Month: December 2017

Wipeouts, Workouts, and Warrior Poses

This holiday week has been full of surfing, yoga and cardio workouts. The weather has been chilly, but warming up to about 60 degrees in the day. No fog or not overcast, so I took it as my sign to enjoy the outdoors.

My week started by surfing at Pleasure Point during a very strong swell. The waves were a beautiful 3-4 ft, clean, and not crowded whatsoever. Of course, for this swell, I took out my Locus Surfboard, which was practically made for this surfing spot. Some beautiful rides, but a lot of intense waves, made for a very sore body.

After this surf session, I decided to do some yoga sequence at home. I did multiple Warriors, Half-moons, and modified my Chaturangas. Stretching out my leg muscles always feel so good after a surf session. Since surfing makes my shoulders and back sore, I didn’t want to push my muscles with full Chaturangas. I also stayed in Pigeon pose for quite a while, because it felt good on my hips.

The next day, I decided to do a cardio workout. My hubby this week put together our workout area in our garage, so it was the first time I could use our Elliptical machine. Since my ankle is still healing, running has just been out of the question lately. Our Elliptical machine is the next best thing.  I did a 30 minute fat burning workout, which stretched out my legs, and was actually harder than I remember. I definitely woke up sore the next day for my surf session.

On Thursday, I decided to go back to The Point for another surf session. The waves were supposed to be 2-3ft, but they were more like 4-5ft, and they were steep! Steep enough shortboards could ride these waves. I caught a couple nice rides, avoiding the shortboarders, and went back into the lineup. Finally, it was my wave, all beautiful 5 ft of it. I went to catch it and all of a sudden my board (and myself) went over the wave, and I totally wiped out. Thankfully, my surfboard went far away from me, but it was definitely a good wipe out. I didn’t catch another wave after that, but as my surfer friend said, “Hey, even Kelly Slater wipes out sometimes.” She’s not wrong on that.

So, that brings me to today. I woke up this morning a little more bruised than usual, but ready for an easy surf session. The swell had died in Santa Cruz, so I brought out my Noserider today to the pier. The waves were mushy, maybe 1 ft, perfect after a day like Thursday. When the waves get like this, there are only so many spots a wave will break, and a bunch of people usually want this coveted spot. I got to surf this area for about an hour, catching about 5 waves, since the time between sets was long.

But what actually made my day was a boy who was surfing for the first time. He couldn’t be older than 13 years old. He was alone in the water, without an instructor, with his mom watching on cliff. He paddled on his foam board next to my coveted surfing spot, and asked me if I was a surfer. I smiled at this question, since I had never had anyone ask me that before. Of course, I answered that I was, and then he asked if I could teach him how to surf. He explained to me he had been out for hours, not able to catch a wave. How could I say “no” to this kid?! It’s just not in my nature, not to help him out. So, I stayed an extra hour helping this kid catch a wave.

Finally, his paddling was in line, and he was able to pop up! He was so happy and his mom was happy, which made me happy. We have many grumpy surfers in Santa Cruz, a couple I even ran into this week, but I have always made it a priority to not become that grumpy surfer.

All in all, it was a very full week, and I’m ready for the weekend. Happy New Year readers!

~Namaste

Scrappy Surfing Yogi

 

 

Yoga and T.V. 

I am not going to lie. One of my favorite things in the world to do is watch T.V. I love to relax at night, sit on the couch, and binge watch documentary shows, dramas, comedies etc.

Well, the past couple of weeks while strengthening my ankle, I decided to practice some seated yoga poses while watching t.v. Might as well right? 

Here is a list of my favorite seated yoga positions:

1. Firelog Position

2. Butterfly Position 

3. Seated Twist

4. Seated Staff Pose

5. Lizard lunge 

6. Pigeon Pose

I also added in some ab work while watching tv as well. Here are some exercises I have been doing:

1. Bicycle crunches

2. Sit ups

3. Leg lifts

I have definitely noticed a flexibility difference already, and hey, none of this can hurt.

