SaunaBox Solara
SaunaBox Solara
End of Summer Sale is live
End of Summer Sale is live
Add to cart
Surfer in a beach car park after a session, wetsuit peeled down
SaunaBox
The surfer's guide
Advertisement

Why surfers are using a sauna after every session.

You paddle for hours every week and recover zero.

See the options
Fifteen minutes after
A household outlet
Free shipping
Key facts
✓Recreational surfers spend about 47% of a session paddling.
✓The shoulder, lower back and neck are the most common sites of gradual-onset surfing injuries.
✓Prolonged paddling is the top cause of those injuries.
✓Heat after surfing supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury.
01

Every surfer paddles out thinking about the wipeout.

The reef. The lip. The board coming back at your head. That is not what wears most surfers down.

Recreational surfers spend 47% of a session paddling, not riding. In a survey of 1,473 surfers, the shoulder, lower back and neck took the most gradual-onset injuries, and prolonged paddling was the top cause at 40%. A sauna for surfers sits after that session, not instead of it.

Time paddling
47%
Caused by paddling
40%
Shoulder, 3+ months
64%
Lower back, 3+ months
58%

Of those gradual-onset injuries, 64% of shoulder cases and 58% of lower back cases lasted three months or longer.

It does not happen on the wave. It happens on the paddle back out, session after session.

Sources: Paddling time: 60 recreational surf sessions measured by GPS, Barlow et al., Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2014, PMID 24736778. Injuries: survey of 1,473 New Zealand surfers, Remnant et al., Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2020, PMID 32475781.

Surfer sitting on his board in flat water rubbing his shoulder
It arrives as a niggle you paddle through, not as an event.
02

It's not an injury yet. That's the problem.

It is the Tuesday dawn patrol where your arms were gone by the third wave, because Sunday's long session was still in your shoulders.

The set you let go past. The paddle back out that took twice as long. The week your shoulder ached reaching for the top shelf, so you paddled out anyway.

Sunday sessionthree hours
Tuesday dawn patrolarms gone early
Paddle back outtwice as long
Logged as injurynone of it

In the same survey, the surfers with a gradual-onset injury were older, had surfed for more years and had spent more hours in the water. The answer is not another session. None of that goes in your log. It is all the same thing, arriving slowly. By the time it has a name, it has been there for a month.

03

A hot shower. A stretch against the car.

You change in the parking lot and crank the car heater until your feet come back. You take the longest, hottest shower in the house. You bought the massage gun.

You sleep badly after a long session and paddle out again at dawn.

That is not a criticism. It is what almost everyone does.

Your sessions have a tide chart. Recovery gets whatever is left over.

A wetsuit, surfboards and an unused foam roller in the corner of a garage
Everything you own for this already lives in a corner.
04

The evidence says it goes after.

47
People
8
Weeks
15
Minutes after

In a randomised trial, 47 inactive adults with at least one heart risk factor were split into three groups for eight weeks: exercise, exercise plus fifteen minutes of sauna straight afterwards, or neither.

The sauna group came out ahead of the exercise-only group on cardiorespiratory fitness and systolic blood pressure. They were not athletes, and it is one small trial. In a 2023 trial, athletes sat in an infrared sauna for twenty minutes straight after a hard strength session. Compared with resting, they reported less muscle soreness and felt more recovered. They were basketball players, not surfers, and it was sixteen people.

This is not instead of surfing. It is the fifteen minutes after.

Source: Lee et al., Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 2022, PMID 35785965. Ahokas et al., Biology of Sport, 2023, PMID 37398966. Heat supports recovery. It does not prevent injury.

05

Heat after the longest paddle of your week.

A hot shower runs out. Full spectrum infrared warms your body directly: the shoulders, the upper back and the lower back you just held arched on a board for two hours.

Your heart rate climbs. Your blood vessels open. You sweat. That is the mechanism, and it supports recovery without anybody promising you more waves.

Heart rate rises
Warms the body directly
Hot shower, at the skin Full spectrum infrared Skin Warms the body directly
83.5%

of 482 sauna users said they slept better afterwards.

That is a survey, not a trial. It is also where recovery actually happens.

Global Sauna Survey, 2019

Not in the sauna. In the eight hours after it.

Source: Global Sauna Survey, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2019, PMID 31126560. Self-reported, 482 respondents. Heat supports sleep, it does not treat a sleep disorder.

06
The bonus

The hardest part of red light therapy is standing in front of it.

You're already sitting down.

A panel costs three hundred to two thousand dollars on its own, and the protocol is standing still in front of it several times a week. Nobody does that after a surf. You will sit down after one.

660 and 850nm red light is built in. Not an upsell, not an attachment, not a subscription.

Source: Red light is a built-in feature. Most red light research places the light directly on the muscle at a measured dose, which is not the same as a panel inside a sauna, so we make no recovery claim for it. It does not treat an injury.

Surfer sitting in a SaunaBox Solara infrared sauna after a morning session
07

Every session gets fifteen minutes.

It takes about fifteen minutes to warm up. Turn it on when you pull out of the car park, and it is ready when you get home. Rinse off, drink water, then sit.

Sat
Dawn patrol
then sauna
Sun
Long session
then sauna
Mon
Rest
Tue
Surf before work
then sauna
Wed
Rest
Thu
Surf
then sauna
Fri
Flat, stretch

Most owners land on four or five sessions a week.

For a surfer that is just every session.

A SaunaBox Solara infrared sauna warming up in a garage beside two surfboards
Board away, fifteen minutes, then the rest of the day.
08

A corner, or a closet.

About thirty minutes to put together. One person. No tools, nothing drilled, a regular household outlet. The Solara fits adults up to 6 foot 8 seated, and at 63 inches tall outside it clears a standard doorway.

The SaunaBox Solara
SaunaBox Solara

If you have a corner, a spare room or a garage.

✓Full spectrum infrared, up to 158°F
✓Medical grade 660nm and 850nm red light
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
Add to cart
The SaunaBox Pulse PRO
SaunaBox Pulse PRO

If you do not. It folds into a carry bag and lives in a closet.

✓Portable infrared, sets up anywhere
✓660nm and 850nm red light built in
✓PFAS free, OEKO-TEX certified fabric
Add to cart
The SaunaBox Solara 2-Person
SaunaBox Solara 2-Person

Surf with a partner? It fits you both after the same session.

✓Full spectrum infrared, up to 158°F
✓Medical grade 660nm and 850nm red light
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
Add to cart
No tools, about 30 min
Household 110V outlet
Free shipping, mainland USA
Warm in about 15 min
09
4.6 out of 5  ·  155 reviews

From people who surf.

★★★★★
It has a time slot now

Turn it on before the session, sit in it when I get back. That is the whole trick. I have done more recovery in two months than in five years of owning a foam roller.

Marcus T.
★★★★☆
Sleep after a long session is the difference

Sunday nights after a long session used to be restless. They are not now. Four stars because I wish it warmed up faster than fifteen minutes on cold mornings.

Dev P.
★★★★★
Good, but measure your doorway

No complaints about the sauna itself and my shoulders feel better the day after a long session. Measure your doorway before it arrives, getting the boxes round the turn at the top of my stairs was a job.

Owen B.
End of Summer Sale is live

End of Summer Sale is live.

Across the whole lineup, our biggest sale of the year. Free shipping, HSA and FSA eligible through TrueMed.

10

Questions.

Up to 158°F, and the range starts at 77°F, so you can sit cooler on a day you have already had enough. It ships set to 149°F; holding TIME + and TIME − together for about six seconds unlocks the full range.

About fifteen minutes. Turn it on as you head home and it is ready when you get back.

No. A regular 110V household outlet at 1600W with an 8 foot cord. Give it its own outlet rather than a shared strip, and skip extension leads.

35 by 37 inches of floor and 63 inches tall, so it clears a standard doorway and sits in a corner. Measure the tightest turn on the way in, not the room. It arrives as two flat boxes, the larger 65 by 37 by 13 inches.

Yes, through TrueMed, subject to their eligibility questions at checkout.

2-Year warranty, with support by phone and text.

Rinse off, drink water first, and start with shorter sessions. Heat after a long session is extra load on the body for the first week or two.

The Solara goes up to 158°F. Infrared warms your body directly rather than just the air, so you sweat at a temperature that feels easier to sit in.

It is a comfortable, warm place to sit once you are home and dry. It is not a treatment for being too cold. If you are shivering hard or feel unwell, get medical help.

