Best Stretches for Surfers (Before and After Surfing)

The best stretches for surfers can help improve flexibility, reduce stiffness and keep your body moving well both in and out of the water.

Surfing places unique demands on the body. Hours spent paddling can leave the shoulders tight, while repeated pop-ups and long sessions often create stiffness through the hips, back and legs.

While stretching won’t instantly make you a better surfer, maintaining flexibility can make paddling more comfortable, improve movement on the board and help you recover faster between sessions.

Here are some of the best stretches for surfers before and after surfing.

Common Areas of Tightness and Injury in Surfers

Surfing places repetitive stress on the body, particularly through the shoulders, hips and lower back.

Some of the most common areas surfers experience stiffness or discomfort include:

• Shoulders: From repetitive paddling.
• Lower Back: From prolonged spinal extension while lying on the board.
• Hips and Hip Flexors: From pop-ups, compression and long periods of sitting between surfs.
• Neck and Upper Back: From looking forward while paddling.
• Hamstrings: Often tight in surfers who spend long periods sitting for work.

While stretching won’t prevent every injury, maintaining flexibility and mobility in these areas can help reduce stiffness and improve movement both in and out of the water.

Essential Dynamic Surf Stretches to Elevate Your Surf Sessions

Arm Circles & Shoulder Rolls

Before diving into the waves, your upper body craves that limber feel. Arm circles? They’re not just for gym class. Extend those arms and circle away. Gradually widen the circles, unlocking shoulder agility. Pair this with shoulder rolls. Inhale, roll up; exhale, roll back. Feel the tension dissolve, prepping you for powerful paddles.

Walking Lunges for Lower Body & Balance

Your legs power your ride. Step into walking lunges, where every step fires up those quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Dive deep with every lunge, syncing strength and balance. With each step, you’re paving the way for a more stable surf stance.

Spinal Flexibility:

The spine’s flexibility is paramount for surfers. A supple and mobile spine allows for fluid movements, better balance on the board, and reduced risk of back injuries. As the literal backbone of our body, ensuring its flexibility can significantly impact our surfing performance. Here are some surfing stretches, specifically aimed at enhancing spinal mobility:

Rib Cage Roll

• Description:
  • Start by lying on your back with your arms extended outward, forming a T shape. Bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the ground. Slowly let your knees fall to one side, allowing your rib cage to roll with them, but keep both shoulders flat on the ground. Hold for a few seconds, then return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.
• Benefits:
  • This stretch promotes thoracic spine mobility and gently stretches the oblique muscles. It also aids in loosening the muscles around the rib cage, which can get tight from prolonged paddling sessions.

Side-Lying Spine Stretch

• Description:
  • Lie on one side with your legs extended and stacked on top of each other. Extend your arms in front of you, keeping them aligned. Now, lift the top arm and open it towards the opposite side, rotating your torso and following the arm with your eyes until it touches the ground, or as far as it feels comfortable. Your gaze should follow your hand throughout the movement. Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.
• Benefits:
  • This stretch targets the thoracic spine and helps enhance rotational mobility, which is crucial for maneuvers on the surfboard. It also provides a gentle stretch to the chest and shoulders.

Targeted Stretches for Surfers -Improved Paddling Efficiency

As a surfer, paddling efficiency is one of the most crucial aspects of your performance. The ability to paddle effectively allows you to catch more waves and spend less energy while doing so.

To enhance your paddling technique, incorporating specific stretches into your routine can make a significant difference. This section will explore two targeted stretches that can help you unlock better paddling efficiency: the chest opener stretch and the latissimus dorsi stretch.

Chest Opener Stretch: Surfing Stretches

Surfing often involves spending hours with your upper body hunched as you paddle through the waves. Over time, this can lead to tightness and imbalances in the chest and shoulders muscles, limiting your range of motion and potentially causing discomfort or pain. The chest opener stretch is an excellent way to counteract these effects by stretching the front of your upper body.

To perform this stretch:

1. Stand tall with feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Interlace your fingers behind you, palms facing inward.
3. Gently squeeze your shoulder blades together as you lift your interlaced hands away from your lower back.
4. As you lift, allow your chest to expand forward and upward.
5. Hold this position for 20-30 seconds while taking deep breaths.

Latissimus Dorsi Stretch: Releasing Tension in the Back

The latissimus dorsi, or “lats,” are large muscles that span across the back of left leg and play a crucial role in paddling. When these muscles become tight and tense, they can restrict your arm movement and hinder your paddling technique. Regularly stretching the lats can alleviate this tension and improve your overall paddling efficiency.

To perform this stretch:

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Extend one arm overhead, slightly to the side.
3. Bend your trunk away from the extended arm until you feel a stretch in the side of your body.
4. Hold this position for 20-30 seconds while breathing deeply.
5. Repeat on the other side for balanced stretching.

Enhancing Balance and Stability with Lower Body Stretches

Deep Squat Stretch: Building Ankle Mobility and Leg Strength

Finding balance on a surfboard requires core stability, strong legs, and flexible ankles. The deep squat stretch is an excellent exercise to improve both ankle joint mobility and leg strength for surfers. Begin the quad stretch by standing with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, toes pointed outwards.

Slowly lower yourself into a squat position, keeping your back straight line your knees bent and your heels flat. As you descend, maintain an upright posture and engage your core muscles.

I can hardly talk about stretching and not include a plug for yoga! I’ve found yoga helpful in loosing up my body, allowing me to surf longer and get more waves. Check out this article on surf-specific yoga poses.

Ankle Mobility’s Impact on Surfboard Balance

Ankle mobility plays a crucial role in maintaining balance while riding waves. In surfing, the ability to adjust weight distribution quickly is vital for executing turns or maneuvers smoothly.

