I am in the middle of reading the Ramayana, the tale of Rama: one of the great figures in Indian lore. I am reading the version by William Buck…here is my retelling of one of the early moments of intrigue:

In heaven high above Indra turned and hissed like an angry snake, his fine robes were burnt and torn his face and chest covered with dried blood. He heard Vashishtas incantations and it made him angrier still. Indra looked around heaven and it was in hopeless ruin. The heavenly garden was uprooted. Heavens long golden street was lettered with slain Gandharavas and Apsarasas and the corpses of Demons. The heavenly stream of Ganga ran red with blood. The Battle of Heaven had just been fought. Indra and Heaven had fought hard and lost to the Demon King Ravana.

Indras eyes filled with tears. He reached down and grabed a large stone and flew with it up to
Brahma’s high heaven beyond change. Indra threw the stone through the most beautiful window of Brahma’s Palace. The guards ran to arrest the perpetrator but when they saw it was Indra they bowed down and lead him to Brahma.

Sujantra

Adho Mukha Svanasana or (Downward Facing Dog) is a wonderful asana (posture) to increase the flexibility of your hamstrings, calf muscles and shoulders and to release tension from the neck. As well as, improving circulation in the legs, rejuvenating the entire body, relaxes the heart and a great upper body strengthener for inversions.
To begin, start on your hands and knees. Tuck your toes under and lift your hips up to the sky. Keep your fingers spread wide, like star fish suction cupping to the reef. Feel each finger pad pressing into the earth. Shoulders are externally rotating out to the side, as the inner creases of your elbows becoming facing one another. The neck is relaxed as you gaze back to your bellybutton. The tailbone is lifting towards the sky, creating an inverted “V” with your body. The bellybutton continues to drawl up towards your spine. The feet are hip width distance apart, toes in line with your heals. Continue to take deep long inhalations and exhalations. Hold for 3-5 breaths.

Modification: keep your knees bent. If you have wrist issues, bring your forearms to the floor.
More Challenge: extend one leg into the air, reaching out through your heal, switch multiple times back and forth.
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The essence of surfing is deeply rooted to nature as similarly, yoga has a strong connection to Mother Earth. Nature and Mother Earth are one in the same, releasing a vibrant energy which touches the soul.

Patience and practice are very important aspects to yoga and to surfing.  The ability to calmly sit on your surfboard and wait for the right wave to arrive, one has to come into a state of meditation, with the reward being a gift from nature: a great ride! It is the manner in which the word “practice” is associated with yoga since it takes a great deal of time and patience for the body to be able to achieve some of the postures – eventually, it will happen.  Surfing and yoga may look easy to the outsider, but in reality they both require great practice and patience 

Yoga has connections to nature in every asana (posture). For example, Tadasana (Mountain Pose), Vrkshasana(Tree Pose), Matsyasana( Fish Pose) or Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) are all expressed by shapes and animals, which allows a person to find a deep connection to nature. As a person practices yoga their breath becomes like the ocean: constantly flowing back and forth like waves on the shifting sand. This is what gives yoga a strong connection to our Mother Earth. 

Being in the ocean while surfing, surrounded by a vast body of water, we are in the hands of our Mother Earth.  As you’re sitting or riding a wave you become connected with it, as if you were one with nature itself, just as when in an asana on your mat you become that natural organic shape or animal.   

Surfing and Yoga both can be your own expression of art, one that can never be perfected.  There is always room for improvement as you learn and experience new aspects about yourself and your body, external and internal. This is what makes surfing and yoga so spirituality connected. This is part 1, stay tuned for part 2, when I will discuses the physical connection of yoga that benefits surfers.