Nearly half of every session is paddling, and it is mostly your shoulders and back doing the work. Food, water and sleep do most of the recovery. Heat afterwards supports recovery and supports sleep.

Water, food and sleep do most of the work. Heat afterwards supports recovery and supports sleep, and fifteen minutes is enough once you have rehydrated.

In a 2020 survey of 1,473 surfers, the shoulder, lower back and neck were the most common places for gradual-onset injuries, and prolonged paddling was the top cause.

It works differently. A wood-fired sauna heats the air around you. Full spectrum infrared warms your body directly, so you sweat at an air temperature that feels easier to sit in.

It supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury, and you should rehydrate first and build up slowly.

Intertek testedProp 65 compliantUltra low EMF2-Year warranty110V

Heat therapy supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent or treat injuries, and nothing here is medical advice. Speak to your physician before starting sauna use.

Surfer in a beach car park after a session, wetsuit peeled down
SaunaBox
The surfer's guide
Advertisement

Why surfers are using a sauna after every session.

You paddle for hours every week and recover zero.

See the options
Fifteen minutes after the session
A household outlet
Key facts
✓Recreational surfers spend about 47% of a session paddling.
✓The shoulder, lower back and neck are the most common sites of gradual-onset surfing injuries.
✓Prolonged paddling is the top cause of those injuries.
✓Heat after surfing supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury.
01

Every surfer paddles out thinking about the wipeout.

The reef. The lip. The board coming back at your head. That is not what wears most surfers down.

Recreational surfers spend 47% of a session paddling, not riding. In a survey of 1,473 surfers, the shoulder, lower back and neck took the most gradual-onset injuries, and prolonged paddling was the top cause at 40%. A sauna for surfers sits after that session, not instead of it.

Neck
23.1%
Lower back
22.2%
Knee
15.6%
Hands
13.3%

Of those gradual-onset injuries, 64% of shoulder cases and 58% of lower back cases lasted three months or longer.

It does not happen on the wave. It happens on the paddle back out, session after session.

Sources: Priego Quesada et al., PLoS One, 2019, PMID 30682136. du Toit et al., The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2023, PMID 36281474.

Surfer sitting on his board in flat water rubbing his shoulder
02

It's not an injury yet. That's the problem.

It is the Tuesday dawn patrol where your arms were gone by the third wave, because Sunday's long session was still in your shoulders.

The set you let go past. The paddle back out that took twice as long. The week your shoulder ached reaching for the top shelf, so you paddled out anyway.

Sunday sessionthree hours
Tuesday dawn patrolarms gone early
Paddle back outtwice as long
Logged as injurynone of it

It supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury, and you should rehydrate first and build up slowly.

03

A hot shower. A stretch against the car.

A wetsuit, surfboards and an unused foam roller in the corner of a garage

You change in the parking lot and crank the car heater until your feet come back. You take the longest, hottest shower in the house. You bought the massage gun.

You sleep badly after a long session and paddle out again at dawn.

Your sessions have a tide chart. Recovery gets whatever is left over.

04

The evidence says it goes after.

47
People
8
Weeks
15
Min after

In a randomised trial, 47 inactive adults with at least one heart risk factor were split into three groups for eight weeks: exercise, exercise plus fifteen minutes of sauna straight afterwards, or neither.

The sauna group came out ahead of the exercise-only group on cardiorespiratory fitness and systolic blood pressure. In a 2025 trial, team-sport players given ten minutes of infrared sauna after training saw increased soreness only in the group that skipped it.

This is not instead of surfing. It is the fifteen minutes after.

Source: PMID 35785965. Heat supports recovery. It does not prevent injury.

05

Heat after the longest paddle of your week.

A hot shower runs out. Full spectrum infrared warms your body directly: the shoulders, the upper back and the lower back you just held arched on a board for two hours.

Your heart rate climbs. Your blood vessels open. You sweat. That is the mechanism.

Hot shower, at the skin Full spectrum infrared Skin Warms you directly
Heart rate rises
Warms the body directly
83.5%

of 482 sauna users said they slept better afterwards.

That is a survey, not a trial. It is also where recovery actually happens.

Global Sauna Survey, 2019

Not in the sauna. In the eight hours after it.

