Mental Endurance

Why Surfing Feels Like a Roller Coaster
Surfing can mess with your head. One session, you feel like you’re leveling up—your turns are sharp, your wave choice is on point, and you might even sneak into a little barrel. Then the next day, you can’t even catch a wave. You’re missing everything. Your pop-up feels off. You start questioning whether you’ve actually progressed at all.

The Reason: Too Many Variables
There are just too many moving parts in surfing. The ocean is always changing. Crowds shift. Wind picks up. Tides change. Your body might be sore. Your mind might be distracted. Surfing is one of the only sports where your environment is never the same. That makes it emotionally up and down—not just for beginners, but even for pros. I was talking with a friend recently about this, and he reminded me that even Kelly Slater has said that there are days when he feels like a complete kook. Think about that.

It Doesn’t Get Easier—It Gets More Specific
As you get better, your standards go up. What used to count as a great session might start to feel average. You get more dialed in, but that also means your margin for error gets tighter. So if you’re waiting for the day when everything clicks and stays that way—you’ll be waiting forever.

How to Deal With It: Build Mental Endurance
You need to develop a stronger buffer against frustration. That starts with accepting the emotional ups and downs as part of the process. When you’re surfing well, enjoy it—but don’t cling to it. When you’re struggling, know that it’s temporary. Progress in surfing is uneven. It comes in waves—literally and figuratively. The more you can step back and see that, the easier it gets to stay calm and keep going.

Failure Is Part of the Game
I saw a stat once about Kobe Bryant—he missed more shots than most basketball players take in their entire careers but that’s what made him excel. He was willing to keep showing up, even when it wasn’t working. The same goes with surfing. You’ve got to be okay with the hard days. Because the better you get at dealing with the lows, the faster you get back to the highs.

Control What You Can
You can’t control the tide, the wind, or the crowd. But you can control your physical fitness. If you’re out of paddle shape, you’ll miss waves. That frustration builds fast. You feel like you're not surfing well, when really, you just weren’t physically ready.

What Can Help: The Basis Paddle Trainer
I've gone months without surfing and rolled up to pumping swell and surfed 3 hr sessions, multiple times a day, day after day after day, by using the Basis Paddle Trainer.

Train anytime, anywhere, so you can catch more waves and have more fun.

Unlike elastic resistance bands, swimming in the pool, or funky gym workouts these things actually work.

Check it out at www.surfbasis.com

For a deep dive customer testimonial from one of our early beta testers check out

Final Thought
Nothing good comes easy. Surfing is hard. But if you can learn to keep your head straight, stay fit, and show up consistently, the breakthroughs will come. Stay steady. Keep paddling.