by Ricky Santillan
As my photos will show I have gone through a “massive” change. In fact, I have lost over 40 pounds since I started surfing a little over 2 years ago. And I still plan to get leaner as I surf some more. However, I cannot attribute the fat loss to surfing alone. It was a concerted effort of cleaning up my diet and resistance training along with the weekend surf trips that helped me get there.
When I gained weight some years ago, I was still running, playing football and generally staying active. But the weight would pile on. My friends would say “How can you be so active and have that pot belly?”. Maybe I wasn’t disciplined enough? Maybe I did not want to try hard enough to shed the fat. Whatever it was, one day as I was starting to surf (as I took it up on a whim with my wife and friends) I thought wouldn’t it be a lot easier to paddle and catch if I was lighter? Like, duh. Of course it would be. So I formulated a plan and stayed on track by eating smarter and having a regular resistance training program which I do entirely at home (mind you I don’t eat rabbit food as I would still order the Bagnetsilog at Mommy Phoebe’s, but I studied how nutrition can actually initiate change – read up on my latest leaning out attempt called intermittent fasting). And yes, you heard right, I don’t even have a gym membership anymore as all I do is home-based resistance and stretching exercises. I may look into yoga soon.
paddling deep
Now I feel that my surfing has changed drastically as I have more paddle power. Logic would dictate that paddling is a power to weight ratio thing and if that where the case I would say it helped make my paddling easier. And hopefully more efficient. Just last weekend, I had an “aha” moment at Magic Left as everything was working in sync and I was 50% closer to my year end goal of toes on the nose.
That being said… yes, surfing did transform my life.
LokalSoul would to thank Ricky Santillan for sharing his story. Photos by Troy Medina. Thanks man!
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