Surf and Yoga, now there’s a buzz term doing the rounds right now. When you hear surfing and yoga together you think tropical surf camps, more surf focused with sweaty shoulder stretches and distracting downward dogs, ripped big wave chargers and a few ladies in Lululemon. I mean it works and there is a relationship there but it’s in the phases of a casual courtship rather than the full blown marriage it deserves.
That is probably because the Western view of yoga is of a physical exertion, stretching, maybe even exercise, which isn’t necessarily wrong but this body movement is just 1/8th of what makes up traditional yoga according to the the Yoga Sutras, which is the guidebook of classical, or raja (royal), yoga.
I won’t go into the other ‘limbs’ that make up ‘yoga’ but long (1700 years old) story short; this physical practice known as asana was and should essentially be used to prepare the body to be able to sit for long periods of time. To meditate. Therefore yoga boils down to meditation, basically aiming to be completely present. You know what else gives you that experience of being present? Surfing.
The repetitive motion of paddling out back, that intense blur of presence when you’re flying down a wave, even the sitting out back, it’s all very meditative. You literally feel like a part of the wave, you are the wave. What I’m trying to say here is that our relationship with surfing and yoga is so deep and connected, way more than we think, it’s actually science…
“Everything in Life is Vibration” – Albert Einstein
Remember in school when you learnt that everything is made up of atoms and that these atoms are in a constant state of motion? Well scientists now say that this motion is just vibrating energy. The law of nature that states everything has a vibration, sound is also a vibration and so are thoughts. Everything that manifests itself in your life is there because it matches the vibration from your thoughts.
To begin to understand what I’m trying to say here, picture the human body, a big beautiful mess of cells made up of atoms, which is made up of particles of vibrating energy. Then picture the ocean and the waves we slide around on, there is no solidity in this. The form of the wave takes on its shape because it is responding to some sound in nature, its vibration. It is music that has taken on visible form.
Therefore the form we have taken on is no different deep down. So next time you’re watching a set roll in, paddling out back or cruising down the line, do so with an even bigger smile on your face knowing that we are all vibrations, we are all the ocean, we are the waves.
Yours truly at one with the waves at Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.
