Training lung capacity for SUS hold-downs

[surfinJ]

When I know the waves are going to be big I have to start calming my self the night before so I can get to sleep. Too easy to lay awake thinking of possible disasters.
Getting to the beach and seeing the sets gets the heart pounding and again I need calm myself, steady deep breaths.

The moment I decide to go for a wave I've got to keep the calm as the natural urge is to panic from the size of it, and the thought of ending up under it. 

A positive picture in my head of a perfect drop and deep breathing. 
If I end up in a bad place, relax and go into my head, a removed thought.

I know of guys that say there not scared... maybe, but not me.
Controlling the fear, enough stress to perform well but remain calm.

Actually haven't done any real breath hold training as I read about a bunch of drownings. I would guess you can train for it, probably better out of the water.
But the good breathings gotta happen first.

[PonoBill]

On days when I get a few hold downs, my capacity drops precipitously. Just fear. Panic does bad things to you, and two things it does is increase your burn rate for O2, and decrease your ability to deal with CO2 triggers. The easiest way to get past it is to start laughing. Calm yourself down by just being silly about it. Works for me. Pretty soon I'm just as deep, just as O2 starved, and just as screwed--but I'm relaxed and almost happy about it. I find if I can achieve that, and avoid the little bursts of panic that say "wait, I'm still down here, I'm not going up!!" then I'm fine--even in a two-wave hold down. Or the almost two wavers that we get at Kanaha when you pop up and there's another, right there.

A vest helps tremendously too. You get to the surface about 30-40 percent faster. That means you get two breaths before big brother mows you instead of one. Big difference.

[supsurf-tw]

It's 90% mental. The training is important but what the training does is give you confidence. Confidence and the ability to not panic. I remember my worst ever hold down at Sunset I just gave up, reliving an experience when I was 3, the whole  "This is the end of the road" type of deal. What saved me was just relaxing as I knew I was not gonna make it. Saving that last bit of oxygen was the difference between life and death. It made me understand what it took to survive these situations. What you want to do is turn a hold down into a pleasurable experience. Your're down there in this incredible situation that few will experience. Just enjoy the ride man. You'll eventually come up...

[WhatsSUP]

Interesting post/thread going here.....although I suspect that I'll never be a big wave guy, I am nonetheless interested in being one with Mother Ocean (to include being calm when the "S" hits the fan).  Having said that, I'm really curious as to why everyone hasn't bought into wearing some sort of float (vest, or other), and using a waist leash after all the chatter on this forum about the latter(?)  I have a Patagonia big wave/float vest which I love, and I'm probably gonna go with a waist leash  this season...the latter more because of a desire to want to learn/easily cross-step without getting tangled -even in my comfort zone of ankle-chest high stuff.  Granted, leashes break all the time, but if ya got a floatation vest of some sort, aren't hold-downs substantially minimized with the exceptions of stupid BIG stuff when combined with a waist leash, etc?

[supthecreek]

I did a quick read through.... i don't know if anyone brought this up....

Watch lots of videos of folks riding big waves..... I'm not talking stupid big.... just "normal" big... like 15' or whatever....

What you see is that they are almost never held down for a long time.
It just seems like a long time, when it is YOU.

I go into it, knowing that the trashing is fine, and it isn't going to last very long.
The whole experience of a wipeout is a simple fact of surfing.... as everyone said... relax and enjoy the ride.

The more critical concern, is how to avoid impact. With the bottom, your board, someone else's board.... the rocks on the ledge, the caves on the cliff..... whatever....
know and understand the dangers at the break. Always consider them when you pick a takeoff spot or commit to a wave.

Penetrate! Make sure when you get nailed that you control some of the outcome.....
Your feet tell you where your board is, your awareness tells you where other surfers, rocks, shallows are..... react accordingly;
dive deep, fall flat, dive into the face, away from the face..... make it a normal part of falling, to control the landing whenever possible.
You never want to be motionless on the surface, where the power of the wave will sweep you up and carry you along.
Get under the fury! let it pass.

I consider my board on almost every wipeout..... I try to keep it safe from direct impact.

Wiping out is an integral part of what we do..... getting better at it helps you relax when it happens.

Most of us will never surf a wave that will hold us down for 15 seconds, let alone 30 seconds..... so the only training you need is understanding the process.
That understanding will keep you from the "panic" mode.
Struggle is useless most of the time.... it wastes energy, oxygen and focus.

Your job is to understand where you should go, when you should go and relax, knowing it will most likely be 10-15 seconds on a DOH day.... Tops.
To explain that last sentence:
Surfing Sunset, I knew the water was deep, so my goal was to penetrate the surface and go down deep..... away from the explosion and the force that could carry me along for a ride.
Next, open my eyes and look behind the wave..... there was always a clear spot, just at the back of the wave, that was behind the disturbed water from the impact..... but in front of the turbulence that would roil up behind the wave.
I would swim toward that clear spot, surface just behind the wave and grab a breath, before the turbulence frothed up the surface with thick foam that was hard to get above to clean air.
It was a process, that once understood, became normal and predictable.

If you get "nailed".... then go limp... tumble, and wait to be released. Swim calmly to the surface, look seaward before you exhale... know where the next wave is.

Balancing on a 2x4 is easy.... till it's 100 feet up.
It's the fear that will do you in.

[SuppaTime]

The thing that freaks me out in violent tumbles in the white water is getting the leash wrapped around my legs. It has happened to me twice in big waves - leash wraps around both legs before the big yank by the board. So then I am trying to swim to the surface without really being able to kick my legs. I think it happens to me because I always try to hold the tail of the board, even when about to get pounded by DOH white water, and so there is plenty of loose leash close to my legs right before the wave hits. I probably should get away from the board and dive deep but I worry if there are others shoreward of me. Of course when the waves are huge I am never able to hold on to the board anyway.

