You’re NOT Too Old for Surfing: How Aging Can Actually Improve Your Surfing
Are You Really Too Old to Surf - Or Just Believing the Lie?
Feeling slower in the water, stiffer in the joints, or unsure if you’ve aged out of the sport you love? What if it’s not your body that’s holding you back, but your mindset?
Surfing is often seen as a young person’s sport, but that belief is costing older surfers joy, progress, and freedom. If you’ve ever felt like your best surfing days are behind you, this episode shows that they might actually still be ahead. Backed by neuroscience and real-world examples, this conversation reframes what’s truly possible in your surfing life after 40, 50, and beyond.
What You’ll Gain from Listening
A science-backed mindset shift that shows how the brain can get better with age, leading to smarter wave choices, emotional control, and more satisfying sessions.
Real stories of aging surfers like Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton who defy decline, plus insights from The Mature Mind, The Mindful Body, and Gnar Country that expose the myths of aging.
Practical ways to thrive as an older surfer - from cognitive strategies to physical habits and creative approaches that will reignite your passion and performance.
Press Play If You're Ready to Surf Smarter, Not Slower
Discover how to keep surfing, keep learning, and keep enjoying the ocean, for life.
Books:
The Mature Mind by Gene Cohen
The Mindful Body by Ellen Langer
Gnar Country by Steven Kotler - or the podcast interview:
https://jamesaltuchershow.com/episode/superpowered-aging-with-the-master-of-flow-steven-kotler
https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id794030859?i=1000679523450
Transcript:
Welcome back or welcome to the Surf Mastery Podcast, education and inspiration for Lifelong Surfers. Are you too old for surfing? I don't think so. I think we've been lied to about aging. I'm your host, Michael Frampton, and I hate to admit it, but I am an aging surfer and there comes a point in our surfing life where we start to think is that it?
Is that as good as I'm gonna get? , Can I even continue to surf with this knee? Should I just buy long boards? Am I aged out of tropical surf trips? Now it turns out that this negativity is actually just disguised as realism. Sure we may feel less paddling power, slower popups, stiffer joints, pain, blah, blah, blah.
A sense that surfing like most other sports belongs to the young. Our expectations shrink. Our wave count drops our tolerance for risk. Disappears. But it turns out not because the body has failed, it's because the story has, and once that story takes hold, it becomes self-fulfilling.
We stop experimenting. We avoid challenging conditions. We stop getting up early for dawnies, we. We upsize all of our boards. We surf defensively rather than creatively. We confuse caution with wisdom and what looks like natural decline is really learned limitation. Now that is a tragedy because surfing is actually one of the rare athletic disciplines where experience perception, pattern recognition, emotional control, all of those things actually matter far more than raw athleticism or strength or youth.
Your ability to read the ocean and to stay calm and be efficient is actually what makes you a good surfer.
Having one toe in the surf industry, I've been lucky enough to have some conversations , with some older, amazing surfers, and whenever you ask them about aging, , they often just simply shut you down. I remember talking to Laird Hamilton in the water and I asked him about longevity and aging, and he just immediately shut me down, said, no, we don't even talk about it.
We don't acknowledge it. We just carry on. And I thought that was a really, a really unique and cool perspective. But it turns out there's a lot of, a lot of truth backed by science to this way of thinking. And I've recently read a couple of books. The first one is called The Mature Mind by Gene Cohen. Now Gene looks at the science of the Aging Brain.
And yes, some of our processing speeds decline as we age. And of course our bodies slow down as we age, but our brains can actually improve if we do certain things. The overarching principle of the book would be the use it or lose it principle. So if we keep doing stuff, we can actually keep getting better.
Scientifically speaking, our brains begin to use both hemispheres better, and those hemispheres work together better. We become more emotionally regulated and less impulsive responses. We actually integrate our memories and perception better.
We become more aware of who we are and what we want. So in surfing terms, our wave selection gets better. The way we read the ocean gets better. We can remain calm under pressure, and of course we know the types of waves, the types of boards, and the way that we wanna surf better. We become more comfortable in our own skin and
maybe we don't surf as well from a competition surfing perspective, but we actually end up enjoying surfing more.
Cohen also talks about neuroplasticity. Some of the old science suggested that we actually learn. That we, some of the old science, some of the old science suggests that we lose our ability to learn as we age, but it turns out that's not true. If we continue to deliberately learn, our brain can stay plastic and we can continue to learn stuff.
And Cohen gives concrete tips about how to improve our brains as we age. And one of those is to continue learning. Now, that might be a language or a skill, something that's intellectually challenging. He recommends doing crosswords and puzzles and strategy games. . Engaging in creative pursuits, writing, painting, music, dance, any form of artistic expression,
and learning a new instrument or if you already play an instrument. Continuing to learn more about music and, and new songs encompasses both the learning and the creative side of things.
