How to lose 12 kilos (26 lbs) by simply surfing

There’s many reasons to get yourself into your wettie and out in the water. Could be therapy, or doing your best to stifle your anger. Surfers, as soulful of a bunch we’re cliched to be, tend to have a salty aura. Maybe it’s because we can’t hit the same slab of never changing concrete on repeat, or the fact that your locale’s crawling with sloppy humans on soft tops playing octopus in the surf line. Whatever it is, there’s something in the living stoke that breeds a notion of nothing being good or cool enough. This doesn’t traverse over the whole lot, but anyone’s who’s spent their fair share of time in the water is well-aware of this phenom. In this month’s edition of the Stab Scorecard, we highlight a surfer who’s re-found his passion and doesn’t fall into the above category. His motivation to get back in the groove is simply improving his quality of living, starting with the rig. 

“I’ve lost 12 kilos (26 lbs) and have given up smoking,” says Warilla local Jason Mulley. “Just by getting in the water and wanting to push harder.” Jason, as a grom surfed a lot, then due to working away spent a good decade out of the water before returning to form. His old past time has been sparked and he attests it all to a few of his mates and the Rip Curl GPS watch that he and his pals all sport religiously. “To tell you the truth I haven’t surfed without it since I picked one up last September. I live 15 minutes from the beach and there’s been a few times where I’ve had to run back and grab it. I can’t surf without it now.”

Sometimes you got to feel it, and Jase here, is fuckin’ feelin’ it!

“The watch has changed a lot in my surfing but also my lifestyle,” continues Jase. “I’m always chasing my personal best. When I first started I was catching only catching six waves and able to surf for about an hour. Now I’m up to four-five hour sessions, my best session I caught 52 waves. When you get that PB, it’s like fucking yeehaa!” 

It took Mr Mulley, five weeks to get his stamina up, while surfing at least four times a week, “if the misses let’s me,” he laughs. 

He’s had the watch for a bit under a year and in the time he’s tallied up 119 surfs, 2,298 waves and surfed and paddled a total of 985.8 km (612.5 miles), spending 12 days, 1 hour and 54 minutes in the water. Working construction full time, at 42 years old he’s been able to get in the water 104 days since he’s been tracking his sessions. He makes the time to surf whenever he can sneak out and do what he loves. 

“I set myself to 12 waves an hour, my best is 17. I’m trying to push to get myself up to three waves a minute,” says Jason. “I class myself as the rookie of our crew, I held the speed record for three days. I kept telling my mates, come on now the rookie’s kicking your ass! My thing is to catch as many waves as I can and keep getting my total distance up. Now I just surf as long as my arms and shoulders will let me.”