Taylor Knox is busier than ever since retiring from professional surfing in 2012.
Even though he’s no longer on tour he’s still traveling to some of the best surf spots in the world going on photo shoots to being a part owner of Saint Archer Brewery, to raising his family in Carlsbad.
And now he can add fitness instructor to his growing list of accomplishments with the creation of SURFfit.
Knox, along with North County personal trainer Paul Hiniker, have released the first in a series of fitness DVDs aimed at providing a quick but active exercise routine using “functional integrated training.”
They’re hoping a second SURFfit DVD with Knox will be released later this year, and the series is anticipated to continue into the future featuring more exercises and other professional men and women action sports athletes.
Why did you see the need to create a fitness DVD?
I just felt like there’s a lot of surfers out there that are really into their fitness and trying to become a better surfer. Age doesn’t have too much to do with it, with me. I know I can get better and better; I feel young, by body feels like it can do a bunch of dynamic stuff so, it was basically, let’s develop something that’s really good for your core. Because I think that has a lot to do with surfing and just overall strength without becoming big and bulky.
Are you seeing other surf professionals heading towards producing fitness DVDs, or is this something pretty new?
This is pretty new. There’s been some yoga ones and there’s been a couple of other little DVDs, but I didn’t feel like it was done properly — production wise, and just being thorough and very specific to those muscle groups — whether you’re doing skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, it’s really a great board sport workout.
How much do you attribute your fitness to the longevity of your career?
It’s everything. I wouldn’t be in the same position or even enjoying my career. I think it would have been over five years ago.
Being as busy as you are, how are you still able to maintain that fitness routine?
It’s one of those things where I knew that we’d have to develop something that I could easily do in a hotel room or while I’m traveling. That’s why it’s so cool. You can do this work out in a hotel room or in a park. You just deflate the (Swedish exercise) ball, put it in your travel bag; blow it up when you get there. And you just get an incredible work out anywhere you are.
How were you and Paul able to cut down the exercise routine to just 21 minutes? Was that a difficult process?
You know it wasn’t. Paul, he’s got 12 or 14 exercises in the video, but we have a couple hundred. So it was just about pacing ourselves. We’re releasing it out in sequence, so anyone who got the first one, it goes in connection with the second one. We have an endless supply of that kind of stuff.
Cost: $12.99 digital download; $19.99 DVD
Available: iTunes and surffit.tv
