4 Reasons Going Vegan Can Help Your Surfing

(1) Less weight to carry

Probably the number one reason a lot of people might try a vegan diet is to lose a few pounds and get leaner and cutting out those high-calorie foods like meat, eggs, cheese, and dairy really start to get you those lean surfer abs.  Add in surfing to the mix and you got a recipe for a lean muscular body that power to weight ratio is incredible. the less body fat you have the better when it comes to power to weight ration as well as make planning a lot easier and even allow you to go smaller boards or leas foam which can help with performance. If you are carrying a few extra doughnuts in your stomach you will probably find that your overall weight affects your performance in paddling and planning speed a lot of vegan athletes including some of the world’s best claim that a plant-based diet has allowed them to become faster in the water and use far less energy due to their decreased weight and leaner phasic. This is really beneficial if you trying to improve and can quite hit that next turn the way you want maybe your diet is holding you back. 

(2) You Will Have More Energy

many vegans who compete in sport or exercise talk about the increase in energy levels, professional endurance runners Rich Roll talks about the incredible energy you got from going plant-based and how his body was running on jet fuel instead of the normal (petrol) he had been feeding his body for years. Olympic weightlifter Kendrick Farris went vegan and got stronger and put on more muscle and he got energy levels they haven’t experienced since childhood. You may be asking why are these top-level athletes getting better well plant-based foods contain all of the essential vitamins and nutrients we need to perform at our best not only this they have an incredible amount of fibre which is hugely important for overall health and detoxification of the body. Also eating more plant-based give you just the raw ingredient without a whole load of preservatives, additives, sweeteners, and other artificial ingredients you can’t even pronounce. When you remove these from your diet you allow the body to digest and process food way easier allowing more energy to be used for other thing giving your body the function better closer to 100% rather than the 60%-70% most people are accustoming to. 

(3) Recover Faster After Surf

if you’re lucky enough to surf a good few days a week then you will know that post surf feeling of exhaustion if you seriously committed you might even be doing 1-2 surfs a day plus working which will mean you going to be Real tired and that next day you going to want to still be performing at your best. Well, this is eating plant-based comes in as plants are known as nourishing foods. Plant foods do just that Nourish our body’s allowing the muscles to heal after the work of surfing, replenishing lost vitamins minerals nutrients and micronutrients lost in the surf.  If you have ever had a longer surf of 3-5 hours you will know the lower and upper back ache after a surf as well as joint pain for hours of prolonged exercise this is due to the body being inflamed, the body’s natural response to protect itself from injury or infection. Plant foods to the rescue as pretty much all plant-based foods contain incredible anti-inflammatory properties that release and alleviate this pain and reduce inflammation helping you to recover and heal quicker after your surf. So rather than going for some fast food fix or a fried feast maybe have a smoothie ready with some fresh fruits and veggies in it with some walnuts, garlic, turmeric, and you will notice you recover is a lot quicker and you will be back in the water before you know it

(4) Sleep Better

If you looking to improve performance, then a lot of it comes down to sleep if you look at top level altheas they always ensure they got good quality sleep the night before their event. British Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy and Ronaldo famously have sleep coaches that look at the quality of their sleep and how diet affects it. Sleep has a direct link to performance as well as your body’s ability to recover. As we said before about Inflammation and muscle soreness isn’t great for your recovery but it can also change your sleep quality. If you’re eating a large amount of meat and animal-based foods, your digestion could also be keeping you awake at night when it should be in repair mode. We know Eating plant-based foods requires less energy to digest but eating animal-based foods such as meat, dairy, eggs and milk can take double (sometimes triple) the amount of time to digest. Animal products can also increase inflammation markers in the body known as C-reactive proteins. These are what we talked about before contributing to inflammation, muscle soreness, and even an unhealthy heart.

If you eat plant-based foods you might know that they are Hight in fibre as well as, vitamins and minerals like magnesium, potassium, B vitamins, vitamin C, and vitamin E  which all help to reduce inflammation and improve your overall health and function. Most veggies are also natural sources of complex carbohydrates that help the body produce serotonin and melatonin (making you feel happy and relaxed) which helps the body go into a deep sleep and your body to get to work repair and replenish glucose in the muscle cells. So if you having a restless night and looking to get a better night sleep for that big swell tomorrow cut out the animal foods and add in the plant-based ones you will wake up with a real zing in your step due to better, deeper sleep and less achy muscles!

These are just a few ways in which a plant-based diet can help to improve your surfing performance but don’t just take our word for it check out or other blogs about why professional surfers and athletes are going vegan.