It is a shame that we cannot hold our heads up the way cats, dogs, tigers and goats do, all of these creatures and many others have an extra band of muscles in their necks that allow them to do this, humans alas do not. Get on your hands and knees and see how long you can look up and watch the TV for before your neck starts to hurt and needs a rest.

This is probably the most common reason why surfers get sore necks. If your lucky enough to get towed out behind a boat or a jet ski your neck may last longer before it gets tired but clearly for most surfers most of the time paddling out and waiting for waves can put a real strain on those muscles at the back of the neck. Headaches can result from this too which are not exactly helped by glare coming off the water on sunny days.

Fortunately because the water is such a healing place to be, the satisfaction to be had from a good ride and the sheer fun of it, the sacrifices are worth it but you will be able to do it much longer into your life if you look after your neck (see neck blogs). There are heaps of things you can do to help yourself, get a good pillow, do neck stretches regularly, get massage, osteopathy, chiropractic, physio whatever it is that you find works best for you.

Surfers neck can be an issue for motorcyclists, hang gliders and lounge lizards who like to watch the TV lying on their bellies too, any activity that puts your neck into that hyper extended position can do it. Tree loppers and arborists, painters, electricians, scaffolders, bird watchers and spectators at air shows all over- work their sub occipital muscles (the muscles attached to the back of your skull) and like surfers, cyclists and hang gliders should get the necessary therapy and remedial exercises for their necks.

Regular surfers usually have strong physiques and in many ways surfing is good exercise but like the neck the hips and lower backs of surfers need attention too.

Having one foot forward and one foot back places the hips in a constant twisted position which works the hip muscles in a lop sided way. If you can surf in an ambipedal way (surf alternating between right foot and left foot forward) it is better for your lower back and hips, this is much easier said than done though unfortunately.

There are many sports that have this problem, cricket, baseball, golf, lacrosse, snow boarding, wake boarding, skate boarding, snooker, darts, javelin etc can all place alot of stress on the sacroiliac and lumbosacral joints in your hips and lower back.

If we could step into a new perfect body like we can get into a new perfect car every few years body maintainence would be no big deal but sadly this is not the case. Like cars bodies need alot more maintainence if we drive them hard too.