Triple Crown of Surfing - Surfing Crete
The Triple Crown of surfing in Crete goes today to surf coach Andy who performed three back-to-back surf lessons. It also goes to our surfers who shared the stoke and participated with much dedication. You are all winners!
In the morning Andy welcomed our most experienced group. While Gabriel and Tim had their last of five surf lessons with us, Sophie, Mex and Evelien surfed for the first time in Crete and had prior experience from Portugal. The boys worked on the timing of their take-off and the turns, while the girls trained paddling, choice of wave and take-off.
At lunch time it was the second surf lesson for our Austrian group. Of course today's goal was to train what they have learned yesterday through as many repetitions as possible. They also learned another tool to maintain board speed: stalling and trimming. This is important for the weight distribution on the board as it needs to lay as flat as possible in the water. Shifting the weight is also a very important preparation for the next step: making turns. In the afternoon surf coach Andy was able to introduce Thomas and his sons as well as Henrike to the sport of surfing for the very first time. Eva and Jasmijn joined for the 3rd and 2nd time respectively. Our first time surfers received a quick introduction in board part and safety. Then it was time to practice the first exercise on the beach as well as in the water: catching the wave, prawn position and breaking. Eva and Jasmijn went straight to practicing what they have learned already. Board handling takes some time to get used to, but after everyone got the hang of it, our first time surfers moved to the second exercise: catching the wave, popping up, breaking by going back to the board. The beginner friendly wave of Kissamos today allowed for lots of repetitions of the movement patterns and we believe everyone had a good time, catching as many waves as possible.