How Slacklining and Slackline Yoga helps Surfing

Aloha Tribe,

I've been doing a lot of slacklining and Slackline Yoga lately, often, hours a day, lately, up to 6 hours a day.

Now then, some of you may wonder how such training possibly helps my surfing, after all, what's wrong with surfing to surf, right?

Well, the thing is, slacklining, let alone Slackline Yoga, is much tougher than surfer, hands down. No comparison, actually. As such, if you can slackline, then, you can surf, once, of course, you learn how to surf and learn how to swim and all about the sea and all that goes with surfing.

Walking or doing yoga on a slackline is like using the stringer on your surfboard as your balance point, the only difference with, a stringer has an additional 14 to 20 inches or so of width on either side of it to help stabalize balance, while a slackline or a slackrope, is merely the width of the webbing or rope that is used, perhaps anywhere between a half inch and 2 inches or so wide.  Thus, there is less room for error on a slackline or slackrope.

As for the movement of a surfboard, that too is easier in that the movements, whether raising or dropping the tail or nose, or raising or dipping an inside or outside rail, offer much greater room for experimentation, error, and play.

So, at least for me, I've noticed that my time spent on a slackline or a slackrope or a tightrope, tightwire, or even a pole, branch, or rock, greatly increases my awareness and my maneuverability and thus control of my surfboard. This applies, regardless of whether one rides a shortboard like my thruster  (I wish I had a twinie, I love them so, well, one day perhaps I'll somehow obtain one through cash, grace, or luck) or a longboard.

Anything regarding movements and such that can be done on a board can be done on a rope or webbing, and as such, slacklining offers truly an endless opportunity for personal growth, limited merely by your imagination, energy, and patience, after all, when the waves call surfers, the waves call and who among us can resist such a siren?

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley