Surfing is one of the most thrilling sports there can be on sea. But unlike most sea sports, it does not require machinery of some sort. All you need in surfing are: a board, surfing gear, rippling waves and a sense of adventure. But just like any other sport, surfing can also drain your energy and patience. It can be grueling especially to the neophytes, as it requires perfect mind and body coordination. To have a body in total harmony with your inner self to get your body in the best surfing condition, surfers will recommend one thing and that is to practice yoga!

You might think that surfing and yoga are far out from each other but you are wrong. Both have similar concepts that really blend well to give you a better life. Here are five reasons why surfing and yoga is a great combination.

1. Yoga and surfing have a common denominator. They are ways of life.

Yoga is more than an exercise as surfing is more than a sport. Both are ways of living that help make people attain a fuller and more complete life. They also help you know more not only about yourself but also about your surroundings: yoga seeks enlightenment of your spirituality while surfing makes you one with nature. The yoga world is also similar with a surfing moment; a place of freedom, a place of peace, a place without time… Either way, you become your better person as you completely immerse yourself in the activity and in the process, rest your mind and spirit to release your fullest.

2. Surfing without exercise such as yoga can have health repercussions.

Although surfing is a good exercise, it is not perfect because it is not completely symmetrical. Surfing does not work all body parts as it concentrates only on some especially the shoulders and arms. In the process, the rest of the body does not get its proper exercise. That is why it is always recommended that surfing be paired with a form of exercise that gives emphasis on stretching such as yoga. Yoga can work the body parts that are not frequently worked out in surfing. With that, you are ensured that you have a complete activity for your entire body.

3. Yoga will teach you patience in surfing.

Starting to surf may be difficult to some people who do not have the skill of balance pros have. However, with a little more practice, you can gain more knowledge about reaching your body’s equilibrium but this may take time. Some may learn to surf in only a few days but some may take several weeks or months with a very long learning curve. With the help of yoga, meditation and breathing can make you become a more patient student surfer. The extended patience that you gain from practicing yoga can also be helpful while waiting for those surf quality waves to practice on.

4. Yoga will increase your strength and flexibility on the board.

Yoga can enhance your self-awareness and make your body and mind exist in perfect harmony. Yoga will sharpen your concentration, enabling you to attain perfect equilibrium. Because yoga includes stretching and different forms to be followed, it will improve the flexibility of every part of your body. Flexibility is the key to constancy on top of the board while surfing a wave. Flexibility gained by practicing yoga also helps you move with more freedom, balance and comfort. And in this area, it is obvious how yoga can really be helpful.

5. Yoga will help you improve posture and breathing.

Just like in yoga, proper posture and breathing is also important in surfing. You reach maximum performance when your body has proper amounts of oxygen taken in and is in the proper position. With yoga, you will learn to breathe and pose better. Yoga benefits such as minimized tension on the body especially on the back and the shoulders can maximize surfing performance. Proper breathing and posture will give you strength and balance that can increase stability while you glide on the waves.

Surfing and yoga is a perfect complement that assists in excelling each other to higher levels and that is why most surf schools have yoga activities as well. The pair not only enhances your spirituality and physicality but also harmonizes your mind and body in perfect balance. So the next time, before you surf, practice a few minutes of yoga and breathing. Then you’ll realize that surfing is not only a purely physical activity but can have spiritual liberation effects as well.

Sand. Sun. Surf. Think beach, and those are the first descriptions that pop up. Images of azure waters gently rolling to pristine shores, coconut and palm fronds waving in the sea breeze, the soft tinkling of wood-and-string instruments accompanied by the staccato of percussions… all in keeping with the picture-perfect summer holiday. So the general, typical beach-going public would agree.

But take it to a different world: one of waves swelling to as high as thirty feet overhead, of deeply tanned pecs, abs, biceps and legs running, jumping and swimming in shape and of human figures skating the surface of these gigantic waves on colorful boards in a race against crashing foam and surf. It’s the world of surfing.

Surfing traces its historic roots in the early Polynesian people of Hawaii. Memoirs written by Capt. James Cook on his visits to the Pacific are the earliest records of surfing anywhere in the world. Traditionally, the people of Hawaii lay flat on their bellies on wooden boards to skim the waves. Surfing is deeply-rooted in Hawaiian and Polynesian culture, playing a role in the construction of legends and myths. The imminent danger faced while surfing, the thought of conquering the waves, the thrill of being atop them and the discipline it takes to reach all of the above: these elements are responsible for the excitement and popularity that surfing has become.

