Surfing and Yoga — A Match Made in Heaven by Pixie
How Doing Yoga Will Become an Obvious Asset to Your Surfing Life
As soon as I got really into yoga it was a game-changer for my surfing. I had so much flexibility and flow with my movements, as well as a deeper connection to the ocean.
I got into yoga 10 years into my surfing life. Like many people before, I had dabbled with a bit of yoga. Unfortunately, I seemed to have chosen a couple of classes where I didn’t gel with the teacher. Each time they had seemed quite pretentious and I found the classes out of my league and came out feeling frustrated and slightly injured.
So I gave up on the idea of yoga. I relied on the old stretches I had learned as a kid doing many different sports, and I thought I was fine with what I was doing.
Then I moved to El Salvador. And a new surf chick I’d become friends with kept telling me how great this woman called Alex was as a Yoga teacher, and also as a human being.
So I met her and tried one of her classes in the beach town of El Zonte.
I turned up with zero expectations and immediately liked Alex from the get-go.
As soon as we got into her class overlooking the ocean, she welcomed everyone in with gentle kindness and sincerity with no sign of ego. I felt much more relaxed to give this thing a proper go. Throughout the class, she explained and demonstrated each move, and showed each version of that move. The version for newbies or less flexible, and the hard-core version for those who wanted to push those bendy limbs to the max. It was a class for all levels. And everyone felt at ease.
It was good vibes all around and I left the class feeling more loose and calm-minded than I had felt in a long time.
It was also the beginning of a friendship with Alex, that is still going strong 10 years later.
Whenever the yoga classes coincided with the right tides for surfing, I would go directly after class into the waves. I noticed every time this happened how much better my surf session was. I seemed completely in — sync with the ocean. My duck diving was flawless, my pop-up was flowing and streamlined, and my breathing and paddle strokes had this even precision and rhythm to them.
Over the years going to Alex‘s classes once or twice a week, I began to creep a few of the poses into my surf warm-up. Then over time, I went to fewer classes, just because I became more busy with my life here and I felt I had drilled enough moves into my body that my surf warm-up had now become a mini yoga routine in itself.
Of course, I hung out socially with Alex but now she had trained me well enough to go it alone.
Every day before teaching a surf class or going surfing for myself, I do the same 10 — 20 minute yoga stretch routine.
So here’s a look at some of these stretches and their relevance to surfing:
1. The Sun Salutation with Warriors 1 and 2
If you break down the stages of a surf pop-up about 95% of it can be taken from a sun-salutation yoga sequence with Warrior 1 and 2 poses.
Cobra, down dog, lunge, then add on Warrior 1 and 2.
Ok before you yogi readers get picky, yes the foot angle is slightly different and the torso. But, the main thing is, it’s pretty close and the muscles and joints that are used in these poses are warmed up perfectly. So the cobra is the same as when you push off the board ready to pop up. Then the front foot flies forward into “a lunge”. As you rise up on the board you make a Warrior 1 pose, then transfer to Warrior 2, it’s almost the same as your full stance in surfing. The small differences are both legs are bent in a pop — up and your torso twists forward. So as a pop-up ‘warm up’, doing full sun salutations, which I like to repeat faster and faster as my muscles and joints get more limber. You are getting more close to the actual speed you’ll be doing your actual pop-up in the waves and you are already getting into surf muscle memory and lubricating all the right joints.
It’s also just a beautiful all-around body exercise.
And without trying to sound too hippy, when I do it to the sun rising on the horizon, it’s a spiritual moment.
You can switch it up and throw in a Warrior 1 and 2 mid-way through if you want to get closer to the pop-up feeling.
2. Yoga Breathing
Yoga breathing is basically breathing consciously. Following the breath with your mind, and breathing deeply into the lungs, stomach, and muscles. Whenever I feel the tension in a muscle in a stretch, I can hear Alex’s voice saying “Breathe into the muscles”. And if you never hold your breath you don’t really ever pull a muscle!
GOOD THING TO KNOW IN ALL YOUR STRETCHING. NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH.
So each pose taught by your yoga instructor with have an IN breath for one direction and an OUT breath for the reverse direction.
This not only fills all the muscles with oxygen, but it also calms and focuses the mind.
When we surf we are paddling 75% (more or less) of the time. And this paddling is usually short, fast bursts. Paddling out to the break, paddling into the waves, and paddling out of the impact zone. And also paddling back into position, if you have a strong current.
For this cardio work out you need big, deep breaths. Yoga gives you this type of breathing that fills up the muscles.
When I would breathe with shorter, faster breaths in the past, it would make me hyperventilate and get dizzy.
So consciously breathing will also keep you focused on what you’re doing out there and keep you alert.
When I have my surf students, they nearly all burn out trying to paddle out the distance and keep up a speed, so as not to be knocked back by the set waves. Their adrenalin is pumping and I can see their breathing is labored. I then tell them to find the rhythm in their breathing and to breathe deeply in the muscles. Straight away you can see the difference in their calmer state of being, as well as their stamina.
The most efficient way of understanding this way of breathing is from yoga practice.
3. Hip Openers — Pigeon Pose and Three-legged Down Dog
I don’t know if you’ve ever had the displeasure of experiencing a cramp in your hip, if you haven’t then lucky you! It’s one of the most painful things I’ve had, it’s very hard to get rid of in the ocean, and I’ve only experienced it when surfing.
