Keeping the momentum over winter

This post is for those of us needing a bit of inspiration! In Torquay the waves are darned cold at the moment and when the winds blow, you can tell that snow is falling somewhere! Winter can mean you settle into a comfort zone. Whether it's 3 ft a-frames or always surfing your mal on 5 ft point breaks and nothing else, you can find yourself surfing the same beaches and the same waves all the time - and then you wonder why your surfing doesn't improve or maybe even begins to slip a bit.

Once you discover your passion for surfing, it can be a weird mixture of fun and frustration, excitement and exasperation as you struggle to master your surfboard. One friend decided to abandon learnign from mates and take classes. She said that it was heaps more fun than falling off on her own. “Group lessons offered a safety buffer, we would all laugh and choke on water together and it made the surf seem less intimidating”, she recalls. Another decided to make a committment to meet a friend every morning for a surf check as an antidote to staying in bed.
“Having someone to encourage you really helps you persevere, especially through the times when you want to improve and you’d just get too frustrated on your own”.

Another solution is finding a coach to help you improve and have fun out there. Selecting one with the right personality is as important as choosing your surfboard – get the wrong type and you’ll be floundering and miserable. Find one whom you gell with and lessons can become a highlight of your week. Coaches are also good to return to on a regular basis to ensure you don’t lose your momentum.

Alsion's Winter Rules
Surf at least 3-4 times a week - arthritus allowing!
Yoga helps flexibility
Weight training and push-ups assist strength
Watch surfing videos & DVDs for motivation / inspiration
Read 'The Surfer’s Mind' by Richard Bennett
Remember, it's all about having fun!

Vale Karen Van Der Sluis, beloved sursista, 10 June 2009

A wonderful, generous, intelligent, gorgeous woman and surfing gal-pal, Karen was a founding member of the South Steyne Surf Sistas (SSSS), an informal group of female surfers who lived in Manly and whom weather permitting, could be found most days laughing as we caught – and wiped out from - a few waves somewhere along Manly beach.

Karen lived down the road and we met in 2001 while descending the stairs at south Manly one dawn, surfed together and from then saw each other in the water and out, several times a week.

A keen surfer, Karen was devastated when diagnosed with breast cancer.
Do to ongoing treatment she was unable to surf, so the SSSS - Sophie, Laura, Alison, Belinda and Eilidh - decided that every time we went out surfing alone or together, we’d ‘catch a wave for Karen’.
Unfortunately, after her initial diagnosis she was rarely well enough to get back on her beloved surfboard, but was always keen to hear about the waves that the rest of the sistas had been riding.
A 'glass-half-full’ person, Karen was a gifted teacher and was as much an inspiration on the waves as she was in the classroom. A loving mother to Josh and Sarah, who caught the surfing bug from her and her former husband Tony, Karen loved nothing better than taking them to the beach and watching the joy on their faces as they slid doen the face of little waves.

A few years ago, Karen met and married Martin, for whom she said made the sun come out again in her life.

Family and friends are invitedto attend a Celebration of Karen's life to be held in its entirety at St Matthew's Anglican Church, The Corso, Manly, on Monday (June 15, 2009) at 2 p.m.
Prior to the service, a viewing of Karen will be held from1.20 to 1.50 p.m.Karen has requested that, instead of flowers, a collection be taken on the day to support her sponsored child in Indonesia.Karen has also requested no black to be worn at this celebration of her life.

Karen was just 48; a wonderful friend who was much loved by so many and she will be sadly missed wherever and whenever the sistas surf.