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
Scrappy Yoga 