Colas.Nahaboo.net - health

Ear plugs for SUPing

2026-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

10 years ago, I got caught on a late take-off on a hollow wave, planted the rail at the bottom of the wave, and fell violently, slapping the water with the flat of my ear. My eardrum perforated, and I spent 5 minutes totally disoriented, unable to get back on my board. I finally made it back to shore paddling.

For the anecdote, my doctor told me he had also perforated his eardrum on the first day of a bodyboard trip to the Mentawai islands, and had to stay dry for his whole stay.

It healed, but I learned that an eardrum is made of two skins, and only one repairs. So it stays weakened. And as my exostosis was almost at 40%, I decided to always wear ear plugs from then on.

So I have been wearing ear plugs at almost every SUP session for 10 years now, and my exostoses have not progressed. Here is my experience with the three models I tested, and my current verdict.

The three models I tested🔗

EQ Seals (ex Sorky): no adjustment needed, they go deep into the ear canal, where we almost all have the same size, hence a single size... but they only work for 95% of people. You need an easy-to-lose applicator to insert them, so not easy to remove and reinsert on the beach or on the water. Some were bothered by how deep they have to go. But they are perfectly waterproof. Sounds are quite muffled, with a slight plugged-ear feeling that can disturb your balance, but you get used to it fast.

Surf Ears The 2.0 model of 10 years ago was already not bad, but less good than custom-molded plugs. The new 4.0 model is really excellent: very supple, it adapts well and does not seem irritating, and you hear particularly well.

Aquason: custom-molded plugs fitted to your ears by a local audiologist, with a drilled hole covered by a waterproof membrane. Very expensive (180€), and you hear less well than with Surf Ears, but better than with EQ Seals. You need to get the hang of putting them in and taking them out. Their big plus is perfect watertightness and comfort: they press on a large surface, so no hard point or discomfort, and a better protection against slaps on the water surface.

Custom Aquason ear plugs

Aquason

My conclusion then: Surf Ears when the water is not too cold (20 to 16°C) for the hearing, Aquason in colder water for comfort and watertightness, and EQ Seals if I wanted no water at all in my ears (otitis, perforated eardrum).

Ten years later🔗

I wore finally only the Aquason at every session, even in summer, even under the hood in winter:

no progression of my exostoses
you get used to them very well
one plug falls out from time to time (once every 100 sessions I'd say), never both, so a cord between them is enough
but the silicone ages, and they leak, so I lost one that came off its cord
so right now, while waiting for the Aquason, which take 12 days to be made, I wear Surf Ears 4.0, which have really progressed: much softer and smoother, both more comfortable and more watertight, and with even more adjustments. I strongly recommend them if you do not have the budget for custom-molded plugs
I still had new custom Aquason made, now manufactured by Earow Audio, which seem more protective in case of a slap on the water (flat of the ear in a fall) for my healed eardrum

Advice for custom plugs🔗

look up audiologists around you in the yellow pages
contact them (email works well) to ask if they make Aquason, and at what price
prices vary a lot: around me, from 125€ (Vaqué Audition Seignosse) to 180€ for the same plugs
the fitting is now done with a 3D scanner, no more molding paste
clean them after each session: a little water and soap, or an ultrasonic cleaner for glasses from time to time

In short, unless special cases, the SurfEars 4.0 from the Gong shop are really perfect.

My Salli saddle chair

2026-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

I am an old programmer, and a game and surf addict. I have been spending hours and hours a day in a chair for decades: my work, then my evenings of computer games, are all done sitting. My sports — surfing, windsurfing, standup paddling — are wonderful for the body in the water, but alas, they do not fix the static hours spent at a desk. Over time, my hips started to stiffen, and I realized my sessions were not enough to compensate for all that sitting.

So I decided to fix the problem where it happens: at the desk itself.

Why a saddle chair?🔗

The idea of a saddle chair is to make you sit like you stand. On a normal chair your thighs are horizontal, at a 90° angle to your body, which presses your vertebrae and disks together at the front and strains the back muscles. A saddle chair opens the hip angle to about 135°, tilts your pelvis forward, and restores the natural S-curve of the spine instead of the slouched C of a regular seat. The weight goes on your sitting bones rather than your thighs, which is what your hips and knees like. It is a bit like sitting on a bicycle saddle, but on a proper chair.

