SUP, body and soul E-Book

Valeria Mestre

• Herausgeber: Editorial Autores de Argentina
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 81

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Stand up paddle or SUP is a wonderful activity, which provides both health benefits, entertainment, ease of mind and peace. In these pages you will find experiences, tips and ideas that will help you get the most out of it. I invite you to browse through them, you will be able to improve your training, avoid some injuries and correct your posture by following simple guidelines, whatever the technique you practice or the board you use.

Leseprobe

I like to flow as much as to paddle against the current.

What water brought me…

I bought my first SUP board in 2018, for a sailing trip we were going on as a family that summer. We used to jump off the boat and swim to the beaches, hang out for a while and come back, but the year before we had seen a small shark. All the kids were in the water and from the top of the boat, desperation prevented us from realizing that this little animal could do no harm. However, we were left with the feeling that something bigger might be in those waters. A few months before our new departure, I bought an inflatable board. I was amazed to use it in the waters of Brazil, it was of great use as a means of transporting my luggage, as an escape from my meditations outside the sailboat too, which always, even when it is enormous in length, has small room for the 9 crew members (5 of them teenagers) on that trip. I chased turtles, paddled through wonderful places that could only be reached by board. I spent long hours paddling in those clear waters.

Back in Argentina, I moved my board to the cabin on the island located in the Paraná Delta, The reddish waters of the Carapachay River were my route to and from Paraná de las Palmas every weekend.

My neighbour and friend Soraya bought her board to go with me, and we started off on our short rides. 5 km, 8 km, 14 km, 20 km... We had discovered something exciting. And then the pandemic came.

The pandemic changed us.

And we remained confined for a couple of months. I came up with my board.

My board was there, deflated, dry. But getting connected by Zoom brought me close to my teacher, Karina, who motivated us to inflate it in the living room, next to the the stove burning during the winter of 2020. We began a different journey: yoga on the board. I am a physical therapist, I have worked in high performance sports, I did a yoga training some years ago and now I was starting something new: yoga on the board in my living room at home. By having my office closed and making videos on Instagram for patients who asked for help, I was giving my confinement a turn. I was just waiting for us to be let the doors open to go and play in Río de la Plata. Two months later my career was stated as essential and I started to work under the due sanitary care measures we already recognice in the face of the unknown to come... trapped in masks, alcohol gel and bleach. Then, after four months, in the middle of winter it happened. We were allowed individual sports in the open air. Together with my friend Cris, whom I had persuaded to take classes by zoom, we bought a neoprene suit each and went out to practice in the river guided by teacher. These were different waters. For those who don’t know Rio de la Plata, it is the river that meets Argentina and Uruguay. Wide and shallow, its winds and waves have nothing to envy the sea though. I met Ale during those days and together, the three of us started some nice trainings, paddling, shared winter and coffees. Ale had already explored the world of surfing and it was her who motivated us to take some lessons in the sea as well. Mar del Plata turned out to be a very fun experience. Not to mention that it was long ago since I had spent time outside with friends. Paddling in the icy waters of Patagonia... What a lot of things this sport was giving me. How wonderful people I was meeting thanks to SUP. My body was changing, my head was clearer and my energy was very healthy and although I had always practiced sports, it had never been with the constancy and motivation that SUP was giving me.

Fernando, my husband, Facu and Marina, my now young-adult children, notice the change I am experiencing day by day. The confidence I am acquiring not only into the water, but also in other scopes of life, the joy with which I return home, the plenitude I feel when paddling, the hours of intense laughter that I hope will mark the wrinkles on my face, the added value of the vacations. All the people I have mentioned participated in some way in this book, such as Célica and Merce have, who joined this group of paddlerrs and contributed their listening, experience and joy on the long tours of several hours along the different rivers we travelled.

My special thanks go to my friend and teacher Cris Patri, with whom I have shared hours of research and practice. She generously gave me her advice and experience to help me enjoy every day of paddling. The first reading of this book is for her, for all of my SUP friends, instructors, my brothers, brother-in-law and nephews and nieces who got attracted by this passion, my super cousins who encouraged me to buy my first board. I feel mainly grateful to my board, who carries me and Cherry, my poodle dog, who sails whenever she can.

The photos in this book have been taken with my camera, and some divine filters, and in them are almost all of those I have named. The drawings are mine, where I combine my three passions, art, anatomy and SUP.

The practice of Stand Up Paddle or SUP or paddle surfing, as it is known, has innumerable benefits for our health, we will try to develop some of them in a simple way, mainly to invite more people to come to the water; to experience the peace of the lakes and rivers; the adrenaline that the waves and the wind generate; the joy of sharing moments of fun and relaxation outdoors; and the joy of being in the water, sharing wonderful moments outdoors with friends; the autonomy which allows us to travel long distances in magical places often inaccessible by other means of transport. It is economical, ecological, it allows us to meet aquatic fauna, to compete and to have fun in training..

It is difficult to find cons for the practice of this sport, from which very young children to very old adults will obtain benefits and wellbeing.

Go for it, take all the safety precautions you should, and make some beautiful splashes and challenge your balance!

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What motivated me to write this book was the need for awareness in the area of sport from amateur to professional, providing tools and small tips which shall prevent unnecessary injuries and as in any sport, advising you to have a basic training on global exercises of easy execution to approach the practice in better physical conditions.

See you in the water...

With my feet on the board

SUP boards generally have an anti-slip area on the upper side which allows you to lean on it without slipping.

Whatever the board you may use, what is to consider is your relationship with and through it, with the aquatic environment.

As we all know, water moves and forces us to constantly adjust our body.

We can approach the board in 6 points, resting on it with both hands, both knees and both feet, or in 4 resting points which shall enable us to paddle on our knees and feet. But the paddling technique is done standing on 2 resting points, the feet.

It is the feet wich will define our base of support on the board, in fact, we will bound this surface to the external edges of the feet, whatever their position. Whether parallel, together or apart, one in front and the other further back, with the toes pointing forward, outwards or inwards. The entire surface between these boundaries shall constitute the base of support.

This is where our gravity centre should fall when we are standing upright in balance. The centre of gravity of our body is an imaginary point around which the different segments of our body are balanced; when standing, it is located near the sacral vertebra 2. It depends on sex, as it is found higher in men than in women, as well as on physical build and age. It can fluctuate according to the moment and the position in which the person might be. It is not a precise spot, but it is rather constantly changing. It is at this fluctuating point that the force of gravity exerts its power.

The gravity centre associated with the supporting surface helps us to maintain static equilibrium, which can be stable, unstable or indifferent.

In the event that the centre of gravity may fall outside the base of support, a mechanism to compensate for this imbalance will be necesary in order to continue standing. Normally in this situation, we tend to increase the surface area of the base of support by spreading the feet apart, thus increasing this surface area. Another way of keeping this instability stable is by lowering the centre of gravity t towards the base of support by flexing the knees and hip.

When we are paddling on a SUP board, we change our base of support an infinite number of times, and we raise and lower our centre of gravity every time we need in order to adjust our posture.

Paddling in the water will help us maintain dynamic balance.