Big Wave Wipeout Survival Training: Conditioning for Aerial Beatings

Aloha Tribe,

Yesterday in the Wilds, the waves were Triple Overhead (around 24 foot or so), thus, it was a perfect day for Big Wave Wipeout Survival Training.

DD (Darrick Doerner - famous big wave surfer - my surfing coach and Watergirl mentor)  taught me a wildly fun and fascinatingly practical, yet paradoxically extraordinary training method for learning to be comfortable during big wave wipeouts.

You get one of those yoga balls, you know the type, they are typically about 3 foot in diameter or so. That is a good size, by the way, because the size makes the training tougher.

Then, you simply swim the ball (once it is fully inflated of course), out into the swells, and, the game is, you have to hold onto the ball no matter what and, if you let go, you lose. A seemingly simple game regarding the rules, yet challenging beyond challenging depending upon the conditions and your skill.

What the purpose is, of course, is to teach you to be comfortable not only in turbulent water, but also while falling and even flying sky high through the air. You see, as you hold onto the ball,  because of its bouyancy, you sort of are like a bouncing cork out in the waves, and you fly all over the place. This type of training gives you a true beating, and, in the process, gives you loads of experience, wisdom, and confidence under extreme type situations.

You see, you are deliberately, intentionally, with full will, paddling this silly ball out in to truly gnarly water and then, playing the game. It's great fun. So, forget how silly you look and simply go for it.

Another yoga ball type exercise, by the way, to be used on calmer days or flat days even, is to use the same Swiss Ball (what they are sometimes called), and to have a smaller one or less inflated a bit, and you try to stand on it in the water. It's great balance practice.

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley

Ultimate Surfing Chi Gung

Aloha Tribe,

Many surfers today, especially Pros, are interested in High Performance Progressive Surfing, and the most elite development of this, Ultimate Surfing Chi Gung offers specific concrete training methods for pushing totally beyond all competition in every element of surfing including coordination, endurance, speed, adaptability, creativity, flexibility, healing from injury, strength, mental strength, spiritual strength, as well as and most incredibly of all are methods of getting in tune with the sea, your board, and your body in ways never before done by anyone anywhere anytime.

The secret, oddly enough, is not some futuristic method of training, but instead, comes from the past, with over 3000 years of practice, study, and exploration in the ancient Chinese field of the exploration of the energy of our bodies and all that is around us.

Using such methods allow a surfer to do things they have never dreamed of before in ways never imagined. This, of course, then lifts us into whole new ways of exploring our surfing, where we no longer have to search the world for the perfect wave, but instead, can find the perfect harmony with any wave within ourselves in how we surf. Interestingly enough, this leads the frantic external quest for surfing perfection of boards, breaks, and maneuvers into an internal quest never before explored, thus, virgin territory on a blank map.

It is with these methods that I find myself facing the sea each day in my beloved Wilds, alone in the Winter Swells in the wild feral seas of ice, snow, and unimagined winds. Such offers a playground of personal exploration seeking an ever detailed quest for internal pefection in harmony with the sea through surf.

The secret to surfing at such a level, comes not from without, as I mentioned above, but from within, in depths always pushed beyond one's grasp, on an eternal quest for internal or Chi awareness. This, of course, leads to ever increasing levels of sensitivity to your body, your board, and the sea, which, then leads to further exploration in a harmonious cyclical dive into the depths.

If you literally want to be the best of the best of the best, then there is but one way. And that, is within yourself. All you need to do is to know how to find it. And to do that, you simply need to look within. That, is the secret. Of course, if such words seem cryptic, and they might to some, then formal training of course helps, for a guide (Coach, Trainer,  Teacher, whatevers) along the way can tremendously speed up the process of learning, yet, the truth of the matter is, your highest level of surfing is and always has been within yourself all along.

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley

Ulitimate Chaos Surfing: A New Feel and Look

Aloha Tribe,

Imagine if everything you new about surfing, everything you'd ever seen in the movies, from your friends, anywhere, anytime, anyplace, was suddenly, in a single day of the wildest most feral surf you'd ever danced with tore your body loose from the old surfer you were, reshaping you in boiling oceanic pulsations into a totally new surfer. That was yesterday.

You see, yesterday in the Wilds, the sea was alive, it was as if it were boiling water, every inch of pulsing movement exploding in new directions of unlimited skyrocketing swells, waves, boards, and, ideas.

Oddly enough, I've never seen the ocean quite like this. Now, from a normal surfing expression, one would look upon such a scene and say it either sucked or it was terrrifying beyond all measure. Then again, by surrendering ones soul to the sea in such conditions, a whole new way of feeling surfing and my body swept through every fluid fiber of my being.

The swells seemed to come from five primary directions all at once, for example, a wave would come from the SW and 8 seconds beind it would be one coming in from the NW, followed 2 seconds behind that by one from the W, the then 6 seconds later for a Period from the SNW. Interestingly enough, the waves would come in at not only different angles but also dramatically different speeds, thus, there could, with any given wave, be a crashing explosive assimilation of countless waves hitting each other, thus Jacking Up and Doubling Up even upon themselves, leading to total chaotic swirling and bursting expressions of water geysers, with currents pulling from every direction at once at both the same levels of depth and different depths.

Now, when I got there for all of this, there was no one anywhere. No cars, nobody watching the beach, and most certainly nobody in the water. To get to a decent Line Up, you had to swim out for roughly 3/4 of a mile if you truly wanted to get beyond the churning Lines of wild oceanic dancing. Alone in such a sea, with nobody in sight anywhere, leads to interesting insight and thus, new surfing feelings, expressions, and ideas.

Yesterday boiled my body, mind, and soul into a new artistic expression of surfing looseness, giving me unimagininable and countless new moves to yearn for with full passion.

I feel today, different. A new girl alive with a depth of a love of movement I have never know before, a level beyond levels calling my heart and soul, singing to my muscles, beckoning me to the swells today.

In darkness, I await the rising of the next Dawn Patrol sun, my heart pumping beyond burst, my muscles aquiver, my soul aflame, my mind dancing free, my Alaia patiently waiting with the explosive anticipation of a Champion racehorse seconds before the dropping of the Gate for our harmonious union.

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley