Surfing the Wilds: Washington and Oregon

Aloha Tribe,

I just got back from a weeks lessons studying Surfing and Watergirl (waterman), training under Darrick Doerner (DD). I had a truly beautiful time and learned so much. DD rocks!!!

DD is shaping me into being the best Watergirl I can be, and I am learning  tons of things like how to  camp at the beach, how to catch my own sea food, how to set up a surf camp and basically, how to be a Feral Surfer.

I'm being trained in the Old-School ways. And, I couldn't be happier. I'm pushing myself beyond pushing, to truly fully embrace my new surfing lifestyle.

I'm learning to spearfish, harvest seaweed and cook it, play basketball, skateboard, get into and out of my wetsuit lighning fast, as well as to set up camp and tear it down with amazing speed (I have much work to do in this, of course).

I'm basically learning to travel with one board with one fin, my feral board, and one backpack (I'm still trying to get down to traveling with simply one backpack which holds my tent, my sleeping bag, one wetsuit, my clothes, bathroom supplies, surfwax, duct tape (of course - though, I do personally want so peace stickers and flower stickers for my hippy girl type board, named, Honu, by the way, the Sea Turtle.

Soon, I'll be able to surf without a leash, in the Old-School way. My swimming is improving, my muscles starting to respond to my Watergirl training, and my whole body is transforming.

Along with my body changing, my mind and spirit are fully embracing my new lifestyle, making me less of an extreme athlete and more softer, gentler, mellow, trippy, and smiling constantly while laughing at and with life.

My whole life I've been a martial artist to the extreme and an untouchable fencer and now, I am learning the way of being receptive. Of yielding. Blending. Of being one with the waves and sea.

I've even changed my jewelry from my tiger shark tooth necklace and tiger shark teeth earrings I've worn for the last few years to a guitar necklace (for my new appreciation 60's rock music), and surfboard earrings.

It's fun to feel the changes, to see them, to be them. I'm fasting a lot, and eating much less, sometimes merely about 60 calories a day for weeks on end.

My surfing is improving bit by bit. My balance, improving dramatically daily.

Training is taking me into all kinds of new areas. For example, I've been up since 1 AM this morning, doing Pop Ups, working on my Indo Board on balance disks, riding my bike, mountainboarding, putting on my wetsuit and taking it off again and again to loosen it up as well as to work on muscle flexibility in a sort of straight jacket kind of muscular exercise for muscle looseness, and, soon, I'll go outside again and work on my Gibbon Slackline. I'm also doing simple yet odd exercises like simply learning to carry my board gracefully and beautifully for several miles.

In addition, I'm constantly watching surfing movies in freeze frame to study movements and to feel the movements in my own body using the chi gung I do (a Chinese expression of art similar to Hawaiian mana - dealing with the bodies energy).

I'm still studying my three languages, of course, as well as incorporating drunken style kung fu into my surfing practice, particularly as it relates to my Indo Board and my NOHO Trainer.

Oh, and, this last week during my training, we had encounters with a bear, two great whites, several orcas, and, an aggressive pack of sea lions. It pretty much gave the whole training session a true feral wild, Pacific Northwest feel and flavor.

My goal is to train 18 to 20 hours a day. Surfing, 7 days a week when I can, shooting for at least 5 days a week and doing supplemental training when full weeks will not work out. I'd like to work up to surfing Dawn Patrol to last Glass Off (4 AM until about 10 PM) straight, but for now, the best I can do is manage several surfing sessions per day. I'm working hard on increasing their intensity level as well as how many there are each day.

Aloha Tribe and hugs to all,

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley