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How High Expectations Can Doom Your Surfing

See it in your mind, and it’ll happen. Photo: Ben Warren//Unsplash


The Inertia

The surf forecast was lackluster, and I was in no rush. I figured I’d paddle out, though, because I needed a break from work, and when, if ever, do you regret getting wet? 

When I got to the beach, surprise: the sets were clean and rising. With zero preconceptions in mind, I surfed loose and had one of my best sessions in months.

The next day, I rolled in before dawn frothing, fully expecting a repeat. Instead, I floundered, unable to capture more than a speck of the prior day’s magic. 

What is it about high expectations that can doom our surf sessions? I reached out to a set of diverse minds to answer this pressing question.

Is Dealing with High Expectations Normal for Surfers?

I assume not all surfers deal with this problem, but I wanted to know how much of a weirdo I am. Dr. Patrick Cohn of Peak Performance Sports points out that dealing with high expectations is one of the first lessons he typically confronts with athletes, including competitive surfers. “Especially when they rise through the ranks and succeed,” he says, expectations become “high and strict,” and therefore prove challenging to meet. 

Lisa Davidsson, a surf psychologist out of Bali, (yes, this is a thing, and yes, she coined the term) tells me that she works with clients on their expectations as well. “They put intense pressure on themselves,” she says, and sometimes think that if they simply put the time in, they’ll succeed. 

Hard work is a huge aspect of surfing, of course — consider making it out the back on a big day. But the ability to surf well encompasses a variety of variables, such as wave, weather and board knowledge, technique, experience and more. Christian Marcher, owner and founder of Progressive Surf Academy in San Diego, calls surfing “the hardest sport out there,” and the inherent difficulty of riding waves contributes to the fact that consistency is notoriously tough to achieve.

How Do High Expectations Impact Us?

As someone who’s spent many sessions overthinking it, I relate when Davidsson tells me that when surfers “get stuck in their heads, it disconnects them from the body,” resulting in largely uninspiring sessions. Davidsson, an avid surfer with two decades of experience in psychology and mental health, works with surfers who are hitting roadblocks in their progression, which are sometimes related to past trauma, in or out of the water. It’s possible that when we overthink our surfing, our past injuries or hold-downs are covertly holding us back, and it’s also possible, according to Davidsson, that other mental struggles manifest themselves in our surfing. 

Much of our high expectations rise from self-imposed pressure. We want to surf as well or better than we did last time, or we only have a brief time window, or we’re weighed down by what Cohn refers to as “ineffective beliefs.” How many of us have sat there eyeing the sets, thinking “I brought the wrong board,” or “the waves are too small?” I can testify to this: I spent the last 30 minutes of a recent surf annoyed by a storm front that suddenly whipped up the wind — something totally out of my control — as opposed to searching out any still-available corners.

Davidsson takes this idea a step further, noting that “the waves can look exactly the same, you can use the same board,” but let’s say “you go with a different friend, or you woke up with a different mindset.” These seemingly minor changes can impact your perspective and emotional state. “Conditions,” she says, “are not only what you see on the outside, but what you bring to the surf.”

How Can We Fix this Problem?

Everyone I spoke to agrees that surfers need to feel confident when paddling out, but Cohn suggests that surfers learn to “separate expectations from confidence and goals.” When surfers compete, Cohn says, they can overthink things – for example, focusing on how they feel, how they look on the wave, what other people expect, or even choosing the right wave. Cohn suggests “replacing expectations with manageable goals,” and asks surfers to “focus on one wave at a time, one maneuver at a time.”

Davidsson encourages surfers who struggle with not meeting self-imposed expectations to focus on a “proper mental warmup” that includes both visualization and breathing.

The key to visualization, she says, is that, while you’re on the beach checking the waves, you should not only envision yourself riding the wave, but feel yourself making the drop and throwing spray. Cohn adds that when prepping to paddle out, it’s crucial to “trust in one’s skills and stay composed.”

Davidsson also recommends that surfers regulate their nervous systems with breathing exercises such as box breathing. The idea is to stay centered on “suppressing and expanding the diaphragm, which signals the brain that you are in a calm state of mind,” just the opposite of gasping when a huge set thunders in. When we surf well, we enter an unconscious state of flow, and to accomplish this, Davidsson stresses that the “mind and body have to align.”

Cohn agrees on the importance of working to create the effortless surf flow we all crave. “We want surfers to be locked in and simply reacting to the wave,” he says. When surfers are “in the moment,” they surf more freely, so it’s about “simplifying their mind state and not overthinking things.” He mentions that the idea is akin to “basically getting surfers to freesurf, as opposed to be perfect,” even when competing.

Instead of focusing on the mental side of things, Marcher, who’s been coaching and teaching on Hawaii’s North Shore and in San Diego for a combined 18 years, makes a beeline toward wave and spot knowledge as well as dialed-in gear. “The best solution” to having cranked-up expectations, he says, “is knowing where to go, and using different equipment” as needed. High expectations aren’t only about individual performance, but about the remote chance of the “perfect day.” Marcher describes a situation all surfers relate to: we get amped on the forecast, but the so-called “best day of the week” doesn’t pan out. On the flip side, the days “without expectations” can offer up less-crowded waves as a pleasant surprise.

Marcher, says that for himself and his students, “the biggest thing is finding boards that work where you live, and dropping the ego.” One of the first things he does when he coaches surfing is to make sure that the rider has a shortboard, a mid-length and a longboard at their disposal. This strategy is something I’ve worked on myself, as I try to assemble a quiver of (used) boards that work at my home breaks and stay open to new fins and boards based on the swell, how I feel, and what lines I want to draw.

Davidsson drops two more tips for when I’m standing on the beach, stacking up pressure on myself. “A power pose,” she says, grinning, “can give you a confidence boost. Chest up, chin up!” I try my best in the Zoom meeting and her laugh tells me this is not a power pose. Also, “smile!” she says. Smiling is a signal from body to mind to relax — and it might just be contagious in an otherwise glowering lineup.

 
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