Surfing

Surfing is your happy place. Whether you live for bombing big waves or cruising smaller sets, nothing beats the thrill of shredding across water.

But surfing can take its toll on your body. Shoulder impingement, lower back pain, awkward landings – injuries happen.

You don’t have to hang up your board though. Our experienced surfing physios can help you recover and find your flow again.

At Bounty Physio, our surfing physiotherapists take an integrated approach to diagnose and rehabilitate surfing injuries.

We begin with a thorough assessment to identify causes of dysfunction, including:

• Postural analysis – out of water and on the board
• Joint mobility testing – spine, shoulders, hips, ankles
• Movement screening – paddling, popping up, turning
• Strength, endurance and balance evaluation

This information allows us to create a tailored treatment plan including:

• Hands-on techniques – massage, mobilisations to improve joint and tissue mobility
• Stretching tight or overworked muscles – chest, shoulders, back
• Targeted exercises to strengthen surfing muscle groups – legs, core, shoulders
• Balance and proprioception exercises for greater control on the board
• Surfing movement pattern correction – paddling, popping up, turning
• Surfing-specific conditioning to replicate in-water demands
• We also analyse your surfing equipment, frequency, wave choice and goals. Recommendations help modify these factors to prevent recurrence.

Throughout rehab, we can collaborate with your coaches for optimal integration with ongoing surf training where required.

Some frequent surfing injuries we successfully rehabilitate include:

• Shoulder impingement – Repetitive paddling causes shoulder wear and tear. Physio aims to decompress the joint, strengthen stabilisers, restore ideal posture and mechanics.
• Lower back pain – Constant hyperextension while paddling strains the back. Treatment focuses on core strength, flexibility and minimising lumbar strain.
• Hips/groin strains – Forceful popping up and turning actions can overload hip adductors and rotators. Multi-modal recovery addresses strength, range of motion and control.
• Neck strains – Excessive neck hyperextension looking forward to catch waves taxes neck tissues. Joint mobilisation, strength training and postural correction provides relief.
• Wrist sprains/strains – Weight bearing through the wrists with paddling risks injury. Recovery regains mobility, strength and stability.
• Ankle sprains – Awkward landings from aerials or unbalanced board dismounts can sprain ankles. Physio restores ankle proprioception, strength and range of motion.

Don’t let injury interfere with surfing and all the joy it brings you. Our surfing physios understand the sport’s unique demands and how to progress you back safely.

Book an assessment and let us help you get back out there carving up waves. Regaining flexibility, strength, stamina and surfing fitness is our priority.

With individualised treatment for your surfing injury, together we’ll ensure you return to pain-free peak performance surfing – hanging ten again in no time.

Don’t try to power through pain and prolong recovery. Seeking help early gets you back to what you love faster.

Contact us today to schedule your surfing injury assessment and start the journey back to happy, healthy surfing.