Teachers Teach – Surfers… Beach 😎

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It is normal for a surfer to try teaching a friend how to surf like himself. But we can never forget that whenever we have a new guest in our surf class – boy, girl, woman or man, they haven’t spent all those hours at sea like we did when young. We need to look at their learning process from another point of view, from a teacher point of view: how can I give this person the best performance in just one week? The only way is by knowledge. Knowing exactly where we can shorten their learning curve, how can we make them feel the correct feeling – the balanced and control feeling, how body mechanics works, how the body balances on a mobile platform,with fewer mistakes than we had time to do, with more understanding of themselves and a fair expectations to what each and everyone can truly accomplish, and also soooo important: how they can understand the sea – the element that never has a repeated moment. The learning process has so much to consider… If all variables are grouped, the process can be simple and efficient. On the contrary, if we try to impose a different record of the true biomechanical, physical, electrical and chemical functioning necessary for the retention of sensory-motor information in memory, will not work efficiently. Neuroscience tells us that in order to learn, a specific chemical is needed – the dopamine. And this chemical is released into our bloodstream when this learning is done with excitement, happy and pleasant conditions. Dopamine increases brain memory and also creates motivational pathways. Negative emotions, such as the frustration of failing and the comparison with other people’s unwillingness, promote barriers to motor and brain memory. Therefore, learning can and should be easy and fun. Falling over and over again it’s not fun. From this point of view, I think,  everyone needs adjusted learning process for individual skill and physical conditioning, especially any adult! 😌😌 😉😁 by Tralha

Surfing Science Week Program

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Along the week we meet almost every day for a couple of hours, some days twice, to talk about Surf and to practice it.
We will accept a small group of 4 to 8 for our dedicated team crew.
I personally want to drive your surf experience into a sensorial learning of becoming a surfer, by accepting your and each one’s level of skills and enjoying each new ride with Good Surf Good Love, on your own style.
For me, that’s what Surf is all about. Actually, that’s what life is all about! Living it, your way! Once you accept your level of skills, all other choices will change according to this first rule: Respect yourself!
This week, you learn the basics. And in the future, you can come for more.
Basics it’s like the word say – THE BASICS:
 
* Surf Culture ;
* Relation with the new element – THE BOARD;
* The easiest way to Stand and Stay Up and drive it down the “road”;
* Biomechanics – How does the human body work. You can’t force it to move another way. It has more than 350 thousand years;
* Basic Position studied for better success.
* The Me, the Sea and the others – My Pyramid of RESPECT.
– The types of wave – white water Vs Line Up.
– The crowd – Locals Vs not Locals – a respectful approach about no one owning the Nature.
– The first week ever Surfing – It’s whitewater time. Why? – Because I need you to practice the correct pattern of movement, through repetition.
 
 
 
Who is this program to: 
  • If you have never surfed before – You are welcome.
  • If you surfed once or twice, in schools, camps or with friends, this program is for you.
  • If you’ve been in other programs, but your Standing/Staying up is not consistent, you are welcome. By consistency I mean: in every 10 waves, you are successful in at least 6 to 10. Like in any other exam, if your average is below this result, come to our Level 0 Certification.
  • If you wish to learn about the science behind Surf and give yourself the possibilities of learning my method of the step by step in Surfing, this is absolutely for you.
You should get your place certification fast because we will only receive 8 persons.
Grow your level in small steps. Skills will be learned and consolidate!
 
What’s included: 
– 7 nights accommodation in our Catus Homie or walking distance apartments.
– 12 hours of Surf Education (theory, practice, frame analyses, and personal discussion about each one’s difficulties, split the best way for your effective learning process).
– Breakfast basket – eggs, cheese, oats, fruit, coffee, water and tea.
– A Portuguese Dinner served with my brother’s Wine.
– Insurance, all the gear – adjusted to your level and to the weather.
– Photographs from your week.
– Only 4 to 8 of You, to 2 to 3 of Us.
 
How much does it cost: 799€
Extras:
– For private room – Extra 280€.
– For private apartment – Extra 300€ (for you, or for two, in case you want to bring someone who doesn’t want to join the program or is already independent).
– Car rental (under consulting). You will have plenty of time and many many things to visit…
– Bike or Skate Rental – around 5€ per day.
 
