Yoga and surfing can go hand in hand for those of us lucky enough to live by the water. Not surprisingly, many yogis tout the benefits their practice brings to their boards, and how skills learned surfing can aid time on their mat. In a recent Yoga Journal article, writer Jaimal Yogis echoes those sentiments as he discusses the symbiotic nature of yoga and surfing.
Yogis points out that many world renowned surfers and yoga instructors alike, such as nine-time ASP World Champion Kelly Slater and the effervescent yogini Shiva Rea, understand the natural fit between the two activities. He says that Slater often takes to his yoga mat as a cross training opportunity, while Shiva Rea commonly offers retreats featuring yoga and surfing.
Providing examples of how surfing and yoga inform each other, Yogis quotes Ashtangi Tim Miller as saying, “Surfing provided me with an experience of ‘yoga.’ Once I began to practice yoga, I recognized that same kind of ‘in the moment’ flow of awareness.”
Indeed, yoga and surfing call on the participant to quiet the mind, seek literal balance and breath deeply to stay calm and focused. Yogis writes that both require strength, flexibility and a lot of balance; both attract lovers of nature; and both activities keep their devotees looking and feeling unusually young, strong and vibrant.
In the article, Yogis shares Q&A sessions with a handful of yogi surfers, which include gems like this from Shiva Rea:
Yogis: Has surfing affected your yoga practice and your teaching?
Shiva: My entire orientation to living yoga is about realizing waves of consciousness as the underlying flow of all manifest reality. This translates physically as being able to feel pulsation and the flow of the fluid body, almost how people who have been out at sea feel that they have sea legs. Surfing and yoga complement each other, because they both hone and tone the fluid body.
Yogis goes on to make a profound correlation of the bond between yoga and surfing: “In yoga, we observe and even move the unseen waves of energy within us, known as prana, or ‘life force.’ In surfing, we feel the external wave energy that we’re tapping in to during yoga practice.”
He shares a revelation he came to after seeing a poster of Swami Satchidananda from the 1960s that read You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf. Yogis says that idea leads to a yogic awareness – the idea that while you may not be able to stop the thought loops of the mind permanently, you can learn to relate to the endless thought waves in an unfettered way to surf them gracefully.
