The Swell Life

Joe Hirscher
Age: 56
Occupation: Director of sales for a special metals company
24 Hour Fitness Location: Carlsbad, California

The Plan: Hirscher, a native Californian who grew up surfing, spent two decades landlocked some 900 to 2,000 miles from the nearest ocean. As he prepares for a move to northern San Diego, he needs to upgrade his muscle power and brush up on his balance skills for surfing.

The Obstacle: No. 1: At popular surf spots swarming with born-and-bred locals, it’s not uncommon for the more territorial surfers to pick a fight if they feel you cut them off or dropped in on their favorite break and wasted a wave by bailing. As the new guy, earning his right to gun for waves, Hirscher can’t afford to make a crummy first showing. “If I can get accepted by the surfers in the water, I am home,” he says.

No 2: He’ll need to build strength (no, not to fight) and power while in the process of rehabbing a shoulder following rotator cuff surgery.

The Solution: Before heading ‘home’ he worked out for 6 months with trainer Lindsay Johnson at Kirkwood Active 24 Hour Fitness in Missouri. Johnson loaded Hirscher’s workouts with balance work to simulate moving in every plane of motion on a surfboard, as well as plenty of plyometrics to help him pop up faster. He’d lay face down on a skinny bench and jump up to a surfing stance for four sets of 10 to 15 reps. “A huge part of surfing is just getting up on the board, so I was teaching him to be quick,” says Johnson, who slowly added upper body exercises as Hirscher’s shoulder healed. By moving day, he was able to complete about four sets of squats with a 45-pound barbell.

In Carlsbad, Hirscher began working with 24 Hour Fitness trainer and experienced surfer Jesse Foss, who amped up Hirscher’s core work and unstable-surface training. Hirscher balances on a BOSU—a platform attached to a plastic half-dome—squats, and switches between toe and heel to simulate front- and back-side motions of surfing. “The more on an edge you are, the faster and more power you’ll have on the wave,” Foss says. These moves help stabilize ankles, knees, and hips to glide more efficiently from edge to edge.

Paddling out for his first swells, Hirscher is now surfing strong and says his balance is 20 times better than when he started training. He’s also stoked on the new addition to his solo board collection. Riding the same 8'1" baby gun—a long and narrow extension of a short board—since high school, he purchased an 11-foot long board. “It’s a race horse,” Hirscher says. “It allows me to start further out than the rest of the pack and ride through the wave smoothly with slow, easy turns.”