Q: What Cardio training do you recommend to help boost my fitness in the water?

A surfer not only requires strength and flexibility but extremely good cardio fitness and muscular endurance to maintain stamina too. Of course many would agree, to get fitter for surfing, just surf. But there is definitely a place to cross train and develop your cardio fitness. Especially on "flat days". As surfers, I don't think we realize how high our heart rate gets while surfing, especially when we are up against big gnarly paddle-outs. Cardio conditioning trains the heart to work more efficiently and therefore you can go on for longer, recover quicker and endure extra sessions you may have thought not possible.

You can train specifically to surfing , such as paddle training incorporating resistance paddling etc, but I would also advise cross training with swimming and underwater swimming (great for super efficient lungs on those nasty hold downs), running, biking and/or rowing. Build up the duration and frequency of the workouts progressively then bring in higher intensity interval training to really start boosting those fitness levels.