During COVID I resented the move to online yoga. I loved the community focussed practice, the sharing of breath in a dedicated space. I felt trapped in a room with a screen in front of me.

Yet now I find myself sneaking up to our room here at my mother in law's house for some breath time - an hour or two on the mat connecting to myself through the breath. After completing the January Flow Challenge with Yoga with Adrienne, I got hooked again. Now I'm onto her 'Move' 30 day challenge - about half way through now, having completed a 'double' or two classes today. I'm feeling stronger and more flexible again, and more connected to this body of mine.

I'm also really enjoying dedicating some time to pranyama, not just to calm down my nervous system and help me focus, but also to potentially help me out in the surf when I finally get in the water again. I need to be calm when I get the breath knocked out of me and get held under water, to be comfortable with not being able to breath and knowing I can easily last how ever long I'm held under (remember I don't surf huge waves). Being asthmatic, I have a complicated relationship with my breath. It's important to belly breath instead of keep it all up in my chest with shallow breathing, which doesn't do my nervous system any good. And like any habit, the more you do it, the more it comes naturally.

Me surfing a little peeler, during lockdown 2020

I also have been thinking about how to keep fit for surfing. The bottom line is that yoga IS the way to stay fit for surfing. Sure, my arms and back will hurt for a few days as I get back into it, but it doesn't take long to be paddle fit. What I need to do is make sure I am flexible enough to surf, as your spine moves in a whole heap of ways that can be dangerous if you're not flexible enough! Sometimes I bend right back on a wave or my spine twists in a crazy way and I think - ah, that's going to hurt later - but it doesn't, so I guess a life time of yoga helps!

@jasperdick, you might find this video rather interesting.

The video details a few things you should be able to do to not hurt yourself surfing. I think I'm fairly okay with most of the five exercises he talks about. The only thing I need to practice more is pop ups, so I'm been doing a few a day after my yoga sessions. I like how he says to just do them slow and mindfully.

Tonight we were watching a Youtube of people surfing the Severn Bore. This is a tidal bore, a large surge of water that travels upstream against the river current as the incoming tide funnels into the narrow estuary. It attracts surfers who aim to catch the wave as it goes upsteram, timing with the predicted tidal surges. The next one is about 12 March and though I'm not sure we have enough rubber to stay warm in the freezing temperatures, we're quite keen to give it a go, or at least see it. Mad!

After watching this and a few surfing videos I had a nightmare that I couldn't jump to my feet on my longboard, and when I walked up the beach the board kept slipping out of my hands and slamming on the rocks and dinging it right to the foam. No wonder, after the nightmare I had with the baggage handlers flying over - [check out the damage they've done to my board]. I'm yet to hear from Etihad and I presume the guy will fix my board before we leave soon.

Annnnyway, I probably should stop obsessing about surfing, as I'll be in Morrocco by end of March, which isn't long in the grand scheme of things.

With Love,

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