Sitting like standing: the pelvis forward, the spine in its natural S-curve.

The Salli🔗

I bought a Salli, the Finnish pioneer of the saddle chair, with its patented two-part seat and an adjustable gap in the middle — which also keeps things dry and pressure-free down there, a nice bonus.

The first days were promising for my hips. The main practical points:

You must raise your desk by 15 to 20 cm. The saddle sits you higher than a normal chair. Conveniently, the tabletop height for saddle sitting works for standing too, so a standing desk handles both.
No backrest needed. Once the pelvis is tilted forward, your back holds itself in its natural upright position and does not strain as it does slouched. I did not miss the backrest at all.
It is tiring at first. The muscles that hold you upright are suddenly working, so I could only manage about an hour the first days. But you progress fast: after two weeks it was genuinely fine, and my hips clearly appreciated it.

(my setup — a bit of a surprise to visitors, but worth it)

A note for the desk-bound🔗

If you work seated and have back or hip pain, it is worth knowing that in some places such a chair can be bought on a doctor's prescription, like mine was — so check with your doctor or employer before paying full price yourself.

Which prompted me, as usual, to think: if I am going to spend so many hours a day in a chair, the chair had better be a good one. My walking pad fights the sitting, and now the Salli makes the sitting itself far less harmful. Two sides of the same problem.

Long live not sitting like a lump!

Why a walkpad, and which one

2026-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

I never liked exercising. I love the physical effort required by surfing, windsurfing and standup paddling, but I was never able to run or swim as workouts because I get bored out of my mind so quickly.

However, over 60, I do not have the motivation anymore to SUP or surf when the conditions are not fun (chop, onshore winds, rain, too big, rips...) so I cannot rely on my sessions to stay healthy. And sitting down all day to program or play games is literally lethal.

The solution I decided on is a walking pad — a bare, mini treadmill that you can slide under your couch when not in use and walk while working at a standing desk. I can thus watch YouTube videos on my PC screen right in front of me. I now look forward eagerly to my workouts (walkouts?) as I love watching science videos (Sabine Hossenfelder, PBS Space Time, Anton Petrov, or various geek, programming and AI topics). All this for less than 200€.

(not me in the image, obviously :-) )

The name of the game is to spend less time sitting. Prolonged sitting is associated with metabolic dysfunction and cardiovascular disease, and studies on active workstations show that light walking during desk tasks meaningfully increases workday activity and energy expenditure (Mayo Clinic NEAT study, Cleveland Clinic). A walking pad is the lazy, home-friendly way to capture some of that.

Why a walkpad, and not a treadmill?🔗

Because you do not run on a walking pad. You walk, at speeds up to jogging pace. And for walking, a full treadmill is overkill: it is bulky, heavy, very expensive, noisy, and its console full of buttons serves no purpose. A walking pad is cheaper, quieter, weighs 30-50 lbs, and fits under the couch. That is the whole point: it is there when you want it, out of sight when you do not.

And why not just walk outside? Because outside I get bored instantly, and become a meal for tiger mosquitoes. My walking pad lets me combine a workout for both mind and body, independent of the weather.

Also, the pad setting the pace for you is what makes it great compared to indoor bikes, manual treadmills, rowing machines, etc. You do not have to think about your workout.

Which one to buy?🔗

There are many brands selling what are essentially the same machine (Urevo, Sperax, DeerRun, Costway, Kingsmith, GoPlus...), and the prices range from cheap to silly. A lot of advice exists, and this reddit thread on cheap walking desks vs expensive ones gives a good feel of the issues — but read also the comments: they report feedback after months or years of use. There is also a handy summary of the offers made by a redditor.

My own advice, after research and months of daily use:

Brushless motor for reliability and silence. This is the first thing to check.
Standard Bluetooth FTMS protocol, so that any app can drive it. This is crucial for geeks like me: I wrote my own app, walkpadspeed, that drives my pad through my own routines. Without the standard protocol, you are locked into the vendor's app — often with subscriptions and bugs. With it, any good free app works.
High weight capacity is an indication of sturdiness. Check the listed max weight.
Incline matters. Being able to incline the pad is great: you get the same workout at a lower speed, so less noise, less stress on the gear. Manual incline is OK — automatic systems are heavier and bulkier to store, and not worth the tradeoff in my opinion.
6 support points beat 4 Having more support points brings greater reliability, as there is less flexing of the frame. Prioritize a solid, low-flex frame with firm rubber shock pads over a soft, springy walking surface for hardware longevity.
Good shoes and a mat give you a lot of shock absorption in any case, but is especially important with a low-flex frame. Slip-in shoes (e.g. Skechers) are especially nice if you have health issues.
On cheap models, prefer many short sessions instead of a long one, to avoid motor overheating.

