1) How to avoid loose boardies
Loose boardies can be a problem. Even if you sometimes prefer to surf naked, the second you realize that you're loosing your trunks while facing the impact zone of a 10 footer, you probably wonder how this could happen. The answer is as easy as the solution. If the fabric of your boardies and ties get wet, they shrink. But there are ways to avoid an untight-tie-up-lace situation. Either wet them, before you bind them, or remember to tie them up again after you entered the water.
2) The foam rubber thermal insulation tube travelbag
Surfers travel. And travelling with your surfboard often means flying which also means that your baggage will be moved by people that consider a surfboard to be a mixture of an air matrace and a kanu. The result will be damage. Even if you are lucky, if you travel with your quiver, dings and cracks on your sticks will always be round the next corner. But there is one well-established method to bring the safety level of your crappy travel trolley up to the level of an high-class surfboard bag by the price of a box of cigarettes. Foam rubber insulation tube, used for heating or solar systems are available from your next hardware store for less than 3,-$ a piece. Buy 4 meters for a shortboard, fix them with duct tape and build your own diy custom sized protection bag! If you treat this construction gentle, you can put the foam frame several times on and off without taking the tape off or harming the stability. You can also cut a "pool noodle" in half. Tested and prooved!
3) Wet clothes in you car or scooter
If youre used to get changed on the beach or the parking lot, you usually carry your wet boardshorts, wetsuit and towels around either in a stinky plastic bag, or around your car seats and on the floor. However, all these methods result in salt water dripping around in your car, dirt and sand all over your rotting clothes. Forget it. Take a paint bucket and fill it with fresh water and put the cover back on. Rinse your clothes after the surf, remove the water and store them in the bucket for your ride home, where you can hang them up and dry them. No stink, no sand, no flooding. Problem solved.
4) Refill your calories during a surf
If you are an every day surfer and you are having enough time to take a break during sessions, you will not need this trick, but if you only have an afternoon or a couple of of surfing time per week, you should continue reading. The point is, that most even trained people are only able to , simply because the glucose storage of your body is limited to about 2000 kcal. After this storage is empty, your fitness performance will decrease immensely, while your body literally starts eating itself. From this time after maybe 2-3 hours of surfing your surfing performance normally is not longer up to your A-game. But why not just eat? Well sometimes it's a long paddle out or a boat drop off, sometimes the paddle out is so hard, that it is just easier to stay in the line-up. So what? There are fitness and energy bars all over the place. Just stick them in your lycra, wetsuit or in the pocket of your boardshorts. You would be surprised how durable the wrapping of those bars can be. Extra tip: Energy gel or dextrose tabs does not bother you with bumps in your trunks and can also give you an extra hour of full performance. And don't litter in the line-up!
