Thursday, February 11, 2010

Drum roll please ....

 

This photo was taken last summer near the tidal pools in a little surf haven called Ucluelet. In fact, the word Ucluelet means safe harbour, and for me, it was exactly that, a place to rediscover the magic in my life. I spent my time in Ukee, as the locals call it, surfing, hiking the awesome Pacific Rim trail, joining in the local performance night with a story I wrote while waiting for my surf instructor, making friends from around the world, and relaxing in the hammock right up to 5 minutes before the backyard bear reclaimed it. At a local shop, I picked up a little silver starfish I wear daily around my neck. It helps to remind me of that Ukee magic.

It's appropriate that I'm pictured here in my "tada" pose because I have some good news to announce. This is where the next phase of surfergrrrrrl's continuing adventures is about to take place. In the next couple of weeks I will be heading to Skagway, AK and boarding the ferry southbound to go and live on the island, permanently, or at least until my gypsy spirit urges me on. This is great news both for me and the blog, because I'll be able to report on local surf conditions and events and tap into the excitement when the O'Neill Coldwater classic comes back next fall.          
                                             
I go to sleep at night imagining what it will feel like to exchange my sound machine "ocean" for the real one in my new little house by the harbour. My dogs, Wolf and Owl are going to love those early morning walks in the fog on the beach, and exploring the lush trail through leafy green rainforest and up the rocky cliff face past spectacularly crashing surf. I'm a beach girl at heart, I grew up two houses up from the beach back east in Toronto and there is nothing that makes me feel more completely home than burying my toes in the sand and leaping into the waves.

You're all invited to come along on this next leg of my journey, and for my family and friends, there will be plenty of extra room when you come visit. We can even rent you some boards and get out there on the waves together.

surfergrrrrrl, signing off







Monday, February 8, 2010

Bring It

Lately, my secret vice is watching America's Next Top Model. When I'm wiped out from training at the pool, I curl up with the latest cycle as the girls battle it out. In-between watching the glam clothes and the catfights, I've learned something important. The first time Tyra took a girl aside during panel and said to her, "You're getting in your own way," I think I audibly gasped. Being fierce on the runway or while riding the waves is all about pushing past your own resistance. Not hitting that snooze alarm at 5 a.m. when it's time to get up and practice. No matter how you feel, you've got to bring it, everyday.

It is absolutely true that the most important competition you will ever have is with yourself. If you can consistently best your last effort and grow, you are ahead of the game and the pack. So I kept this in mind when I was at the bottom of the pack, timewise, after my first endurance swim in my Bronze  Cross class. Because at 15:36 I was still almost 2 1/2 minutes under the required time for swimming 24 lengths.

It wasn't glamorous, I was gasping for breath and hanging from the side of the pool when I finished but this time, I met the standards on all the "screening for success categories." Where before I couldn't dive to pick up the brick from the bottom of the pool, this time I did it and lugged it back almost the length of the pool, twice. That doesn't mean it's time to get overconfident. As our instructor, Chris explained to us, we're covering a lot of the same material as in Bronze Med but more is expected of us. It's time to take it up a notch.

But the key is consistent training that pushes past the limits of your will to stretch your body a little at a time. I read recently in Shape magazine, that if you're always hungry and tired, you're probably overtraining. So today, I let myself be satisfied with a 2-hour hike as cross-training and opted for an early bedtime over aquajogging.

But tomorrow I'll be up at 5 a.m. ready to head to the pool and work on those lengths so I can pull it all off with a little more style.

surfergrrrrrl,
signing off


                                                                my inner bombshell