Advice from a pro......

Las Flores, El Salvador, day 3

After surfing Las Flores and Punta Manga receiving coaching and advice from Holly, I asked her for one thing that I could work on over the next 6 months that would improve my surfing. She gave me two..........but this was her response -

Hey Bec

    

I think one of the things you could work on is to relax and not be as serious about it. I feel like you are a perfectionist which is what makes you so awesome at things but in your surfing it may lead you to get frustrated which is counterproductive. If im off base, feel free to disregard.

You're surfing really well i thought. riding a thicker/wider but not longer board might help too. your board doesn't carry speed very well because it's thin, so you have to work really hard to make sections. you looked really good on those longer boards that you rode, but they were so long. riding something like 6'0 or 6'1 but 19" x 2.5 or even 2.25 thick might really be awesome. if you have mates at home with boards like that you should ask them to try theirs to see how it feels.

Ok, i know that was more like two things, but in the end it just comes down to enjoying it and having fun.

See you in the morning!

: )

hb

Kinda what I have known for awhile. I love to surf, I really do but I am ridiculously competitive with myself and with my friends who surf. I get so caught up with wanting to improve and getting better that I forget what I love about the sport. Why I wanted to surf in the first place. That its all about being in a beautiful place with great friends enjoying the moments as they arise. My ego and wanting to be the best I can be get in the way of love. I have only just realised how much this pervades so much of my life. 

Most of the sessions we surfed with Holly were recorded so that we could watch ourselves surf and receive some critical feedback. If a picture speaks a thousand word then video footage gives you a million. It is a mortifying process but provides so much information..........Holly kindly made 2 minute clips of our waves and posted them on You Tube. Maybe one day I'll surf like her.

Anyway I am in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua at the moment. I surfed Playa Maderas yesterday and caught some super fun stormy waves. It reminded me of my days surfing Woolamai, Phillip Island in Victoria. I wish I had more time to surf some of the other breaks but the swell has been pretty inconsistent and the wet season is well and truly settled in. Tomorrow afternoon, I fly to San Francisco for the second last stop on my trip. Hopefully I'll fit in at least one or two surfs in Nor Cal.....anything to give to reason to hauling this 4/3 seam sealed wetsuit for the last five weeks. 

Surf Camp with Holly Beck

Las Flores, El Salvador, day 1

My girlfriend and I are spending the week at a surf coaching clinic with Holly Beck. Its day 3 and already we've clocked up around 12 hours in the water. The camp is based at Las Flores, El Salvador, an incredible rippable long wave in the south. It is super fun and allows a nice amount to time to practise and link together turns.

There are six girls on the camp with Holly and Steph providing coaching and Jess running a daily yoga class. I thought I'd be mixing it up with twenty something rippers but the group is quite diverse in age and experience. Two women, Frazer and Isabel and particularly inspiring. Frazer has been surfing for over 30 years and still shreds on a short board. Isabel picked up surfing when she moved to Nicaragua for work and has developed such a beautiful style.

Each session is filmed and we spend the afternoon getting some critical feedback from Holly. Its is fairly confronting. Feeling yourself surf and seeing yourself surf are two different things. Over the past few years I've become more dynamic constantly shifting position in response to my placement on the wave. I have finally started turning and after a week of surfing rights in El Salvador, I am feeling pretty good on my take offs and heading down the line.

I've managed to put on 5 - 6 kilos over the last five months (care of trail mix) so I am not enjoying seeing myself on film and in photos. However, I've paid to much to be vain and understand the value of watching myself. I can see the tension I carry in my shoulders and how tight my upper back are, limiting my movements on the wave. 

I set several intentions for this week.

1. To relax in the surf and select better quality waves.
2. Refine my pop ups on the right side.
3. Work on compression and using my lower body to drive the board.

Attached is a short video that Holly made of our first session. I am at the 45 second mark. Its a small one but such a fun wave. 

Wanting to head home........El Tunco, El Salvador

So with a really heavy heart, I caught a flight from LAX to San Salvador for the final five weeks of my journey. I really want to be flying home but I've already made some commitments in Central America and I want to make the most of this opportunity. I'm unlikely to return soon. The final five weeks is nothing to complain about - a week with Holly Beck (ex pro surfer) on a surf camp in Las Flores, six days in San Juan Del Sur, five days in San Francisco and a week in Hawaii with my wonderful friend Steph.

