Indholdsfortegnelse for #364 Technique i Surfing Life

Power, flow, style. We use these words to explain “technique” to non-surfers or to dissect a pro’s hypnotic turns. And why we cringe at the cracks that compromise our technical foundation: floundering style, gutless power or flow worse than an eighty-year-old man on his tenth trip to the dunny at three in the morn. If there were a magic pill that could unleash one superpower—power, flow, or style, which would you snaffle? Power pill? You’d swallow it dry! Speed is a drug—your drive—the DNA of power. It’s when aggression is celebrated, and you flaunt your superhero strength in nature’s modern-gladiator arena. Power is a presence felt by all. It’s excited by challenges and flexes at advancements and opportunities. Power’s focus and strength are fuelled by passion and plenty of badassitude.…

The definition of coaching is pretty simple; to coach is to “train or instruct”. 1 Of course, when we’re talking about a sport as complex and unpredictable as surfing, coaching takes on a whole new meaning. If you’ve played a sport, you’ve had a coach. Most of our first dealings with coaches come early in life when we take our first sports’ baby steps playing soccer, little league baseball, and kid sports, where the coach is there to teach “the basics”. Hopefully, said coaches have patience and use encouragement as a tool to help the young ones get involved with the sport. As youngsters progress through the ranks of the sport, things get more serious playing the game and the coaching involved. Football, soccer, baseball, cricket, volleyball,…

Surfing is no longer labelled as a pastime for beach bums and layabouts. Once again, it is noted as the “Sport of Kings”. Thanks to the hard work of our boardriding forebearers, professional surfing is recognised as a legitimate high-performance competitive sport, and the crew at Level Up are helping groms from Grades 3 to 12 reach new heights. Level Up “U” Education & Sports Academy has elite school subjects, like skateboarding, surfing and BMX, with every aspiring pro lining up before the bell rings. We sat down with Founder Trevor Ward, a former pro skateboarder with a list of credentials as long as an outside runner at Snapper. Trev ranked number five in the World Cup of Skateboarding, claimed a silver medal at the vert X-Games Asia, and has…

You have created an amazing practice. What more could be done in this space? Surf Flow is dedicated to the healthy movement and lifestyle that revolves around the art of surfing. Meditation, lifestyle, and ocean time are all helpful in gaining mental strength and general well-being. So incorporating any or all of these practices into daily life would be greatly beneficial. Every surfer is different and moves in different ways, so I’m always exploring the different and diverse range of movement practices to best suit their style and what they want to achieve. Meditation and presences are very beneficial. I find that movement meditation is a happy medium for developing a mindfulness practice and ultimately having a controlled mindset to embrace a flow state. I find that movement therapy is…

As the 2022 World Surf League Championship Tour blasted out of the gates at Pipeline, hype was at an all-time high. Swell forecasts were stellar; men and women would be doing battle at perfect, pumping Pipeline. Rookies would be tested, veterans would have to rise to the occasion, and fans were ready and waiting for the buzzer to blow! Media coverage swirled to a frenzy in the days leading up to the opening rounds. Slater, Italo, Filipe, Carissa, Stephanie, and the crew were feeding off the energy. But one name was absent, and it was a big name—reigning world champion Gabriel Medina had announced a few weeks before that he would be taking a break from competition. In an interview with Brazil’s Globo TV, Gabriel opened up about his reasons…

Anew wave of wisdom ripples from the lineup, sidling up to the Eckhart Tolles and Brené Browns to form its own subgenre. A platform, a message and jaw-dropping anecdotes to captivate an audience. Professional surfers, it seems, make excellent self-development facilitators. Most of us have invested money, time or both into learning or becoming better at something. Surfing? Guitar? Maths? Salsa? But have we put those resources into improving our mindset? As Bethany Hamilton points out in her freely available Masterclass on Motivation clip, we probably already are. “The thing about the ocean is it’s so inspiring and the place to be creative and kinda let go of the busyness on land. Being in the ocean is the ultimate form of being present,” she says. If anyone can share inspiration…

In 1943, UK Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us”. It’s often quoted as a comment on the power of architecture to influence our lives and behaviour. Unless you are a particularly crazed coastal engineer or developer, most of us don’t shape our coastlines, but I think it’s fair to say that our coastlines shape us. Time in the water physically shapes us—everything from our musculature from paddling, sun tans, bleached hair, bony growths in our ear canals from cold water, pterygia growing over our eyes from sun exposure, skin cancers – the list goes on. But does it shape us in less obvious ways: our behaviours and surfing styles? Some claim, for example, that Sydney’s coastline of small coves and bays divided…

Surfers appear as extensions of nature: blissfully gliding, it’s easy to lose track of where the wave ends and the surfer begins. It takes thousands of hours to develop technique, whether soulful and arty or power hacking with precision and speed. A surfer’s subconscious notes the changing tides, rips appearing out of the deep blue water, and how the switching winds threaten glassy conditions. Surfers feel at home among the waves; duck-diving is like the sea wrapping its teal blanket around you. But one should never get too comfortable. The ocean, with her hypnotic glistening and mesmerising melodies, can be unkind. Though two-thirds water ourselves, we fail to be entirely in tune with the sea’s movements. However, our innate determination as surfers lets us continually chase synchronicity with the waves…

Wine and cheese, bacon and eggs, fish and chips—some things are meant to go together. Despite people, places, or deep-rooted intentions, certain pairings seem inevitable. But, are “surfing and injury” one of those inescapable unions? And when it comes to our favourite pastime and its physical afflictions, a landmine of questions detonate: Are injuries coincidences or consequences of surf action? Does surfing “too much” create injury? Surprisingly, most surf injuries are not surf-related because the majority of surfers do not get to surf enough. Before you race off to ambush your non-surfing partner, comrade or boss about needing more time to surf, let’s unpack this further. The trouble for many injured surfers is usually not a surfing problem. Instead, lack of time in the water and increased time on the…