~Namaste

Scrappy Yogi

The Night Before Christmas

Well, this holiday didn’t really go as planned. My husband and I were supposed to be on our way to the mountains, but since our puppy got sick, we stayed at home. At least, she is doing much better!

We decided to redo our holiday plans by relaxing at home, cooking and baking holiday food, and we treated ourselves to some holiday shopping. 

Yesterday, I was treated to a holiday surprise from craftysurf.com! See the pic below 🎄🎁

I love surfing Santa’s this time of year!

Wishing all my readers a very happy holiday! 

~Namaste

Scrappy Surfing Yogi

Movie Marathons

Every since I was little, my mom and I would have movie marathons. These were the days before “binge watching” was popular. Our movie marathons were usually actor based; John Cusack and Anthony Edwards were always at the top of the list, but needless to say, my love of movies started young. I guess that’s also why I got my B.A. in film and video technology, but that’s another story for another day.

Now, there is nothing wrong with holiday movies. I already watched all the ones I wanted to; Home Alone, Scrooged, Gremlins (yes, it’s an x-mas movie) and Christmas Vacation. Since I ran through the holiday movies, I decided to have a surfing movie marathon.

Now, not all the movies I would classify as “works of art” but fun to watch at least. I started with my go to favorites Blue Crush and Chasing Mavericks. Blue Crush is awesomely bad, but the female surfers are fantastic. Oh, and I might have watched Blue Crush 2 as well 😁

Chasing Mavericks is another favorite. It was actually filmed in Santa Cruz, where I surf, and it is a biopic of Jay Moriarty and Frosty Hesson. I always find is amusing to watch movies about locations I am familiar with. Fun fact: I actually met Frosty Hesson about a year ago surfing Pleasure Point…cool ain’t it?!

After these two movies, I decided to watch a movie I had never seen. I watched The Endless Summer by Bruce Brown. Amazon put it on Prime since he died, so I figured as a surfer I should know this movie. What I found so fascinating about it was Bruce Brown was shooting surf footage just like people capture on their GoPros now. Pretty revolutionary for a 1966 film maker.

I finished my marathon with Point Break, the original with Keanu Reeves. Another awesomely bad movie, but fun at the same time.

What types of movies do you like to marathon?

~Namaste

Scrappy Surfing Yogi

In a terrible habit

I have never been a great sleeper, always dealing with some sort of insomnia or disrupted sleep pattern. Lately, I have been in a terrible habit of getting up in the middle of the night, going to the couch and watching T.V. or surf movies for a couple of hours.

Last night was the worst night of it all. After a very long surf session in the late afternoon and some nighttime yoga, I fell asleep around 10 pm. Then, I was up around 1 pm, and couldn’t fall back asleep until like 5 am. This morning my body and mind are exhausted.

I seem to get the worst of this type of sleep disruption when I workout, surf or practice yoga later in the day. I always thought exercise should tire me out, but it doesn’t seem to do that.

I will admit, sometimes when I get up to watch T.V. or movies, I rather enjoy it, especially if I don’t have a schedule the next day. But, now being an adult, I always have something that needs to be done to be productive.

Anyone else deal with disrupted sleep patterns?

~Namaste

Scrappy Surfing Yogi

Last week in Review

In my previous post, I wrote that last week I was going to get back into the swing of my routine, and I very much did.

I started on Monday, surfing at a spot I hadn’t surfed in quite a few months. It tends to be a more intermediate spot in the Winter, and I was excited to see what my new Locus Surfboard was made of. It was on Monday that I took the longest and biggest wave of my life, and the board did fantastic! She is so fast, I love it! The pic below doesn’t do the waves that day justice, but it does show how nice the waves were.

I also knew after that epic ride, my ankle had enough for the day. I could feel it instantly start to swell within my bootie, but it was worth it.

On Tuesday, my ankle still was a little swollen so I decided to try out my balance board to strengthen some ankle support. Also, the wave report for Wednesday was going to be good, so I wanted to rest before a long surf session.

Wednesday came and along with it came excitement. My ankle was feeling better, my wetsuit was clean and the forecast was around 70 degrees. I usually arrive at the beach before the tide drops in order to get get the best spot in the lineup, and I happened to snap a picture of what the waves looked like at higher tide. I was beyond excited! 

I surfed for hours in perfect tide conditions. I had some great rides and some not great rides, but I always love learning what a new board is made of. Its always fun for me to try new pop up styles and new foot positions in conditions like this.

After surfing for hours, yet again my ankle had enough. I knew I needed some yoga in general, so I did about and hour of a yoga session at home.

The rest of the week was full of holidays celebrations with the family, and unfortunately taking care of our sick dog Kokoa. 

She’s doing a lot better now after a vet visit, some antibiotics and a lot of sleep.

I’m excited to start this week of surfing again. Surf conditions will be smaller but it’s always good to just paddle. I also have a couple of yoga sessions planned. Should be a very productive week.

As always you can follow me on Instagram at ScrappySurfingYogi 😁

~Namaste

ScrappySurfingYogi

Recharging this week

This past few weeks have been hectic. Between work and life, I have had little time to recharge. Sure, I have gotten in some surfing but not as much as I like. And I haven’t been able to practice yoga. Not being able to practice yoga or surf as much as I would like is really taking it’s toll.

This coming week, I have decided to recharge my mind, body and soul. I have planned 5 days of surfing and some yoga to rest and recharge. My husband even made me a rinse kit for my recharge week. See the pic below.

I’m excited to take a week to myself. Readers, what do you do to recharge?

~Namaste

Scrappy Surfing Yogi 

Lets talk weak ankles

Weak ankles are nothing new to me. Having been a tennis player, rolling your ankle is very common. At an early age, I learned what a sprained ankle feels like and how important tennis shoes were. The better the shoes, the more your ankle was stabilized which decreased your chances of rolling your ankle on the court.
However, I have seemed to forget my ankle awareness in the last couple of weeks. Lately, when I have been running or working out, I have noticed that my ankles are very flexible, and to anyone that surfs, runs or practice yoga, ankle strength and stability is very important.

So fast forward to this morning; early this morning. I woke up out of a deep sleep to take the dog outside. As I was walking down my stairs, my ankle rolled and I fell onto my landing. Now, it’s only two little stairs so I didn’t fall far, more embarrassing than anything. My first thought, as with anything I injury, is I broke my ankle. After getting up, I noticed that wasn’t the case, just an old fashioned rolled ankle.

As I sit here writing this post and elevating my ankle, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’m doing everything I can for ankle strength. After some Google searching, I am not even doing exercises for ankle strength. I found some single leg exercises to start incorporating into my daily routine.

And just to add, I wouldn’t say I’m a clumsy person, but rather a person who goes barefoot a lot and therefore that increases your chances of foot injury. My grandfather always did tell everyone to put on shoes 😁.
Readers, do you strengthen your ankles? If you do what exercises do you practice?

~Namaste

Scrappy Surfing Yogi

Beachy, Surfy, Yogi Bracelets 

I used to be a very creative kid. I was always sewing, painting, making lanyards, knitting or creating clay figurines. I guess as I got older, I just sort of stopped creating things. 

I’m always inspired by craftysurf.com, so I thought today, I would make a couple of bracelets to go with the beautiful anchor bracelet I won off her blog. Also, I love beachy, surfer -yogi bracelets, so wouldn’t it be nice to create it myself?

Being inspired by my new surfboard colors, I went to the local craft shop and bought nylon string and jute string in peach, champagne and teal colors. I like the natural look of the jute string. I also bought a nice starfish charm, just to try out.

I found a really easy braided pattern online, and made two bracelets; one with the charm and one without. 

Maybe next time I will add beads and a more complicated stitch. I also love hemp cord so I will probably experiment with that next time. 

~Namaste

Scrappy Surfing Yogi