Quite frankly, based on your posts I'm a bit surprised that your typical routine is only three days-a-week of surfing. I thought you might be more of the every-day dawn patrol. Had several friends in Santa Cruz who made it part of their routine to surf virtually every day, swell or no - if it was flat they just paddled around and talked on their boards like the maritime version of a sewing circle.
It's just logistics.
We live in Central Oahu (our daughter was in the state's top public high school) and I'm 30 minutes from both the North Shore and the south shore. Since I'll be on the road for an hour, I usually surf for two hours (less if the water's too cold). I was able to do this for days in a row in my 40s, but in my 50s I greatly appreciate a recovery day. There are also the inevitable days when my spouse and I have an early-morning project like yardwork, or when I want to phone into an early online call on Mainland time, so I don't surf on those days.
There are a few days when the surf just sucks-- flat to two or 1-3. I don't own a stand-up board (yet) so I tend to skip those days. But my stand-up days will arrive in the next year or two, especially if the winters are glassy flat on the south shore and booming 20+ on the North Shore.
If I lived in
the tsunami inundation zone Ewa (or Haleiwa!) then I'd probably surf more often. There are a couple guys in the White Plains Beach lineup who show up every weekday, and one paddles out at least 350 days/year. When I paddle out, knowing that I'm going to take a day off in the next day or two, then I tend to push myself and surf all the waves I can catch. (I've also learned to take a dose of ibuprofen as soon as I'm back on the beach.) I don't mind the socializing but I'd rather be surfing. I'll never be one of the guys standing around on Vulture's Row talking story for an hour.
Actually, I'm curious about how healing/recovery goes post FIRE - recently I've been frustrated at the pace of my recovery from a few minor injuries. My PT suggested that the 8 hours of sitting I do for work really slows down my body's ability to heal, but since i'm still pre-FI I don't have a lot of choice. Curious about whether about your thoughts and experience on the matter.
Your PT is probably right, unless you sit on a stability ball or use a standing desk or even a treadmill desk.
I joke about 35 years of situps (and a decade of taekwondo) finally paying off, but the surgeon said they had to push a little harder to cut through my abdominal wall-- and the muscles mean that it tends to hold itself together better afterward while the stitches are absorbed. I had some impressive tissue bruising across my stomach after the surgery (the laparoscopic tools? I'm not sure) but the incision pain was largely gone after 48 hours. The bruising faded in a couple days beyond that.
From my submarine days, I know that the atmospheric environment makes a big difference. High levels of CO2 and low levels of O2 inhibit healing, so if I bruised or cut myself on something it'd take about twice as long to heal. But I was also chronically fatigued and overstressed on sea duty, so I can't blame all of the slow healing on CO2. I've learned that simple walking makes a big difference with just about any injury recovery, and that's probably speeding the healing of my surgery incisions without stressing out the abdominal wall too much.
Part of the aging decline is brutally physical: human cardiac muscle gets stiffer every year and can no longer achieve its hypothetical maximum heart rate. It's linear: "MHR = 220 minus your age" or "208 - 0.7(age)". In my 30s my MHR used to be routinely up in the 180s, but these days I'm rarely over 160. Lung performance also declines with age. The diaphragm and the alveoli stiffen and don't expand as much. Six months ago I had a pulmonary capacity test and learned that my lungs are operating at 70%. Most humans can survive at as low as 30% but the trend is unmistakable... and probably not reversible.
The other age-related insult is recovery. My body does not flush out lactic acid and repair its muscle damage as quickly as it used to. TKD taught me how to endure significant anaerobic exertion, and I can still do that, but I know that I'll pay for it over the next 48 hours. When I was in my late 20s I used to swim a mile in the morning, play racquetball at lunch, and lift weights before dinner. These days I have to limit myself to just one workout every other day, with maybe two-mile walks during off days. Anything else hammers me into spaghetti arms, rubber legs, and even respiratory infections.
Advancing age can be countered with a healthy diet, but that eventually hits diminishing returns. I take daily vitamins, antioxidants, and supplements. (Even the placebo effect is better than nothing.) I eat more protein and raw veggies and very little sugar, bread, dairy, or simple carbs. I've completely cut out alcohol. My big thrill is a small daily handful of chocolate chips with my yogurt & nuts.
The "good news" for older athletes is that I didn't have any of these issues in my 40s, and they suddenly popped up a couple years ago around age 52. I'm frustrated by this age-related betrayal. I remember what I used to be able to do, but now I pay a much higher price for it. I start the day with a fixed amount of energy, and if I burn through it then I'm chewing into the next day's quota as well. There's no magic supplement, although stretching and Thai massage help. However even surfing for five days in a row during a long-lived swell carries a price of 800 mg of ibuprofen... two or three doses a day.
Your physical condition may be different. Your genes may help you go longer. You may age better than me, especially if it turns out that my recovery issues are symptoms of early-stage arthritis. Maybe I'm hypersensitive to submarine nuclear radiation or atmosphere-control chemicals. Unfortunately I've checked with guys in their 70s, from semi-pro golfers to Navy SEALs, and they all have declining performance with longer recovery times.