surfers’ needs, by displaying a low number of features, being inaccurate, invasive or not adequate for all surfer levels. Despite the fact that performing manoeuvres is the ultimate goal of surfing, there are no available solutions that enable the identification and characterization of such events. In this work, we propose a novel method to detect manoeuvre events during wave riding periods resorting solely to the inertial sensors embedded in smartphones. The proposed method was able to correctly identify over 95% of all the manoeuvres in the dataset (172 annotated manoeuvres), while achieving a precision of up to 80%, using a session-independent validation approach. These findings demonstrate the suitability and validity of the proposed solution for identification of manoeuvre events in real-world conditions, evidencing a high market potential.

Surf Session Events' Profiling Using Smartphones' Embedded Sensors

The increasing popularity of water sports—surfing, in particular—has been raising attention to its yet immature technology market. While several available solutions aim to characterise surf session events, this can still be considered an open issue, due to the low performance, unavailability, obtrusiveness and/or lack of validation of existing systems. In this work, we propose a novel method for wave, paddle, sprint paddle, dive, lay, and sit events detection in the context of a surf session, which enables its entire profiling with 88.1% accuracy for the combined detection of all events. In particular, waves, the most important surf event, were detected with second precision with an accuracy of 90.3%. When measuring the number of missed and misdetected wave events, out of the entire universe of 327 annotated waves, wave detection performance achieved 97.5% precision and 94.2% recall. These findings verify the precision, validity and thoroughness of the proposed solution in constituting a complete surf session profiling system, suitable for real-time implementation and with market potential.

Physical performance characteristics between male and female youth surfing athletes

BACKGROUND

Despite some knowledge about the fitness levels of elite surfers, there is limited published research examining gender differences, particularly in young athletes. The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the sex differences in physical performance characteristics of elite youth surfers. It was also aimed to study the association between physical performance variables.

METHODS

This longitudinal prospective study was based on a total of twenty male and female youth surfers who performed a battery of physical performance tests: anthropometrics, weight-bearing dorsiflexion test, Functional Movement Screen, lower extremity dynamic stability, lower limb dynamic strength, paddling and apnea test. The magnitude of differences between male and female surfers was tested and also the percentage of difference between performances.

RESULTS

When testing the correlation between the anthropometric and physical fitness variables and between performance variables, males and females presented specific intra sex results that should be interpreted by surf coaches.

CONCLUSIONS

Concerning better performance, working with young surfing athletes body composition have to be managed and the development of lower limb dynamic strength, especially for girl younger surfers. Supplementary it seems that Star Excursion Balance Test when compared bilaterally, can be a time efficiency indicator of the influence of surf training on the magnitude of lower limb asymmetry and postural control. In this way, surf coaches working with young athletes can implement appropriate and adjust training interventions.

Increasing surfboard volume reduces energy expenditure during paddling

The purpose of this study was to investigate how altering surfboard volume (BV) affects energy expenditure during paddling. Twenty surfers paddled in a swim flume on five surfboards in random order twice. All surfboards varied only in thickness and ranged in BV from 28.4 to 37.4 L. Measurements of heart rate (HR), oxygen consumption (VO₂), pitch angle, roll angle and paddling cadence were measured. VO₂ and HR significantly decreased on thicker boards [VO₂: r = -0.984, p = 0.003; HR: r = -0.972, p = 0.006]. There was also a significant decrease in pitch and roll angles on thicker boards [Pitch: r = -0.995, p < 0.001; Roll: r = -0.911, p = 0.031]. Results from this study suggest that increasing BV reduces the metabolic cost of paddling as a result of lower pitch and roll angles, thus providing mechanical evidence for increased paddling efficiency on surfboards with more volume. Practioner Summary: This study investigated the impact of surfboard volume on energy expenditure during paddling. Results from this study suggest that increasing surfboard volume reduces the metabolic cost of paddling as a result of lower pitch and roll angles, thus providing mechanical evidence for increased paddling efficiency on surfboards with more volume.