Healing on the waves: my post-injury surfing experience with Boost Fin

A shoulder injury can significantly limit one’s surfing experience—unless you have a Boost Fin! John is one of the fortunate Boost Fin owners, and his story proves that healing and surfing can go hand in hand.

My name is John. I started surfing when I came to San Diego for graduate school – it was offered as a phys ed class, so I tried it. Since then, I’ve been surfing on and off for the last 30 years.

Last summer, I separated my shoulder in a mountain biking accident (over the bars). I was unable to surf during my initial recovery obviously, but I discovered and ordered the Boost Fin, hoping it would help me get back in the water early. While I hadn’t seen or heard about anyone using a motorized fin to surf yet, I do enjoy being among the first to try out new technology. I thought it could be a game changer if it worked – and I eventually found out that it did!

Indeed, the extra push from the Boost Fin allowed me to surf again with much less paddling stress to my recovering shoulder. In fact, I had so much extra fun from catching more waves, I kept using it for 5 months.

Paddling out to the surf lineup can be challenging even without the shoulder injury. The extra push from the Boost Fin gave me enough help to get through the breaking wave zone quickly even though my shoulder was not yet back to full strength. Once in the line up, catching waves was noticeably easier and undoubtedly reduced stress and allowed more time for my shoulder to heal.

Oftentimes when I was on the beach, people would approach me inquiring about the device. They would ask something like: Does it work for you? How do you like it? Does it help you to catch waves? I would always say I had not had a single bad day surfing in the water since I got it. There was always an occasional bad day before the Boost Fin when I just couldn’t seem to catch a wave, which was frustrating. But with Boost Fin, I always catch most of the waves I paddle for, and it is more fun that way.

I would recommend the Boost Fin to anyone looking to catch more waves. The board becomes a little heavier, and you have to wear a wrist controller, but catching more waves makes it so worth it.