What are the best alternatives to Surfing? | Star Surf Camps (2024)

Obviously the best way to improve your surfing is through more surf. Duh. However, there are plenty of alternative sports and exercises that can help improve strength, balance, coordination and posture. These will all have positive effects on your surfing. So if the waves are flat, why not try one of the following?

Indo boards, or balance trainers as they are sometimes called, are a simple piece of equipment which can be great fun and very good for helping strengthen muscles and tendons in your legs. They also help improve your core strength, coordination and over all balance, all very important aspects of surfing.

Indo boards come in a variety of different styles but the most basic is a simple roller tube with an oval shaped board on top. The idea is that the roller acts as the wave, the board acts as your surfboard and then you act as if your riding a wave! We recommend training with these away from sharp edges and on a soft floor.

That yoga and surfing go hand in hand is nothing new. Lots of professional surfers practise yoga on a regular basis to improve their flexibility for their pop up on the surfboard and to increase their core strength for extra balance when standing on or turning the surfboard.

Practising yoga regularly really is a great addition to your surfing routine, especially when you’re leaning to surf and want to get your surf fitness levels up.And because yoga and surfing make such a great match, we offer yoga in all our surf camps with different types of yoga practises for different yogi abilities.

The board sport is most similar to surfing. Longboarding and skateboarding evolved from surfers wanting to ride waves on land. If your riding a longboard, carving and generally riding around will help improve balance, core strength, leg muscles and also be the closest recreation of moving a surfboard that you can get without water.

Lots of professional surfers also skateboard these days, practicing manoeuvres such as aerials on ramps before trying them in the surf. Skate parks with bowls, half pipes and quarter pipes are the best place for skateboarding if you want to skate with surfing style, with the shape of the ramp being the closest thing to a wave.

Slack-lining is becoming more and more popular amongst surfers. All you need is a slack line and two opposing obstacles to secure it to.

Very much like tight rope walking, the idea is to walk along the slack line from one end to the other. Due to the slackness in the line, it takes great balance and coordination to be able to walk along a slack line. However, with lots of practice you can quickly master it. It is a very demanding exercise requiring strength, balance and responsiveness. It is very good for improving your balance, core strength, coordination and focus.

Stand up paddle boarding is the perfect water sports activity when the eaves are flat. If there are no waves, grab a stand-up paddle board, short SUP, gather a few friends and head off on an adventure around the coastline.

Join us on one of our SUP trips and discover the North of Spain from the water.During peak season, we organise daily trips for 3 – 4 guests. We leave the surf camp after your surf lessons and take you to one of our favourite lagoons. From there we grab our SUP boards and explore the coast and its caves for a few hours. With no age or ability limitations, SUPing is a great way to spend an afternoon away from the surf camp!