A note about the "slides under the couch" selling point: sliding is actually a bit tricky, as you have to tilt most pads to use their wheels, and tilted, it does not fit under the couch. My solution was to create a sliding mat by gluing (with double-sided tape) a cheap skating slideboard under a cardboard sheet, and now the pad slides effortlessly under the couch.
Some walkpads can fold in half and do not need to be tilted to use the rollers, so they can slide under a couch more easily, but some reviews say the folding can be felt underfoot while running, and is not pleasant.

My choice🔗

For what it is worth, I am quite satisfied with my Fousae ZX-390, a simple entry-level pad. I bought it favoring mechanical qualities over sophisticated features, and it has everything I need: brushless motor, FTMS protocol, manual incline. Other brands sell similar pads.

Plus points:

it has 6 feet instead of 4, making it more durable — the deck does not flex — as the middle feet are positioned just where your feet land on the pad.
it has a lubrication hole to pour the silicone oil into the belt, instead of having to deal with the messy operation of spreading it by hand.
the motor housing at the front limits the length of your stride, compared to the rare models without it.

Minus points:

its belt is thinner than a high-end treadmill's, so walking barefoot will give you blisters fast
no automatic incline: either 0% or 9%.
its speed is limited to 6 km/h. To get to 12 km/h you have to raise the handlebar.
to work at a desk, you cannot remove the handlebar; you have to fold it, and you can hit your heels on it.

And of course, I wrote walkpadspeed to drive it, which I just released as v1 — see my announcement post. It loads routines from simple text files, and can even adjust the speed automatically to keep my heart rate in a chosen zone.

My advice🔗

You need to get used to it. Make short sessions at first, 0% incline, at very slow speeds, and raise the speed progressively each day, e.g. by 0.2 km/h.
Once comfortable with it, you can set the incline to 9% and keep it there.
Not all kinds of work are realistically doable on a walking pad. Avoid tasks that need precise mouse movements.
Maintenance is essential. Oil it regularly and avoid dust and carpet lint.
I use shoes, but walk barefoot once daily on one of my 15mn post-meal sessions. It keeps my feet in shape for surfing, where I walk a lot barefoot to get in and out of the water, but it is not enough to develop blisters or joint pains. However, you should not attempt to walk barefoot in your first month!
I do not use socks for convenience (I only wear slaps at home), I just put my shoes on a gentle air blower I use to dry my wetsuit boots, to keep them sane.

My routines🔗

Since the pad is always available, I built a small weekly program around it. Here are the routines I use the most:

Short Digestive: a 15mn relaxed walk, done 15mn after each meal (thus 3 times a day), to lower the glycemic charge — the spike in sugar, and thus insulin, in the blood. It keeps the heart rate in "Zone 0", because walking faster triggers the liver to release sugar in the blood, anticipating a need. It is also called a... Fart Walk! You can stop after just 5mn with most of the benefits, or lengthen it if you are watching a captivating video.
Z2 40mn: the recommended brisk walk, the most efficient to burn fat. Must be done on an empty stomach. Staying in Zone 2 mobilizes fat burning without the stress of a faster walk or jog that triggers a cortisol spike and prevents fat burning. It boosts endurance and metabolism. I do it 2 to 3 times a week.
Japan IWT 38mn: the famous Japanese Interval Walking Training has proven extremely effective at enhancing cardio and fitness, and is a practical solution for walking pads, which are not designed to resist actual running. I do it once a week.

Thus, my weekly schedule is 3 digestive walks after each meal, and per day of the week:

Japanese IWT
Zone 2
Resistance training
Zone 2
Resistance training
Zone 2
Rest, or resistance training if I feel like it

Resistance training for me is short (20mn) but at the highest intensity, as I am over 60.

Two hours of episodes, one workout. I would not go back.