Take it from professional surfer Rochelle Ballard – yoga can and will up-level your surfing. Ballard grew up in Hawaii, began surfing at 12 years old, and went on to become one of the most prolific female big-wave riders on the Association of Surfing Professionals tour to date. She’s earned a plethora of surfing accolades and has starred in number of surfing films, including the original Blue Crush. Ballard talked to SurfScience.com about her yogic roots and how the practice imbued her with a sense of clarity and gave her a competitive edge.
Ballard began practicing yoga as a teen and touts the many ways yoga helped shape her as a person and as an athlete. She told the surfing site that a neighbor introduced her to yoga around age 19, showing her a few poses. Now, after more than two decades of practicing, Ballard believes yoga has been key to finding balance in her life and her sport.
“One of the best things about yoga is the awareness it brings, and focus,” Ballard told SurfScience. “That helped my surfing a lot. Going into competition, it’s so easy to melt into your jersey with nerves or get over stimulated. Once the adrenalin kicks in, the nervous system is pumping. Yoga was the best way I found through my whole career to balance that.”
She goes on to talk about her strategy for choosing poses to use before and after being out on the water. Ballard explained to SurfScience that she uses more energetic, breath-focused asanas, like a vinyasa practice, to get warmed up before hitting the waves. Post surfing, Ballard said she focuses more on restorative, longer-held poses to stretch out the muscles.
At 42, Ballard continues to surf and incorporates a variety of other exercises into her regime. And she wholehearted believes in the many benefits waiting for those who pick up a regular yoga practice regardless of what sport you participate in.
“One of the best things about Yoga is it’s the one thing that fine tunes you,” says Ballard. “It brings balance to whatever it is you’re doing in your life. I run and swim and I love to ride my bike. I do cross training with core stabilization and yoga compliments it all.”
