Morning and Afternoon Surf Lessons in Crete
Awesome conditions for Surfing today in Kissamos, Crete. It was possible to surf from sunrise to sunset.
But first we get to the morning surf lesson: All participants have surfed with us 2 or more times before. We started the surf lesson with a warm up, making sure to pay special attention to pains a previous injuries. As for the dry-runs, Andy went through the motion of surfing with all, correcting some minor mistakes on the pop up, for example. Because it was the first time paddling out with Andy today, we focused on the paddling technique, how to paddle out overcoming the waves and how to paddle for the wave. After the dry runs we paddled out to the line up with Andy's help, strategically waiting for the break in between sets. The first one to catch a wave was Leandros and he had a really long ride! It was especially great today for our morning group to get a feeling what it means to paddle far out and go for a big spilling wave, still safe for beginner surfers. Of course it is a different kind of adrenalin rush, maybe with fewer waves caught and more energy invested. Because Andy was in the line up with the participants the whole time, he could not take pictures, except for the group pic at the end of the lesson.
Now, what happened during the afternoon lesson: First we geared up and prepared our equipment. Then surf instructor Andy went through safety rules one more time as well as communication. For the dry runs on the beach, we repeated the pop up. The pop up seemed to be the theme of the course today, as almost all participants put all their focus on popping up on the board correctly, coming out to the beach individually, to get some extra tips from Andy. We know that it can be tricky and sometimes costs a lot of energy. While surfing there are so many things to focus on at the same time: choice of wave, timing, positioning on the board and so on. Also on the menu today was stalling and trimming, meaning shifting your weight in preparation for the turn.
