Surfing performance pillars:

1. Technique ; Development of strong technique is fundamental to rapid progression and elite performance in most endevours and Surfing is no exception. The knowledge and capability to implement these skills are a primary focus for surfers moving through our programs.

2. Environment: This pillar focuses on improving a surfers understanding and adaptability to all the external factors occurring around them. Examples of these environmental factors might be the surf spot (reef/beachie etc), wave size/form, tide, wind direction/speed, weather pattern, numbers in the line-up, who surfing with etc.

3. Equipment: This pillar relates to a surfers understanding and optimal usage of the tools which are available to support their performance both in and out of the water. These may relate to suitability of Surfboard, fins, leash, wax, or wetsuit. Usage of other safety equipment like a helmet, safety vest or clinical needs such as strapping tape, contact lenses, surf ears or surf preparation tools such as gym equipment, and wave simulation gear.

4. MindBody is the last pillar and arguably of greatest importance. Historically Mind and Body have often been discussed separately in theory and practice when relating to clinical diagnosis or performance optimisation. This division could be an attempt to simplify our understanding and treatment of the bodies systems, or a lack of understanding about the complex interactions of those systems on each other. Its like treating the bruise on your head with a band-aid and paracetamol instead of asking someone why they are continuing to knock their head against a brick wall. However you choose to look at it, our bodies systems are fundamentally interconnected. As a surfer, this means a hightened awareness of the needs of the Mindbody aparatus and a capability to meet those needs at the appropriate times is vital for identifying what to work on, when to work on it and ultimately how to optimise performance.

It is simple to imagine how the components within these pillars could combine to create a poor performance e.g. Poor technique, on waves way out of your depth, on gear that doesn’t fit, with an untrained Mindbody system. However on a positive note, conscious awareness of how to use these pillars to compensate for our weaknesses can do a lot to maintain or enhance our Surfing Performance. Simple examples might be things you may already do such as: selecting a longer board when the waves are bigger, putting on a warmer wetsuit when the water is cold or focusing on a few calming breaths to gain focus before a starting big heat.

The compensatory interactions of these pillars is often conceptualised like the four legs of a table, if 1 leg is shortened or lengthened (e.g. a in-efficient pop-up technique) then the table becomes unstable (poor performance). The stabilising remedy comes by adapting the length of another table leg or legs (Surfing Pillars) to match (e.g. using a more stable board, adjusting the wave entry or surfing less critical waves to make the pop-up in-efficiency less of an impact to performance.

Day to day and over our surfing career our capability in each pillar (our 'table leg length') will constantly vary as our capability and situations change and therefore compensations are always necessary. The ideal state is that over time we continue to optimise our performance by seeing improvement in our technique and mindbody pillars while becoming more agile at adapting to our environmental and equipment pillars.

'The Performance Pillars' represent ‘What’ the surfer is trying to improve, and ‘Surfing performance’ is the result, however the process to achieving those changes is more detailed. There are six elements that are required to make long-lasting developmental improvements in any of the required surfing performance pillars. These elements are discussed in our next video on “the Development cycle”.