Another first time: SUP Yoga

Lazy pigeons on the water

I have been meaning to try yoga on a paddle board for a while but since we don't live right by the sea, the weather has been quite mixed and my little one has been keeping me quite busy, it has taken me longer but I finally did it. It just so happened that I came to get a coffee at a surf bar at the beach in Mallorca - I know they serve soy lattes which are a little hard to come by in Spain and I also knew that they mentioned sup yoga classes on their website but when we were there in Spring, they never actually took place. So I decided to just ask in order to be turned down again but no, this time they said that the class was about to start and that I was welcome to join them. Of course I wasn't prepared and wasn't even wearing a bathing suit or bikini and my baby was asleep but would be waking up any minute. But thanks to my lovely sister who offered to watch him and one of the yoginis, I managed to obtain an outfit and ended up sitting on the board, waiting for my first ever sup yoga class to start :) And the weather could not have been more perfect - no clouds, just sun and water (and the mediterranean sea has the temperature of a bath tub in July)... We started by tying our boards to a boye so that none would be getting lost during the class and the teacher emphasised the importance of the breath as any yoga class would. For some reason I was surprised that it was such a regular yoga class with all the elements that I love- somehow I had seen it as more of an artistic undertaking. And it's got to be said that the breath really helped me a guided me through the practice which was challenging for me - mainly because I was not used to the instability of the board and could not quite forget where I was. I did manage to fall into the water but while I thought every time we were going into a standing forward fold that I would fall, the real fall only came when I tried side plank on the board. Overall, it was a great experience and while I cannot imagine exclusively practicing this style of yoga, I am definitely coming back to it when I am back at the beach. There is nothing like a shavasana on the water... Absolutely amazing- bliss ;-)

Saluting the sun

It was sometimes a little hard to hear the teacher's instructions due to the sound of the waves but I could imagine no better reason not to hear everything. And in the end, the experience was what mattered to me and not so much which poses we'd be getting into...

Some core strengthening on the sea