Surfing in Greece - Kissamos, Crete
This is the account of yesterday's surfing lessons from the eyes of our own surf coach Andy.
First the lesson at lunch time:
After I have done the formalities and handed out the equipment to our guests, we headed to the beach and placed our boards for the theoretical part of the lesson. The surfers with prior experience were repeating the pop up with me on land. Then they went in the water for the practical part: training how to catch the wave and correctly popping up on the board. Sophie progressed so fast that during the lesson I pulled her out to show her the front side and back side turn on land. Later she was able to apply the instructions in the water and turn her board successfully. The group of first time surfers stayed with me on land a little bit longer for the theory part, so that I could introduce them to the safety rules and signalling as well as to show them the first exercise on land: the prawn position. Later in the water I showed them how to catch the wave, turning around correctly (backs to the wave), finding the position on the surfboard. In the second part of the lesson, we covered the pop up on land and then tried in the water. Cesar with his young age popped up effortlessly! We all had fun today testing our limits and to see how far we can push ourselves. Photo album of 22 August 2020 morning
And now for the afternoon lesson with our intermediate surfers:
During the beach part of the lesson I went through popping up and the correct position on the board, how to make a turn and of course a repetition of safety signals. Now that we paddle further out, we need to be able to generally communicate with signals and especially signal for help, in case someone has a cramp, someone loses their board, or any other emergency. I am here for your safety! Then I also showed our surfers the correct paddling technique and explained how we circulate in the bay to get to the line up. Surfing is all about using your energy wisely. If you put the power in the paddle stroke where it needs to go, you have the best outcome whilst preserving energy. If you paddle out to the line up where it is easy, without fighting against the waves, you preserve your energy. All this makes you last longer in the water and be able to surf more waves. After about 30 min water time, we got a nice rhythm going, with surfers catching waves, surfing, going to the beach and paddling back to the line up. It is the small successes that count. Maybe you caught a steep wave and felt the power of the wave for the first time. Maybe you successfully made a turn. Maybe you overcame your fears. It was a great day of surfing and a great group of intermediates!
