Mendez-Villanueva, Alberto, Bishop, David ORCID: 0000-0002-6956-9188 and Hamer, Peter (2006) Activity profile of world-class professional surfers during competition: a case study. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 20 (3). pp. 477-482. ISSN 1064-8011

Abstract

Activity profile of world-class professional surfers during competition: A case study. J. Strength Cond. Res. 20(3):477–482. 2006.—The activity profile of men’s competitive surfing was investigated during an international contest. Forty-two male surfers were filmed during 42 elimination heats. Surfers’ activities were classified into 1 of 4 distinct categories (paddling, wave riding, stationary, and miscellaneous). The surfers were paddling and stationary 51% (25–70%) and 42% (23–72%) of the total time, respectively. Wave riding accounted for 4% (2–7%) of the total time, whereas miscellaneous activity accounted for the remaining 2% (0.1–6%) of the total time. The frequency (average number of motions in a heat) of each activity was 26 for paddling (15–37); 17 for stationary (10–26); 5 for wave riding (2–8); and 6 for miscellaneous activity (1–13). The mean duration lengths of the activities were 30.1 seconds (1–286 seconds), 37.7 seconds (1–413 seconds), 11.6 seconds (1–44 seconds), and 5 seconds (1– 31 seconds) for paddling, stationary, wave riding, and miscellaneous activities, respectively. Most of the paddling bouts (�60%) were performed at time intervals of between 1 and 20 seconds. Approximately 50% (50.9%) of the rest intervals were between 1 and 20 seconds in duration. The results showed that surfing is an intermittent activity characterized by a large variability and random distribution of each parameter analyzed. This information can be used to assist in the development of fitness training programs and physiological testing for competitive surfers.

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