The last statement proves true in the fact that Hollywood has capitalized on the surfing industry, making movies out of it and of the lives of surfers. “Blue Crush” features Kate Bosworth as a female surfer struggling to make her mark in this male-dominated sport. Along with two other female friends and her younger sister, Anne Marie (Bosworth) is determined to prove her worth, eyeing the Pipe Masters competition as her triumph. Amidst the stunning visuals of the Hawaiian coast, Anne Marie drives herself into shape and hones her surfing skills for the event, while making a living teaching football players the game. Though she loses the Pipe Masters contest, Anne Marie does get to demonstrate that women can surf and surf well, too in a wonderfully executed exhibition at the “Pipe,” one of the most dangerous surfing challenges present.

“Point Break” is about surfing, yes, but with a rather peculiar twist. Keanu Reeves plays Johnny Utah, a rookie FBI agent on the tail of a gang of bank robbers called “The Ex-Presidents.” The gang robs banks using masks bearing the faces of previous American presidents, and Utah’s partner, agent Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) has a theory that they may be surfers. Utah immerses himself in a surfing culture, learning the ropes of surfing through some newfound friends headed by a guy named Bodhi, played by Patrick Swayze. Bodhi turns out to be a one of the “Ex-Presidents” and he and Utah battle it out with the waves of the Los Angeles coast as their background. Utah goes from being an ex-football player who is clueless about the sea to a a competent surfer who has learned not just the art and beauty of surfing, but of good relationships as well.

A movie with a story different from what mainstream Hollywood has to offer. “Riding Giants” is just that. In documentary format and featuring real-life surfers, “Riding Giants” takes the viewer for a dive into the history of surfing, the culture that holds it alive today and the commercialized hype that has popularized it. It gives a detailed look inside the real world of surfing, where the dangers are always close by and how the fascination for those huge waves have lured and molded the icons and legends of surfing. It has been dubbed as the most informative surfing movie to date, complete with fantastic visuals.

There are more surfing movies, particularly from the sixties to the seventies. Those mentioned above have been produced in this recent century. Other popular surfing movies include “Endless Summer” and “Endless Summer 2,” “Big Wednesday,” “Billabong Odyssey,” “In God’s Hands” and the digitally animated film, “Surf’s Up” that has a penguin for its lead surfer.

In the early 1900’s the Hawaiians organized the Hui Nalu (surf club) and competed in neighborly surf competitions with the Outrigger Canoe Club. This drew a great deal of attention to the Waikiki surf shore, bringing a revitalized interest in the sport, which had fallen out of favor in the late 1800s. Duke Kahanamoku, an Olympic star in swimming, popularized the sport further by traveling internationally and showing off his surfing style to thrilled audiences around the world. He was favored by Hollywood elite; having acted in bit parts in films and was always recruiting new surfers wherever he went. He is credited with surfing the longest wave of all time in 1917, in the popular surfing area now called Outside Castles in Waikiki. His 1000 meters plus wave record has yet to be overtaken.

In the 1930s, the sport of surfing was experiencing a Renaissance. Tom Blake, founder of the Pacific Coast Surf Championships that ended with the onset of war in 1941, was the first man to photograph surfing from the water. Another photographer and surfer named Doc Ball published California Surfriders 1946, which depicts the pristine coastal beaches and good-time, relaxed atmosphere of surf living. Surfing, although curtailed in the aftermath of WWII, revived as always by the 1950s. Bud Browne, an accomplished surfer and waterman, created the first ’surf movie’ with his 1953 “Hawaiian Surfing Movie”. This inspired many photographers, filmmakers and surfers to continue documenting the sport, culminating with is arguably the best surf movie of all time, 1963’s “Endless Summer” by Bruce Brown. The film opened up the genre of the surf movie and the art of surfing to non-surfing people, accumulating fans and inspiring neophytes.

Although surfing was a male-dominated sport, adventurous women surfers can be seen all the way back to the times of the Polynesian Queens. Two notable ’surfer girls’ were Eve Fletcher and Anona Napolean. Eve Fletcher was a California-born animator for Walt Disney and Anona Napolean was the daughter of a respected Hawaiian surfing family. The two pioneered the sport for modern women, winning surfing competitions up and down the California coast at the end of the 50s and into the 60s. Hollywood was quick to be on the scene and with the 1959 film “Gidget”, surfing was flung far out into the mainstream, never to return to its humble, ritualistic beginnings. “Gidget” inspired a slew of “Beach Blanket Bingo” movies that brought surfing to a new generation of teens and inspiring a new genre of ’surf music’ that accompanied films and made The Beach Boys more famous than Elvis in the 60s.

Surfing spread throughout all media and Surfing Magazine was born in the early 1960s by famous surf photographer, LeRoy Grannis. After that, other publications cropped up bringing more information on the sport, equipment and stars of the surfing scene. John Severson, an accomplished filmmaker and photographer, created Surfer Magazine, originally called “The Surfer”. These publications brought advertising, professional surfing, surf culture and publicity to the now very popularized sport.