[PonoBill]

Tail handles are good up to about 1.5 OH or DOH if it's short period and they always help some, even if they just slow the board for a second. The downside of waist leashes is they get wrapped on you more often--they're closer to wrappable parts, and you can't do the "point like a dart" thing to save your leash in a big wipeout. You need a stout leash. Everything needs to be 2X strong because the pull on the leash is stronger.

Junya told me a couple days ago that he got his leash wrapped around his neck once. Got his hand under it just before it tensioned. That would be bad.

Ultimately it needs to be you and the water that works out. You can't rely on anything else. You have to be able to handle what the wave hands out. It's good to practice holding your breath, it's good to do breathing exercises, it's good to learn diaphragmatic breathing. But if you get worked in big stuff and you panic, you're hosed. If you can't manage to stay calm in the rinse cycle, stay on the beach or stick with smaller stuff. It's not worth dying for.

[stoneaxe]

The thing that freaks me out in violent tumbles in the white water is getting the leash wrapped around my legs. It has happened to me twice in big waves - leash wraps around both legs before the big yank by the board. So then I am trying to swim to the surface without really being able to kick my legs. I think it happens to me because I always try to hold the tail of the board, even when about to get pounded by DOH white water, and so there is plenty of loose leash close to my legs right before the wave hits. I probably should get away from the board and dive deep but I worry if there are others shoreward of me. Of course when the waves are huge I am never able to hold on to the board anyway.

My wife almost watched me die a few years ago on the Cape for exactly that reason. I was the only one out on a head 1/2 to DOH day and got caught too far in by a big one, had just fought my way out so was out of breath anyway, saw this monster coming and tried to scramble and make the drop but got thrown forward and landed on my chest and stomach....blew all my breath out. The whitewater wrapped like legs like a spider does a beatle and I took multiple waves that way. 13-14 sec period so only about 45 secs but I was seeing black spots before I got my first breath.

[eastbound]

good advice, creek, and others.

i find the whole issue is about balance--you fight...to scratch your way through the work zone, but if you fight/scratch too hard and dont make it, you go deep, winded before the hold-down process even begins (a la stoney)--so it's a lot about read---scratch like a mofo if youre gonna make it but breathe deeply and prepare to penetrate and be held down if you're not--once held, relax til the moment is right to get up for air.

i find that wind sprints are the best training--the mix of heavy exertion while winded seems close to what you face in the work zone

that said waves round here are rarely big enough that hold-downs are super scary--but once in a while they are, and often they are sufficient for one to get a sense of how bad it could be

[bikersurferboater]

Great discussions.

An enjoyable way to both increase lung capacity and learn to mellow out in the head while still moving through the water is to swim underwater laps in a pool. It is amazing how quickly you learn to use relaxed movements to propel yourself while saving breath. You will also quickly learn how to not "freak out" when you are at the end but find yourself much further from the surface than you thought.

I am sure any type of free diving would be very similar.

Think pure thoughts.

[spirit4earth]

Great discussions.

An enjoyable way to both increase lung capacity and learn to mellow out in the head while still moving through the water is to swim underwater laps in a pool. It is amazing how quickly you learn to use relaxed movements to propel yourself while saving breath. You will also quickly learn how to not "freak out" when you are at the end but find yourself much further from the surface than you thought.

I am sure any type of free diving would be very similar.

Think pure thoughts.

Keep in mind the above videos about Shallow Water Blackout....

[spookini]

It's 90% mental.

Yep, but it's the other 20% that gives me  the heebie-jeebies.

[supsurf-tw]

It's 90% mental.

Yep, but it's the other 20% that gives me  the heebie-jeebies.

I bet math class gave you some REAL heebee geebees. :-))))

You have guys on the North Shore, older guys that don't really train or anything that just know how to handle hold downs mentally and they're old and still around so that tells you that it works.

I remember Ian Cairns once saying "You'll always come up, you might come up dead but you always come up". Boy that was a shot of confidence!

[supdiscobay]

It's 90% mental. The training is important but what the training does is give you confidence. Confidence and the ability to not panic. I remember my worst ever hold down at Sunset I just gave up, reliving an experience when I was 3, the whole  "This is the end of the road" type of deal. What saved me was just relaxing as I knew I was not gonna make it. Saving that last bit of oxygen was the difference between life and death. It made me understand what it took to survive these situations. What you want to do is turn a hold down into a pleasurable experience. Your're down there in this incredible situation that few will experience. Just enjoy the ride man. You'll eventually come up...

Back when I was surfing really big days, had a crazy hold down at a big beach break, being pinned to the bottom by the first wave, and started to struggle, leash broke, and then I basically gave up and from that moment on, everything went well.  Got to the surface for one breath and did it over again, and then took a couple more on the head.  Just went rag doll, and eventually got a break, and swam in to the beach.  I had virtually no energy left, and could barely walk up the sand.  It is amazing how much energy you can burn in less than 3 minutes.  That experience taught me how to handle those situations.  Since then, I have had some long hold downs, but none that I was worried about.  As TW said, just relax and enjoy the ride.

Hope everyone in Cali and Hawaii are enjoying the recent run.

[PonoBill]

I got really worked at Salt Creek practicing starts. talk about long hold downs, I was plastered on the bottom. I just relaxed and waited. took a long time, but if I'd fought the pressure I'd have drowned. Chest deep in water--once I could get my feet under me I just stood up, but it was impossible for quite a while.