Getting your hip joints lose for surfing is of course obvious. We jump up on the board, we stand wide-legged and we bend the knees (the lower the better in short boarding), to keep control of the board and draw power and energy from our legs. We then twist the hips one way, then the other as we do bottom and top turns. So flexible hips are necessary to get the most out of your surf moves.
The pigeon pose is my first hip stretch in my warm-up. It’s nice and gentle and you can ease into it as much or as little as you want. I find it strangely relaxing.
Then usually right at the end of my surf warm up I’ll do a 3 legged down dog and use the natural weight of my heel to gently rock my leg over to the side to really open up that hip joint and have a full rotation.
So limber hips help with everything.
4. The Lunge and Down Dog
The Lunge and Down dog were both actually covered within The Sun Salutation if you can see from the diagram above. But these 2 deserve their own credit. If you only have a few minutes of warm-up time, or just a few minutes of daily stretch routine, then these 2 should be your star poses. They are the bare basics for every muscle and most of the joints you need to use for surfing.
In the lunge, I try to really push the hips forward. Both of these also give the compatible opposing stretch of the lower back, flexion, and extension. And as we come back to paddling again, the position of the upper body in paddling is all focused on stretching and straining the lower back muscles.
So if you give these two poses a lot of attention, then 30 minutes into your surf session your back will be thanking you!
- For an added extra lower and spine limbering up then throw in a few “cat and cow” poses at the end. Exhalation on the cat, inhalation on the cow.
5. Meditation
The very act of yoga if done with full consciousness, is a form of meditation. As long as you are focusing on your breath and the feeling of your body, you are absent in the mind. This, therefore, makes you more present.
Surfing requires a hyper state of concentration, as you are not only adapting your body to different positions you are also adapting yourself to the rhythm of the ocean. In this meditative state, yoga allows your whole being to be more focused and sharply aware of your surroundings. So it’s a perfect transition to your surfing.
Not only does it help your surfing flow, but it also keeps you from getting into potentially dangerous situations that a person gets into when their mind takes over and causes panic.
So instead of the mind drifting aimlessly or putting you into a state of panic, a meditative mind focuses your attention.
Of course, it is really beneficial to practice a traditional sitting form of meditation as well as something you can get into to help not just with your surfing but also with daily life. I try and fit a 20-minute meditation into my day when I can. Start with 5 or 10 minutes to get going. Here is a guided meditation that will get you adjusted to it.
6. Prayer Squat and Goddess pose (with a twist)
Staying low to the board, especially in shortboard riding gives you great control of the board and allows you to draw the energy and power from the legs, to do powerful turns and generate speed. This strength and flexibility are great for your surfing evolution. So by doing the prayer squat (incidentally another hip opener), you’re improving the flexibility in your legs, keeping the back straight as you then go into Goddess — which mimics the need to bend low on the board and keep center of gravity, rather than tipping forward. The added little twist to the goddess pose will loosen up the spine and get it mobile, and engage the back muscles mimicking how we do turns on the wave.
7. Threading The Needle
After a few days surfing when I get into this pose the next day, it’s almost delicious. This is my absolute favorite for stretching out the weary shoulder muscles crying out for attention. As a pre-surf warm-up, this will save you from pulling those muscles and ligaments, and tendons that are put under a lot of pressure with hours of paddling.
It’s really nice to use your body weight as is a common theme in yoga to gently push into a stretch. And this one, you glide the arm under gently till you find the right spot.
(threading the needle pictures)
- Important Tip
With all yoga moves you use your own body weight and resistance against the ground to stretch all the muscles. It’s very important that you don’t push too hard when you first start and therefore pull a muscle or ligament. Don’t try and do what other people are doing in the class. It’s just you and your own body on the mat. It is essential that you feel the body the whole time and know when to push it a little bit outside of your comfort zone. This in Yoga is called “The Sweet Spot” A combination of a gentle stretch that’s a little uncomfortable, as opposed to not stretching enough so you don’t feel anything, or pushing too much so it’s really painful.
It’s just something you will feel out over time to where those spots are.
I learned this the hard way when I first started yoga and kept pushing too much and waking up the next day really sore! Then I talked to Alex who explained to me about the yoga sweet spot.
So, there you have my personal connection to yoga and surfing. With a few simple yoga moves you have a full body warm-up. You will have almost mimicked your pop-up in preparation, and have your breathing controlled and at maximum efficiency. Your mind should be nice and clear and focussed and all joints will be limber and ready for action.
I really advise if you’re new to yoga to go and find a good yoga teacher to get you started. Of course, you can follow some YouTube lessons, but nothing beats a good teacher that can be on — hand to make those little corrections in your stances and count you in with the breathing.
Most of the time I find a good group in the class can also help add a positive vibe to the experience and keep your mind focused as everyone gets in sync.
Don’t be intimidated by other yoga students who seem way more flexible and better at you doing all the moves, it’s just they have had more hours doing it. And yoga isn’t a competition. If you get the right teacher they will make you feel welcome whatever level you are. After all, everyone has to start somewhere!
If you want to join my Surf Retreats we will have two Yoga classes hosted by my friend Fiona during your retreat here in El Salvador. So she will direct both classes to do a surf-focused yoga class.
Look out for my up-and-coming Youtube Video on Pixies Women’s Surf Retreats channel for my yoga/surf warm-up
Namaste
