Background: When sea conditions are not suitable for surfing, training paddling-specific endurance fitness becomes challenging. Traditional approaches require large pools, limiting their applicability. In this context, tethered paddling in small residential pools may provide a practical alternative for evaluation and training. Aim: To propose a new protocol to assess paddling-specific aerobic fitness and to validate it against a commonly used 400 m paddling test. Methods: Seven recreational surfers (five men and two women; 29 ± 10 years) completed: familiarization, 400 m paddling time trial, and tethered incremental test based on a lactate minimum protocol in randomized order. Tests were performed in a 25 m pool. The 400 m test consisted of a 5 min warm-up followed by a maximal effort. For the lactate minimum protocol, participants performed a 30 s maximal effort (adapted Wingate), with blood lactate measured during recovery. After 8 min, an incremental tethered paddling test started at 30% of the final force, with 10% increments every 2 min and 45 s intervals between stages for blood sampling. Tethered paddling used elastic cords and a load cell. Lactate minimum force was determined by polynomial fitting, and maximal endurance force as the highest intensity reached during incremental test. Pearson correlations assessed relationships. Results: The 400 m performance was 422 ± 62 s. Maximal endurance force and lactate minimum force were 58.2 ± 19.3 N and 40.7 ± 14.9 N, respectively. Very large negative correlations were observed between 400 m performance and maximal endurance (r = -0.96) and lactate minimum force (r = -0.93). Conclusions: The tethered protocol showed strong associations with 400 m performance, supporting its use as a practical alternative to assess aerobic fitness in surfers. This approach allows sport-specific evaluation in limited spaces, facilitating monitoring and training prescription. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings.
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