A Taste of Surfcuit

If you have read some of my previews posts, you must have read about Surfcuit. Well, last Saturday PSA held a Surfcuit sampler at CME for those students who enrolled in the program but have missed or will miss a session or two. The session was also open to those who wanted to have a feel of what the program was all about.

Lecture by Coach Paolo on surf etiquette and basic surfing maneuvers

Like the actual Surfcuit classes, the session started with poi. Though poi is usually considered as a performance art, poi in Surfcuit is done as a warm up prior to yoga. The dynamic stretches of poi help the body in preparing for the deeper stretches of yoga and the intense paddling training during surfing. The 15-minute poi drills were followed by 30 minutes of yoga.

Poi as dynamic stretch

Jiggy (from Surfcuit Batch1) rocking the sock poi

The yoga class was led by soon-to-be teacher, Rozie. It started with a few basic stretches such as uttanasana, adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog), and balasana (child's pose) and progressed into a sequence of sun salutations and moon salutations (Jivamukti style). The 30 minute yoga session ended in savasana to let the body relax and feel the benefits of the morning's practice.

Rozie, leading the class on that deep lunge

The class in Savasana

What followed were non-stop paddling, eskimo rolls, push-ups, pop-ups -- the trademarks of a hard-core Surfcuit session. Nobody stops until the youngest Surfcuit participant (Euan, an 8 year old kid who never gets tired) doesn't give up. The wave pool was filled with "paddling robots" who were popping up, making turns on their boards, and even cross-stepping.

PSA's softboards (Sorry, no surfing pics. I was out surfing with everybody :))

 Since Surfcuit is held in a controlled environment, it provides the safest venue for first time surfers to learn the very basics of surfing and to have the closest to how-it-is-in-the-ocean experience without having to travel for hours to an actual surf spot.