Surfing Science Program RULES:
The program is organised considering tides and wave condition. We adjust it along the week, if needed, considering the group level, skills and your happiness.
We walk to the beach.
You have freedom during the biggest part of the day.
You will not be stuck at the beach with all the others, because the house is walking distance.
We don’t stay at the beach if it’s too hot, too cold, raining or too windy because it’s not comfortable. But you can stay if you want. We are all different.
This is not a boot camp, it’s not a camp, it’s a workshop week.
This program is not a leisure time program for tourists. Was honestly designed to teach you the pleasure and happiness of Surfing days and lifestyle.
There is no driving here included, because we have the greatest location ever. We have the sea on your right side and at your left side. But of course, we usually take you in our old-school Land Rover to take a look at the surroundings and to go to the Surf Shops or Supermarket. But again, EVERYTHING IS walking distance.
The food included is some products at your welcome breakfast basket and a Portuguese Dinner, that will be cooked by Tralha!
 
Take a ride in my honest point of view of Surfing in Portugal.
  OTHER DATES 24th Jun to 1st Jul – Surfing Science Level 0 Certification 1st to 8th Jul – Surfing Science Level 1 Certification 8th to 15th Jul – Surfing Science Level 1 Certification 2nd to 9th Sep – Surfing Science Level 0 Certification 9th to 16th Sep – Surfing Science Level 1 Certification 30th Sep to 7 Oct – ALLBOARD – Closing season      

Begining of November in the South

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The last couple of weeks I’ve been in Lagos in a Camp doing the Roxy 2.0 intermediate week. After 3 years doing this program, this Camp kind of format, it’s still new for me. And down South of Portugal, have so many special places that I want to show the ladies. This mixed feelings between, sleeping relax at night, with nothing but the teaching to worry about, and the wondering how am I going to deal with the difference between all the girl’s levels, is actually stressful. So in the beginning of each week, at the welcome meeting, the first thing to do is to know them all, the best way possible. And because they arrive expecting to upgrade their level, the most important is to find where are they stuck in. I throw a bunch of questions, and by their story, and the body language they use while telling it, I collect everything I need to know. And the outcome is very commonly going to rely on one of this things:
  1. You learned to Surf alone, with friends, or in a big Surfcamp, and by now you’ve been repeating the wrong movements patterns, and you became so good on that bad patterns that you can catch and enjoy some waves, but that bad pattern is not going to let you go up levels. You are stuck!
2. You have the wrong board for your level! 3. You are choosing the wrong spot for your level! 4. You are not respecting yourself!   In next posts, I am going to develop all of this thematics (2,3 and 4), but right now, I want to focus on point number 1. But please let me tell you: we need to consider all points, all together, OR there will be no improvement! So, Big issue! I am very sorry to tell you that 95% (at least, and this is because I have in my personal contacts, lots of competitors and really good surfers), of all “surfers” I see at the beach, have been practicing wrong patterns of movements, that by now, in your intermediate level, will not let you grow any more from there! So during this week, I have to decide if either I am going to create a chemical and psychological conflict in your biomechanics program, or if we are just going to have fun accepting that either may be too late to correct them or we don’t have the time to, because it’s not easy to go back on the whitewater and big soft boards where we can actually correct basic issues like your pop up or your basic stance on the board. It’s really simple to correct it! So it’s actually a change for all of you, BUT, you have to: 1. Understand my teaching method, and learning process, that is suited for EVERYONE! I repeat EVERYONE because I am focused on individual issues. Either physiological or biomechanical,  or social and psychological issue. 2. Really really want to learn and improve. If you just want to have fun with what you have, it’s also perfectly ok, and I accept and respect. Especially in a Camp, full of nice distractions, drinking some beers, making new friends,… 😉😁 I get it! I really do! 😌 And I will also be happy to just push you in the best waves… And I say “just” because there is a lot more you can take from this woman with 20 years experience, teaching sports! If these 2 points are ticked by you, and we can manage a way of learning the correct basic Surf stance, and if you have a good control of your board, I mean, if the board is simply part of your body, instead of you feeling that stability “aboard” is still an issue. I can talk or write for hours about so many things about my teaching method, but also have a big pile of books to read, sitting on my desk, that tells me that, there is still so much more about the essence of surf biomechanics and its movement patterns,… I am new at this blogging stuff, but also, feel the need to pass on my legacy, because all the mistakes see other instructors doing at the beach with their clients have been in the past my mistakes too! I see a big improvement in Portugal around the competition, but none for almost 2 decades in this kind of camp services. I saw these 2 last decades, the Surf services birth in Portugal, the accommodation getting upgraded, beautiful decoration, better service, friendly and professional hospitality managers, and nothing getting much better in the Surf service… The vans are still rusty and dirty, the surf instructors are still smoking weed, the boards are always full of sand, dirty and crashed, the wetsuits are smelly and have holes, and no one has really brought nothing new to the beach, about their service. And when you go with a nice project to the best local accommodation, or to the biggest company, that you think may match their service,… It’s just a big disappointment… (and no more comments about it,…) For now, i see no vision,…   My biggest question is – the youngest party boys and girls I get it! The more mature adults with a budget, I don’t get it, why they still pay a bad service,… Because you already have some good services around. And don’t get confused when it’s called luxury. That is not what I am referencing; you need to search for quality!   So with this text, full of confused ideas, let’s start a new journey, where I will be sharing with anyone interested, the legacy of my last 20 years studying: the essence of all sports biomechanics, the human movement patterns, and my pedagogical point of view, and spread a WORD about Good Surf Good Love – RESPECT! Next Post I will let you know what is the first thing to learn about Surf, if you really really want to be a good one – Respect all the elements you have to deal with if being a surfer. No Newton laws or vectors or anything like that. Just a collection of 20 years teaching, researching and consulting in Sports. Hope you can join our Manifest of Good Surf Good Love of Mood and behaviour!                                                                                                                   