Source: Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2019, PMID 31126560. Self-reported. Heat supports sleep, it does not treat a sleep disorder.

06
The bonus

The hardest part of red light therapy is standing in front of it.

You're already sitting down.

The red light panel built into the back wall of the Solara

A panel costs three hundred to two thousand dollars on its own, and the protocol is standing still in front of it several times a week. Nobody does that after a surf. You will sit down after one.

660 and 850nm red light is built in. Not an upsell, not an attachment, not a subscription.

Source: Red light is a built-in feature. Most red light research places the light directly on the muscle at a measured dose, which is not the same as a panel inside a sauna, so we make no recovery claim for it. It does not treat an injury.

07

Every session gets fifteen minutes.

It takes about fifteen minutes to warm up. Turn it on when you pull out of the car park, and it is ready when you get home. Rinse off, drink water, then sit.

Sat
Dawn patrol
then sauna
Sun
Long session
then sauna
Mon
Rest
Tue
Surf before work
then sauna
Wed
Rest
Thu
Surf
then sauna
Fri
Flat, stretch

For a surfer that is just every session.

A runner sitting in the open door of the Solara after a run
08

A corner, or a closet.

About thirty minutes to put together. One person. No tools, nothing drilled, a regular household outlet.

The SaunaBox Solara
SaunaBox Solara

If you have a corner, a spare room or a garage.

Add to cart
The SaunaBox Pulse PRO
SaunaBox Pulse PRO

If you do not. It folds into a carry bag and lives in a closet.

Add to cart
The SaunaBox Solara 2-Person
SaunaBox Solara 2-Person

Surf with a partner? It fits you both after the same session.

Add to cart
09
4.6 out of 5 · 155 reviews

From people who surf.

★★★★★
It has a time slot now

Turn it on before the session, sit in it when I get back. I have done more recovery in two months than in five years of owning a foam roller.

Marcus T.
★★★★☆
Sleep after a long session is the difference

Sunday nights after a long session used to be restless. They are not now. Four stars because I wish it warmed up faster on cold mornings.

Dev P.
★★★★★
Good, but measure your doorway

My shoulders feel better the day after a long session. Measure your doorway before it arrives, getting the boxes round the turn at the top of my stairs was a job.

Owen B.
End of Summer Sale is live

End of Summer Sale is live.

Across the whole lineup, our biggest sale of the year. Free shipping, HSA and FSA eligible through TrueMed.

10

Questions.

Up to 158°F, and the range starts at 77°F, so you can sit cooler on a day you have already had enough. It ships set to 149°F; holding TIME + and TIME − together for about six seconds unlocks the full range.

About fifteen minutes. Turn it on as you head home and it is ready when you get back.

No. A regular 110V household outlet at 1600W with an 8 foot cord. Give it its own outlet and skip extension leads.

35 by 37 inches of floor and 63 inches tall. Measure the tightest turn on the way in, not the room. It arrives as two flat boxes, the larger 65 by 37 by 13 inches.

Yes, through TrueMed, subject to their eligibility questions at checkout.

2-Year warranty, with support by phone and text.

Rinse off, drink water first, and start with shorter sessions. Heat after a long session is extra load on the body for the first week or two.

The Solara goes up to 158°F. Infrared warms your body directly rather than just the air, so you sweat at a temperature that feels easier to sit in.

It is a comfortable, warm place to sit once you are home and dry. It is not a treatment for being too cold. If you are shivering hard or feel unwell, get medical help.

Nearly half of every session is paddling, and it is mostly your shoulders and back doing the work. Food, water and sleep do most of the recovery. Heat afterwards supports recovery and supports sleep.

Water, food and sleep do most of the work. Heat afterwards supports recovery and supports sleep, and fifteen minutes is enough once you have rehydrated.

In a 2020 survey of 1,473 surfers, the shoulder, lower back and neck were the most common places for gradual-onset injuries, and prolonged paddling was the top cause.

It works differently. A wood-fired sauna heats the air around you. Full spectrum infrared warms your body directly, so you sweat at an air temperature that feels easier to sit in.

It supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury, and you should rehydrate first and build up slowly.

Intertek testedProp 65 compliantUltra low EMF2-Year warranty110V

Heat therapy supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent or treat injuries, and nothing here is medical advice.