Your first wave: training

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the sporadic posts these days but I have one 12-hour day after another and it doesn’t come to anything these days besides working for the university. But here is a beautiful topic: the first wave. The one wave that you’re never going to let go of. But hey, others said that in way more beautiful words than me:

“All it takes is one wave, not even that, just one turn. Just a moment, it keeps pulling you back…you want to have another moment…it never ends.”  Gerry Lopez

So here are some short instructions for the first green wave: it’s winter. People are fat and lazy in general. This is not necessarily an advantage if you plan, for example, to make a trip to Atlantik Surf in Tenerife so that you can escape the cold. Powerful training such as swimming is one thing, but diving should also be practiced, especially if you dare to face the big winter swells. What helped me most to improve my surfing are balance and body relaxation exercises – so exercises on Indo Boards, Slacklining and so on or also classic spine gymnastic and Pilates. Sounds uncool. But after you rode your first parallel wave because you’re not so shaky on the board anymore, everything will be worth it. Trust me, everything. Starting with the looks of the gym course participants in retirement age that undress you each time with their eyes (although this still remains unsettling even after many green waves).

Equally important is another unloved topic: stretching. Right in the beginning, when your shoulders feel torn after 10 paddles (aka on the second day the latest) you have no more fun and also no strength to surf well. And hey, what’s more relaxing than ending an evening with a few stretching exercises? Works even better with one or two beers on board ^^ And from personal experience I can say that the sea sobers you up really fast, when these (as it usually happens…) turn into more. And I’m referring to the case when you go surfing the next morning. Not the one when you go skinny-dipping during the night with whomever you got drunk with. First of all disgusting, second of all really dangerous!

So, before I go any further with some life wisdom, I’ll wrap it up for today. Next time it goes on with your first wave!

Cheers, Dominik