Limited ankle mobility can hinder these movements, leading to instability on the board. By strengthening exercises and performing the deep squat stretch regularly, you can increase flexibility in your ankles tight hips, and shoulder muscles, allowing for better weight shifting during surfing sessions.

Gradually Increasing Squat Depth Safely

When practicing the deep squat stretch as part of your surfers’ stretching routine, it’s important to listen to your body’s signals and progress gradually. Start the deep stretch by a deep breath and lowering yourself into a comfortable depth that doesn’t cause any pain or discomfort.

Over time, aim to increase the depth of your squat by gradually lowering yourself closer to the ground while maintaining proper form and alignment. You can further enhance this exercise by adding weighted resistance using dumbbells or kettlebells held at chest level.

Bottom Leg Lift

Description: Lie on your side with your legs stacked. Keep the bottom left leg only slightly bent and lift it towards the ceiling.

Benefits: This exercise targets the inner thigh muscles, which are often overlooked but crucial for stability and balance on the board. Strengthening these muscles can aid in better wave rides and reduce the risk of knee injury groin injuries.

Hip Flexor Stretches: Unlocking Stability During Turns

Surfing requires fluidity in movements such as turns or cutbacks. Tight hip muscles and flexors can limit range of motion and hinder stability during these maneuvers. Incorporating hip flexor stretches into your pre-surf routine can help address this issue. For more Mobility based exercises, have a look here.

Tight Hip Flexors and Range of Motion Limitations

Tight hip flexors can significantly impact a surfer’s ability to perform smooth turns on the waves. These muscles in the front of your hips connect to both the pelvis and thighs, allowing for hip movement.

When they become tight or shortened, they restrict the range of motion in your hips, hip and knee joints, making it difficult to execute turns with ease and fluidity. Regularly strengthening exercises stretching these muscles can improve mobility and enhance stability while maneuvering on your surfboard.

90/90 Hip Stretch

Description: Sit on the floor with both legs bent at 90-degree angles, with one foot out in front of you and the other to the side. Lean forward slightly, keeping your back straight, until you feel a stretch in your hips.

Benefits: The 90/90 hip stretch is fantastic for increasing hip mobility and flexibility. As hips play a significant role in surf maneuvers, this stretch can enhance board control and reduce the risk of strains.

Hip Flexor Stretches for Surfers

To stretch your hip flexors effectively, try a kneeling lunge stretch. Start the lunge position by kneeling on one knee with the other foot placed flat in front of you.

Engage your core and gently shift right foot forward until you feel a stretch at the front of your hip. Hold this position for 30 seconds on each side, ensuring that you maintain proper alignment and avoid any pain or discomfort.

Stretching vs Mobility for Surfers

Stretching and mobility training are often confused, but they aren’t the same thing.

Stretching focuses on improving flexibility and reducing muscle tightness.

Mobility training focuses on improving your ability to move through a range of motion with strength and control.

Both can be valuable for surfers, but mobility often has a greater impact on paddling, pop-ups and overall performance.

If you’d like to learn more, check out my guide to Mobility Training for Surfers.

Looking for More Than Stretching?

Stretching can be a great way to improve flexibility and reduce stiffness, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.

Over the years I’ve learned that long-term surfing health comes from combining flexibility, mobility, strength and recovery work.

After dealing with lower back pain for more than 15 years, one resource I’ve found particularly useful is Surf Strength Coach. Their programs focus specifically on helping surfers move better, build strength and stay in the water longer.

I especially like their emphasis on mobility, rotational strength and building resilience through full ranges of motion rather than simply stretching more.

If you’re looking for a more structured approach to surf fitness, mobility and injury prevention, it’s worth checking out.

→ Check out Surf Strength Coach here

Related Reading

If you’re looking to improve your surfing both in and out of the water, these guides may help:

• Mobility Training for Surfers – Learn the difference between mobility and flexibility and why both matter for surfing performance and longevity.
• Yoga for Surfers – Discover whether yoga can improve your surfing, flexibility, balance and recovery.
• How to Improve Your Pop-Up – Simple techniques and drills to help you get to your feet faster and more consistently.
• CO₂ Tolerance Training for Surfers – Build confidence in the water and learn why breath control matters for surfing.
• Surf Apnea Training – Develop breath-hold skills and stay calmer during wipeouts and challenging conditions.
• Surfing Fitness for Older Surfers – Stay strong, mobile and surf-ready as you age.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best stretches for surfers?

Some of the most effective stretches for surfers include hip flexor stretches, thoracic rotations, shoulder stretches, hamstring stretches, deep squat holds and World’s Greatest Stretch. These target the areas that tend to become tight from paddling and repeated pop-ups.

Should surfers stretch before surfing?

Before surfing, dynamic stretching is generally preferred as it helps prepare the body for movement. Static stretching is often better suited to post-surf recovery sessions.

Can stretching improve surfing performance?

Stretching can improve flexibility and reduce stiffness, which may help paddling, pop-ups and movement on the board. However, mobility and strength training are often equally important for long-term surfing performance.

How often should surfers stretch?

Most surfers can benefit from stretching several times per week, particularly after surfing or on recovery days. Consistency is more important than long stretching sessions.

What areas should surfers focus on stretching?

The shoulders, hips, hip flexors, thoracic spine, hamstrings and lower back are common areas that become tight from surfing and daily life.

Is stretching enough to prevent surfing injuries?

Stretching can help improve flexibility and reduce stiffness, but injury prevention usually requires a combination of mobility training, strength work, recovery and good surfing technique.