How a Magician Can Help You Surf Big Waves

September 14, 10:56 PMSurf ExaminerPat Pemberton

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As the fall swells arrive in California, I’m asking myself a familiar question:

How big is too big?

Sure, I’d love to surf big waves. But, frankly, they freak me out sometimes.

Not the waves themselves, mind you; They’re just water. What scares me is the prospect of wiping out on a big wave, then being dragged and shoved so far below the surface that I’ll run out of air before I can open my mouth again.

Last March, I asked big wave legend Peter Cole for advice on withstanding a big wipeout, and his suggestion was simple:

Don’t lose your cool.

“If you’re relaxed, you can stay under water a long time,” he said. “If you get all tight and nervous and excited about it, your ability to control your breath is very limited.”

That was great advice. Yet I wondered if there was more I could do to prepare for big waves.

In Hawaii, some surfers practice holding their breath by running with rocks underwater. But that’s not really something we do here in California. So I decided to turn to magician David Blaine.

The typical person can hold their breath for about two minutes (though it’s going to be much less in cold water, while thrashing around). Last spring Blaine trained himself to hold his breath for more than 17 minutes.

Blaine had tried to break the world record for breath holding in 2006. But after holding his breath for more than 7 minutes, he became unconscious, falling far short of the record. Undaunted, Blaine went back to the drawing board and returned with a record-breaking feat, which aired live on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

As this story shows, Blaine did a couple of things differently. For one thing, he fasted beforehand, leaving more room for his lungs to expand. He also sucked in pure oxygen beforehand. But perhaps most importantly, he practiced a thing called glossopharyngeal insufflation. Also known as lung packing or frog breathing.

This thesis does a good job explaining what it is, but in short, lung packing entails using your tongue to force air down, which you then swallow, allowing you to suck in more air. Do this enough, and your lung capacity will expand.

As the waves get bigger, I’m going to start building my lung capacity. But don’t expect me to surf waves as big as Peter Cole. Even in his mid-70s, Cole still surfs 12-footers – without a leash.