We need to maintain and expand our social engagement. So that means maintaining our friendships and relationships and community, but also a term Coan users is to cultivate cognitive diversity. And what he means by that is meeting new people,
being open-minded to hearing other people's point of views, reading unfamiliar books
stretching yourself, being open-minded. Things that we naturally did when we were younger.
Staying physically active, that's really important. We all know about that. Uh, pursuing meaning and purpose, whether that's through a, a new business venture, helping others through parenting or mentoring or volunteering is really important. Surfing actually fits many of these criteria. Obviously, staying physically active. If we continue to surf with friends, we can maintain our friendships and relationships.
We can choose to talk to different people in the ocean as well.
If we continue to surf new places and experiment with new surfboards, it's another form of learning.
Surfing is endlessly complex, but of course we need to do things outside of surfing. And Cohen recommends just simple things like doing puzzles, crosswords, strategy games, musical instruments, language painting, those sorts of things. And as we age, we'll find we actually have time for these things.
But above all, adopt the growth mindset. Reject the belief that aging equals decline because it doesn't. And the science shows that if we do the right things, our brains actually get better as we age. Which segues beautifully into the second book that I read called The Mindful Body by Ellen Langer.
She's a Harvard professor and central to the idea of her work is that many of the limits we attribute to the body are actually imposed by the mind. People don't decline simply because they're older. They decline because they become mindless, stuck on autopilot, rigid beliefs and fixed rules.
She has a great line. Stiffness is cognitive before it's physical and function actually improves when attention improves. Mindfulness, novelty, variation, all play a huge role.
One of the most famous studies in her book is the Counterclockwise Study where she placed older men in their late seventies and eighties into an environment designed to replicate life 20 years earlier. The furniture, magazines, TV shows, everything was 20 years earlier. The participants were told to speak and behave as if it was 20 years ago, and within days, physical changes improved their posture, improved vision and hearing improved blood pressure markers improved, increased independence.
They even started playing football on the lawn. The body responded to context.
Their bodies responded to the way they were thinking their beliefs.
A fascinating study and a book I highly recommend you read.
And surfing is full of great examples. Kelly Slater still surfing performance short boards in his fifties. Pete Mel winning big Wave awards. Shane Dorian just charging Twiggy skip fry surfing beautifully in his eighties.
And that leads me into the third book that I read, NA Country by Stephen Kotler. Now Stephen Kotler, previously in the podcast of spoken about the rise of Superman, all about flow states.
Steven is a lifelong skier and he decided to learn park skiing in his fifties, something that's usually reserved for a lot younger people. , And he found, he was, he managed to learn to ski parks and then he actually took a group of his peers and taught them how to park ski
something that all of them initially thought wasn't possible.
Now, of course they didn't learn to perform like younger athletes or learn as fast as them. And what Steven found all he had to do really was just make each progression steps much smaller, slower, fewer falls.
But when
and when these older skiers started to realize, oh, I can learn new things. It just takes me a little bit longer to learn. Then they started playing more and getting into flow states and their attitudes changed
something he calls peak performance aging.
So what does this mean for surfers? Well, it's all good news when we let go of the decline narrative and stay curious, surf different waves, different boards. Keep surfing, keep learning, keep engaged,
keep playing.
Then we keep surfing and we become wise surfers and we enjoy surfing more.
Strength and speed matters less, efficiency and grace matters more. We surf for ourselves. With wisdom and without shame, and that is what Surf Mastery is all about. Reading the ocean, staying calm, surfing intelligently, for life.
And of course, check out the Surf Mastery Method. Many course@surfmastery.com. It is all about how to read the ocean better and become a wise surfer. I.
And go ahead and read those books. The Mature Mind by Gene Cohen, G-E-N-E-C-O-H-E-N. It's actually on Audible as well as an audio book.
And the Mindful Body by Alan Langer, E-L-L-E-N-L-A-N-G-R. That book is actually also on Spotify if you prefer to listen, and NA Country, it's GNAR Country by Stephen Koler.
I actually didn't enjoy the book that much. I don't. I think it was a little long-winded, but I did listen to a podcast episode where he was interviewed by James Altucher
and it summarizes his perspective on aging and is very inspiring. So I highly recommend you listen to that podcast episode.
I will have the title and author of those books and the link to that podcast episode in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with an Aging surfer friend. And if you read those books, or if you've read any other books that you think align with this way of thinking, please write in and let us know. mike@surfmastery.com. Until next time, keep surfing and keep surfing until you die.
The Surf Mastery Podcast:
For the passionate surfer - whether you're a weekend warrior, a surf dad, or an older surfer - this podcast is all about better surfing and deeper stoke. With expert surf coaching, surf training, and surfing tips, we’ll help you catch more waves, refine your paddling technique, and perfect your pop up on a surfboard. From surf workouts to handling wipeouts, chasing bigger waves, and mastering surf technique, we’re here to make sure you not only improve but truly enjoy surfing more - so you can get more out of every session and become a wiser surfer. Go from Beginner or intermediate Surfer to advanced