Breathe Strong, Surf Strong: How Better Breath Transforms Your Surfing

If you want to surf stronger, longer, and with a calmer mind, it starts with something you are doing all day anyway: breathing.

In this episode of The Surf Strong Show, coach Greg Finch breaks down how breath impacts your surfing, your recovery, and your day-to-day stress levels. He explains why most modern breathing habits quietly work against performance, and shares simple, practical breath techniques you can plug into your routines in and out of the water.

You will learn how to use breath to boost paddle endurance, calm your nervous system after heavy efforts, and stay present in the lineup when conditions or crowds start to spike your stress. Greg also explores how combining good posture, mindful breathing, and small daily “micro practices” can turn your sessions into repeatable training for both body and mind.

“Breath is powerful on so many levels.”

• Why breath is one of the most underrated performance tools in surfing
• How to weave breath techniques into your daily routines to improve recovery
• The role of posture and alignment in effective breathing
• How mindfulness and breath work help manage stress, anxiety, and overwhelm
• Ways to practice breath in and out of the water so it shows up when you need it most
• How to use breath to stay calm under pressure in challenging surf or life moments
• Simple ways to extend your connection to the ocean with post-surf breathing rituals

“Stay present, feel the wind and sand.”

• The Power of Breath (00:00)
  Why breath is central to surf performance, focus, and long-term surf longevity.
• Modern Breathing Habits and Their Impact (04:24)
  How our daily lifestyle quietly trains shallow, inefficient breathing and what to do instead.
• Practical Breathing Techniques for Surfers (14:09)
  Simple, repeatable exercises you can use before, during, and after your sessions.
• Connecting Breath with Surfing (14:31)
  How to link breath to paddling, positioning, and staying composed in critical moments.
• Post-Surf Breath Practices (28:28)
  Ways to cool down, recover faster, and carry that ocean calm into the rest of your day.

“Extend out the positive of the surf.”

Every paddle out is a chance to practice. Choose one breath technique from this episode, set a reminder on your phone, and use it:

• Before you check the surf
• While you are sitting in the lineup
• After your session as you towel off and head back to your day

Your surf training is not just what happens in the gym or in big swell days. It is in how you breathe through all of it.

If you want more tools to build breath endurance, recovery, and mental focus for surfing, make sure you grab Greg’s Surf Breath Checklist and keep training your breath to Surf Strong For Life.

Surf Strong Show Express with Greg Finch

Most surfers think they need a “perfect” 2-hour morning routine to level up their surfing. In this Surf Strong Show Express episode, Greg Finch makes the case for something way more realistic—and way more effective: 10–20 focused minutes of breath and movement that keep you surf-ready for life.

Greg breaks down how to start your day in a way that actually supports your surfing, instead of just checking another box on a self-help checklist. You’ll hear why surfing is such a high-demand activity on your body and nervous system, and how a few simple micro habits can keep your movement, breath, and mobility tuned so you can keep paddling out for decades.

You’ll also learn why your brain secretly wants you to stay on the couch, how to work with that resistance instead of fighting it, and why “First breath, not first screen” is one of the most powerful performance cues you can use—both in and out of the water.

• Why routines are overhyped—and how to swap “perfect routine” pressure for simple, repeatable micro habits.
• The true demands of surfing on your movement, breath, and mobility—and what it really takes to maintain them as you age.
• “First breath, not first screen” – a simple morning reset that downshifts your nervous system and sets the tone for your whole day.
• A go-to breath pattern (4-second inhale, 6–8 second exhale) you can use in bed, in the lineup, in the car, or in the grocery store line.
• A quick Surf Strong Primer you can do in 5–10 minutes:
  • Gentle spine + hip wake-up (cat–cow, hip circles, thoracic rotation)
  • Deep squat holds to check in on your lower body
  • Push-up / pop-up variations that don’t wreck your shoulders
  • Dead bug / crawl-pattern core work that trains you to breathe under tension
• How tiny, consistent actions act like compounding interest for your surf fitness, resilience, and recovery.
• Why your “evolved mind” is wired to avoid effort—and how to design habits that sneak past that resistance.

This one’s especially for you if:

• You’re a surfer who wants to keep surfing hard into your 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond
• You feel stiff, tight, or beat-up in the mornings after a couple days of surf
• You keep meaning to start a morning routine but get overwhelmed or fall off quickly
• You want simple, doable structure—not another perfectionist plan you’ll abandon next week

You don’t need a flawless two-hour routine.
You need 10–20 intentional minutes that:

• Start with breath, not screens
• Wake up your hips, spine, and shoulders
• Remind your brain, “Hey, we’re surfers—we stay ready.”

Come back to your breath. Come back to the fundamentals. Build from there.

If you’d like help turning this into a tailored plan for your body, your schedule, and your surf goals, I’d love to help you map it out. If you're open to it, we could jump on a quick call this week, find out exactly where you are, what you want to achieve in your surfing, and lay out a plan to get you there.

Bianca Valenti is surfing the best waves of her life at 40. In this episode of the Surf Strong Show, she sits down with host Greg Finch to unpack what it really takes to keep charging big waves for decades—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Bianca shares how she structures her big-wave season between Mavericks and Hawaii, how she trains in the off-season, and why “just outside your comfort zone” is the sweet spot for growth in both surfing and life. She breaks down her daily surf-prep ritual—from warm salt water and massage gun routines to bands, foam rolling, and underwater weight training—and explains how small, consistent habits keep her ready for XXL swells.

They dive into the mental side of big-wave surfing: managing fear, dealing with FOMO, recovering from burnout, and learning to pace yourself instead of going full throttle all the time. Bianca talks about balancing obsession with responsibility, rebuilding stoke, and playing the true long game of surf longevity.

If you care about surfing strong for life—through movement, breath, mobility, and mindset—this conversation is a masterclass.

If it resonates, subscribe, share this episode with a surf buddy, and check out all episodes of the Surf Strong Show for more surf-longevity training and support.

Chapters / Timestamps

00:00 – Bianca’s Big-Wave Season: Mavericks, Hawaii & Warm Water
02:07 – Inside the Culture of Big-Wave Surfing
04:36 – Comfort Zones, Fear & the First 6-Inch Wave at Doheny
07:30 – Small Days, Reps & Staying Ready Between Swells
10:24 – Surfing as Mental Health, Ritual & Saying “Yes”
12:59 – Morning Routine: Warm Salt Water, Massage Gun & Paddle Prep
18:58 – Consistency, Micro-Habits & Recovery Done Right
21:49 – Pacing, Tapering & Listening to Your Body at 40+
24:37 – Burnout, Balance & Rediscovering Stoke for the Long Game
32:18 – Inside the Eddie Aikau: Honor, Preparation & XXL Waimea Chaos