It has been an incredible ride so far full of fantastic adventures with some amazing friends both old and new. I've surfed a lot less then I thought I would, fallen in love with the beauty and diversity of the United States, crossed Central America off my bucket list, been sicker then I've been in a long time and spent a huge amount of time distilling what I want in my life. I've ridden a motorbike in Java, surfed Bingin (Indonesia) and Punta Roca (El Salvador) on low tides holding my own and found my guru. But now my funds are running dry and my heart is just not up to the challenge of travelling solo through sketchy countries.

Its ironic that I'm hanging out for the routine and rhythm of life back home. To play down at the beach with Bear, drink good coffee with friends in Fremantle, have a glass of wine and a plate of pasta at Gino's on a Friday night and surf a wave that I know like the back of my hand. My friend, Christina asked me what would the first thing I would do when I got home..........I don't think I answered properly but it would go something like this...............grab the dog, drive down to the beach, walk barefoot through the white, white sand and the water in the setting sun, drive past the Boatshed in Cottesloe, pick up some fresh Salmon, kipler potatoes and a bottle of local Sauvignon Blanc and have a huge cook up at my house.

This time 10 months ago all I could dream of was quitting my job and thinking about me for an unforeseeable amount of time. Wondering around the globe following the waves, learning some Spanish and meeting new people. I had dreamed about surfing the waves of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Now I just couldn't care less and can't bear another day of this routine. I want something more then hmm, time for coffee, okay, where am I going to sleep tonight and jesus, time for dinner again. Ironically, I feel that my surfing has gone backwards despite all the time in the water.

It really is all a question of balance. This time last year I was out of control. My job was incredibly stressful, surf rowing was tougher then I ever remembered and my body was not up to the challenge and I was trying to fit part time study around full time work. If I've learnt anything over the past five months, its that I just have to find balance in my life when I return home. I need to apply those lessons I learnt in my yoga teaching course earlier this year and spend more time being and less time doing. More time breathing and less time running around.

Enough waxing lyrical and whinging about my situation.............its time to change the wax on my surfboard and bring out my fins.

LA Style with the Dump Rider Crew

I was lucky enough to surf with some locals while transiting through Los Angeles. Considering the size of that place, having access to a car and some new friends is necessary to get around. Public transit in LA is a pretty scary concept and it would take a committed surfer to bus to the good surfing beaches.

My Hawaiian friend, Randy who I met in Pacitan, Java put me in contact with Matt, his younger brother. Through Matt, I met various members of the Dump Rider Crew - a group of local LA surfers.....'struggling to improve' (ain't that the truth!) and surfing at every opportunity possible.  'Leave egos at the door, and surf for the love of it!' is this crew's philosophy.

Old Man's, San Onofre State Park

My first surf was at San Onofre State Park over a long weekend. A 4 - 6 foot swell was forecast and Matt had a friend with a beach side campsite on the army base. Christina, a fellow yogi, surfer and good friend of Matt's, picked me at from the hostel at a very early hour and together we drove to Matt's place in El Segundo. From there, we piled into one car and took off an hour south in San Diego county.

The swell was rolling through when we arrived with a number of different peaks firing nicely. Being a long weekend and all, it was unbelievably crowded but a wave is a wave is a wave and its always nice to get wet. I didn't even stop to consider that the water temperature would be significantly less the Costa Rica and my bikini's and rash guard were not going to cut it. 

The first duck dive was a killer and I was lucky enough to score six on the head on the way out. It is always nice to time the entry well. I tried to take off on a few but struggled to find my rhythm. It was really crowded, really cold and my buoyancy in the water was different to that of Indonesia and Central America. I felt like I was sitting lower in the water and just couldn't move through it at the same pace as I had. I gave up after 45 minutes, sprinted out of the water and run to Rick's campsite to warm my hands up over the stove top. 

The rest of the crew - Khang, Sheryl, Rick, Christina and Matt dribbled in over the next few hours and joined me for coffee and breakfast. I'm not sure anyone had an epic surf, with that crowd it was almost impossible but each had a few fun waves. 

The wind picked up for the rest of the day, so we sat reading, eating, chatting and waited out the late afternoon glass off. I managed to borrow Matt's wettie for the session which made all the difference. I had such a fun surf at Old Mans on a 6'1 Spyder (similar to a fish) belonging to Rick. At 22 inches wide, it was so easy to paddle on to the waves and pull down the line. After such a dismal surf in the morning, I was relieved to have some fun and take nice little waves. 


My final surf with the Dump Rider crew was at Manhattan Beach, their local break. The wave is a series of beach breaks running from the sewerage factory along the coast for a few kilometres. It reminded me way too much of surfing Scarborough Beach over summer to really enjoy myself but it was nice to meet more of the local crew and catch up with Christina and Matt again. Looking forward to surfing waves in the warmer waters of El Salvador!