Stretching the Point (to stretch or not to stretch)

By Liz Davison (North Sunshine Coast Surfing Mum)

Liz the author doing some stretching of her own

 

Sometimes no stretching can be better than bad stretching.  While a regular yoga routine can be great for our general strength and flexibility, the word on the streets for pre-surf stretches is ‘dynamic’.

Here’s the lowdown…

Slow, static stretching, like yoga, actually stimulates a reflex which tells our muscles to relax – not what you want if you’re heading out for a comp, or a big day at the Superbank – so the best time for yoga is after a surf to release the tension in your muscles, relax and work on your flexibility.  I mean, lets face it, if you’re not flexie now, stretching for a few seconds before you hit the water ain’t gonna change it.

Before a surf (ie, just before you get in the water), you want to prep your body for the work you’re about to put it through.  The best way to do this is through controlled, repetitive movements that are like actions you actually do when you’re surfing.  So what we’re talking about here is what’s now being called “dynamic stretching”.  What we don’t want is old school toe touches where you bounce up and down into the stretch, but controlled (and that’s the key) movements that take you (gently!) to the limits of your range of motion. In dynamic stretches, there are no bounces or "jerky" movements.

            This form of stretching will warm up our muscles and get us pumped up and ready to get out there while reducing the risk of muscle injury…

Lets get into it.

Start with a run to the beach (or run along the beach).  The purpose of this is to raise your core body temperature and get your blood flowing. Increased blood flow in the muscles improves muscle performance and flexibility and reduces the likelihood of injury, so get the ol’ body moving…

Now, don’t worry about your arms, paddling out is a great warm-up for them.  Lets move onto stretching your back.  Lie on the sand with your hands under your shoulders and push up (about 1/2 way, don’t force it remember), do this about 8-10 times. 

Pop up to standing and bring your hands up to fighter’s stance (fists at chest level, elbows down – this makes you look pretty mean, so no-one will be dumb enough to drop in on you).  Gently twist from side to side, about 8-10 times each side, warming up your back for quick snaps and more critical turns.

Next bring your hands to your hips, step your feet about shoulder width apart and drop down into 8-10 deep squats, prepping your legs for generating some speed, and throwing lots of spray.

Finally, a few tuck jumps will get you making a super fast transition to your feet, and also psych you up and get you amped to get in the water.  Now you’re ready to get out there!

So the basic idea with pre-surf stretching is – keep your body warm, your blood flowing.  Like your surfing, you want to keep it controlled, fluid and a bit of fun…

*Got any injuries, illnesses or questions?  Go see your physio or a good yoga teacher, before doing any stretch routine, they should be able to help you out.*

(C) 2007 Liz Davison

Surfing in Hawaii with Kids

By Vanessa Thompson (Byron Bay Surfing Mum)

The first thing I really needed to get my head around was that this was not a surf vacation. This was my husband, three year old son and my honeymoon. I had booked our holiday to Hawaii at the beginning of the surf season on the South Shore of Oahu, and for those of you that are not familiar with surf in Hawaii its not all barreling 10 foot Pipline, the South Shore is home to some of the mellowest, perfect longboarding waves in the world. The South Shore, dominated by the breaks of Waikiki (Canoes, Queens and Pops) is the home to ancestral Hawaiian surfing. This is where the Hawaiian kings and queens surfed as a recreational and religious pastime. In fact as I surfed the waves at Waikiki I am sure I could feel the prescience or almost religious aura as I surfed the long peeling rollers to the beach. It’s not hard to imagine royalty surfing these glamorous rolling waves. The spay floats off the back of the waves breaking all the way from the back almost 300 meters to the shore. Believe me anyone can feel like a king or queen surfing these waves, looking over to Diamond Head crowning the beach and the mountains covered in mist behind the high rises of Waikiki. Don’t even get me started on the crystal clear warm water, but the one draw back is of course as we are all familiar with in any good surfing spot- the crowds. I must say I didn’t really find the crowds an issue. Much the same as my home break, Byron Bay, a large portion of the surfers were just beginning to learn to surf, therefore leaving most of the bigger waves to the rest of us. I also discovered a strange phenomenon where by surfers were happy to share a wave! Most waves were a free for all with everyone hopping on, and then happily riding behind someone else to the shoulder. I eventually plucked up the courage to paddle up to one local (who by the way were all very friendly) and ask about this strange exception to the rule of ‘dropping in’. He assured me that this was totally acceptable to share waves on the crowded breaks at Waikiki and that in fact claiming a shoulder of the waves all to yourself was a rarity to be relished as a special experience. I found that this sharing of the waves added to the sense of ‘aloha’ prevailing in the water, something that I’m sure the Hawaiian ancestral surfers would approve of! 

Canoes- a busy spot off Waikiki

I digress! As usual the topic of surfing hogging my discussions that as a surfing mum I should be sharing with the topic of traveling with kids. As I was saying I made a mental note to myself not to look at this trip to Hawaii as a surfing trip, it was in fact my honeymoon with my husband and father to three year old Kieren. Traveling in Hawaii is as easy as it gets, the whole place is wired for travelers. Every convenience is at your doorstep and as a mum this made the whole experience very easy with lots of time left over for enjoying ourselves. The language is English of course, although talking to some locals who use the pigeon dialect can be slightly challenging for those not used to the sing song vocal effect. Luckily our exposure to Hawaiian culture allowed us to understand the thumb and pinky finger hand signal to mean ‘shaka’ or loosely translated ‘everything is cool’. The food is good with large portions stunning at first, then as our trip progressed we stuck to ordering two portions of food instead of three so we didn’t feel like we could actually feed a small village with our left overs. You don’t need to worry about food poisoning in general for the kids, and of course good medical care is available if your child contracts some inevitable childhood disease. Make sure you take out good travel insurance as American health care is extremely expensive. A quick visit to the doctor to determine if I had an ear infection set me back $120 US dollars!

My little boy playing in the shallow waters of Waikiki beach

Rental cars are easy to obtain and come fitted with a toddler car seat if requested. So we had to drive on the other side of the road with the steering wheel on the other side of the car, making the toddler seat a necessity. However it meant we could visit all the iconic surfing destinations Oahu has to offer, Sunset, Pipeline and Waimae Bay to name a few. All of these are reflectively flat at this time of year (May-October), leaving the South Shore to pump glorious wave after wave through. That brings me back to the topic of surfing and once more juggling kids and surf time.  It’s a family holiday and I’m trying not to think about surfing, which was made terribly hard by the fact that I could see three world class surf breaks from our holiday rental apartment. There were some days I would resolutely pack our backpacks for the day and leave the apartment with a deep feeling of longing packed away with the kids snacks for a day of sightseeing only to return to a view of a sunset session of glassy and perfect waves dotted by a few surfers on the horizon. Enough to turn a sane mum insane! I planned morning surfs but was disrupted by the time difference that made 8am Hawaiian time 4am our time, so by the time we had all struggled out of bed it was time for more sightseeing and no surfing. There tended to be a morning and evening glassy session with trade winds kicking up during the day. But the same persistence that has kept me surfing from 5 weeks after my son’s birth made sure I was up and away for several morning surfs and several day time surfs, they might have been windy but they were still pure Hawaiian bliss. My son and husband played on the beach and Kieren became fascinated with Outrigger canoes and catamarans. Both offer rides at about $15-$20 per a person which he never seemed to obtain. Kieren got some rides on the surfboard as the shore is protected by the reef so contains clear blue flat water only, and by the way that’s the same reef makes the waves so consistently perfect at Waikiki’s surf spots. The other thing that thrilled me, was that even though we all know they are they, sharks never seem to bother anyone in Hawaii. One of the surf spots, Pops or Populars is a good half a kilometer  paddle from the shore, and yet I traveled out their twice on my trip and even though I was paddling there and back alone never once felt fearful. Perhaps the sounds of Hawaiian music streaming from the beach side hotels at Waikiki beach calm the sharks and infuse them with their own sense of aloha!

I would thoroughly recommend a trip to Hawaii for the family wanting to blend toddlers, husbands and surfing!

Waikiki Beach-Plenty of waves for everyone