Good Surf good Love, will have special guests…

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Next weekend, it’s time for a reunion between a group of 4yo friends and his parents. The purpose is to teach parents, how to teach their children: Be aware of safety rules, respect the children’s fears and learning timing. From my experience of 17 years teaching Surf, I see many parents expecting their children to learn Surf in their first contact with this new activity. My goal here is to explain that, like any other activity, either learning to walk, write their names, play an instrument, ride the bike, play Tennis… there is always many many previous contacts with a determined activity before we expect the little ones to fully perform… Let’s see how parents perform, in this learning process!    
     

Influence of Surfing on the Child’s Psychomotricity Development

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Influence of Surfing on the Child’s Psychomotricity Development

By Inês Tralha

“Psychomotricity can be defined as the trans-disciplinary field that studies and investigates relationships and the reciprocal and systemic influences between psyche and motricity.” Vitor da Fonseca (1988)

In general, sports activities in which balance is one of the most present skills, such as swimming, skating, cycling, and surfing, are very important for the child’s psychomotor structures.

The experiences acquired by the practice itself allow the success of the action in these activities, enabling the self-dynamization and, thus giving favorable conditions to the discovery of the own SELF/ME.

 

If swimming is good for health, surfing is at the very least optimum, because in addition to swimming, children dive, paddle, slide down, slide and perform tactile, pulling, gripping, holding movements that are not normally required in the practice of conventional swimming. Sidney Ferreira Farias

While in contact with the practice of Surfing, the child builds the physiological bases of performance, such as strength, speed and resistance in its most varied specifications, where muscular activity is predominant. These bases, which will be interconnected by coordination to motor qualities, will develop locomotion processes, involving skill, agility, mobility and other more complex qualities.

In and out of the waves and in the continuous repetition of new movements the child learns more about experiences that are fundamental for their motor development, including the correct handling of the material objects. DEFONTAINE (1980).

In this exercise they learn more than later in all their training, at a later age, explains Defonteine ​​(1980).

Surfing educates the kids, while they are having fun!

Bibliography:

Vítor da Fonseca, (2001), Psychomotricity – Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Anchors Publishers

Defontaine, Joel. Comic psychomoticity. Editora Manole, São Paulo, 1980.

Gutemberg, A. Words of Parents of Surfers Mirins. Inter-Surf (1987).