So many yoga vids online have super stretchy yogis doing perfect folds. If you have been surfing your whole life that ain't you and it's impossible to follow those vids! In this video I go over:
1. How to breathe for yoga (ujayi breath)
2. The basic Sun Salutation A in the Astanga practice.
This is one in a series of videos to help you improve your pop up technique in and out of the water. It works as a companion video to “Millisecond Push Up,” and is designed to help with the “milliscecond push up” before you stand that I advocate for. If you have any issues with your pop up you need this exercise in your routine!
The whole point of this at-home surf-specific exercise is to train your body to “make the space” for your legs to come under you in one fluid motion. Here’s the basic breakdown with time stamps:
00:47 Always start in your surf stance and lower down leading with your butt — this trains you to crouch properly and is added bonus of the exercise
00:54 Put your hands flat on the floor on either side of your front foot and walk back
1:14 Walk back and DON’T LET THE HIPS DROP!
1:25 Keeping your head and chest up, perform a pop up.
1:30 Side view
1:48 Further example of the space you need to create
2:00 This is a prequel and foundation for the Surf Mountain Climbers Exercise
2:10 Example of how to do them in a more rapid motion
2:36 Arms at your sides! This is important. Don’t come down with arms in front — it’s not a burpee!
2:58 Neck mobility and vision are important
A surf burpee is, yes, just basically a pop up, but their meant to be done in quick succession just like a burpee is. Many big differences between the surf burpee and a regular burpee:
1. Stand in surf stance -- asymmetrical unlike the burpee
2. Lower down with your butt, put hands on floor, and jump back
3. Controlled lower down
4. First one to the left, look left, push chest up high, bring feet forward, stand stall
5. Repeat looking to the right
Do as many as your coach programs you to do -- I recommend 8-10 to left and 8-10 to right in quick succession for 3-4 reps with a 60 second rest between reps. Check out my 90 Day Surf Shreds for Beginners and Intermediates and you’ll be sure to have these in your program!
Here’s one tip that everyone below advanced intermediate level needs in their surfing! Get that chest up high, eyes down the line, and make sure you have enough space for an elegant, one stage pop up!
I always say if you can't do a belly ride on the green face you're not surfing. Every beginning surfer wants to have this little move down. When someone asks you, can you catch a wave and go down the face? Even if you can't stand yet, you should be able to say, "Yep you betcha." If you can do this the part of surfing with the stand up becomes SO. MUCH. EASIER.
In this video I go over how to position for waves by looking at the lip line. I was struck when I went over this footage about how well you can see the bend of the wave as it comes towards me. It crucial to note that I'm not just waiting for the wave to come towards me but figuring out where the best place for me to be vis a via the peak is. In some cases I move OUT TO SEA to meet the wave. In other cases I have to paddle deeper. And still in others I have to paddle to the shoulder. I don't get it right every time! But when I do I am rewarded. Another point and tip is that you can use GoPro footage like this to diagnose your own tube riding. The session I had after this I didn't film but made many more tubes both backside and frontside based upon my diagnoses from this footage. It's hard to find that balance between being too deep/too greedy and too shallow/not deep enough.
Shot in SW Costa Rica, August 2023 using a GoPro Hero Black 11
