Surfing Bali in January | Sōleïa Surf Academy - Week 5

Surf Theory lesson at Sōleïa Surf Academy

The Sōleïa Surf Academy (SSA) program enters the home stretch as we begin our final month before the ISA course/exam week. The students have improved so much and so quickly thanks to the SSA's comprehensive program. I could see how an extended period of instruction and regular practice can benefit anyone looking to learn and improve their surfing.

Guardian of the Pigstone temple

One or two ad hoc lessons got me started surfing almost two decades ago, but I didn't really progress much over the years. I still can't do an aerial! My friends didn't know how to surf either, so we struggled to get anywhere. There weren't many quality How-To videos on YouTube at the time. And none of us were prodigies (though we were Prodigy fans). We also had different goals for our surfing. Back then, we were content to cruise down the line on our longboards and feel the sublime slide, away from our desks.

Surfing was my antidote to back pain from desk jobs

But when I start wanting more, such as the ability to hack and slash my way through a wave, further education becomes necessary, whether it's from a friend who surfs better than you or from a surf school. Sure, lots of painful trial and error and randomly trying different things on my own taught me some stuff, but an intensive program like the SSA would have really accelerated my progress if it had existed back then. Think of SSA as the fast track or shortcut to surfing gainz.

A rundown of this week's activities gives you an idea of how SSA achieves this miracle:

Monday

After a yummy breakfast of tropical fruit, we hunted for waves at Berawa, Yeh Gangga, and Pig Stone. Due to stormy conditions with winds on a Beaufort scale of 6 or 7, we decided to save our energy for another day. Later in the afternoon, we practiced our popups, pumping, and bottom turns in the yoga shala using various setups with bosus, yoga balls, towels, and old boards.

Drilling these fundamentals under the watchful eye of instructors who scrutinized my every move helped refine my technique and build muscle memory. I learned to stop jumping into my popup and instead do the 2-step popup - back foot, then front foot. It was mind-blowing to relearn the popup* but it did make my foot placement much more consistent.

Refining the popup

Tuesday

We went surfing on a glassy morning at Berawa. The waves were small and broke close to shore. Rides were quite short - they didn't give much room to do more than one maneuver before closing out. 

I dodged a barrel. Tsk, tsk.

In the afternoon, we practiced paddling and duck diving in the pool. I learned there were 2 kinds of paddling: power paddling (for catching waves) and cruising paddling (for traveling to the lineup).

Pool practice for paddling and duck diving

Tuesdays nights, Sōleïa Surf Academy runs theory classes for the surf camp students, sometimes taught by the SSA students as part of their internship. This time, the class was about surfboard design and management.

SSA students teaching surf camp students

Wednesday

A fine, sunny day at Pigstone with low winds and no other school in the water but Sōleïa. I enjoyed some long rides left and right. I worked on my 2-step popup, connecting bottom turns and top turns, cutbacks, and awareness of how the wave was evolving before and during the ride. 

Fun day at Pigstone

Attempted cutback

The peak shifted around a bit and the wave got soft in some spots, so I sometimes found myself shuffling back and forth on my shortboard to maintain speed or drop back into a wave. For the afternoon, surf skate was scheduled but canceled due to weather.

Cheeky little shuffle to stay on the wave

Thursday

Bali Belly struck me again so I skipped surfing to recuperate. It was another stormy morning too, so I wasn't inspired to surf. I took a Dancehall Fusion class later in the afternoon to get my blood moving after lying in bed all day and it revived me. If you love dance too, I recommend checking out Just Dance.

Dancehall Fusion class at Just Dance

Friday

I wasn't projectile vomiting anymore, so I figured my Bali Belly was over already. I went out to surf with my instructors at a tame and glassy Berawa, which was sporting a 1.2-1.5m swell producing fun-sized waves and an easy paddle out through the channels. The waves got fatter and flatter as the tide rose but I had a great session overall with a beautiful top turn on rail that I can still feel in my legs. 

Calm day at Berawa

Checkout before closeout

In the afternoon, we had a surf theory lesson about surfboard design. We learned about different aspects of the board, such as rocker, bottom contour, tail shape, fin setup, etc. and how they affect surfing through varying areas of hold and release**. We also learned an important note about surfboard materials: Did you know polyester resin will melt EPS (expanded polystyrene)?

Surf Theory class on surfboard design

Saturday

Another becalmed morning of surf at Berawa, with bigger and more powerful waves produced by a 1.2-1.8m, mid-period swell. Loads of fun, long rides, although the crowd thickened as the tide rose. We did video analysis in the afternoon to inspect our rides and identify the next thing to work on in the following week. 

Peekaboo from a longboarder at Berawa

Sometimes it can be a buzzkill to watch your own rides and see how small the wave really was or how flawed your technique is compared to how you felt in the moment. But video analysis is the best way to see your surfing in the mirror. For example, I saw I need to break my long-running habit of staying parallel to the wave***. I gotta try doing deeper bottom turns so I can surf more up/down instead of just sideways.

Sunday

Sunday is rest day. A few went to free surf at Serangan. I chose to let my muscles recover because I'm too tired to maintain good form. It sucks that recovery takes longer at my age and gender, but I have to accept I'm not the 14-year-old who can sprain her ankle one day then come back to play soccer the very next day. 

Are my American Ninja Warrior days over?

Conclusion

Near daily surf sessions, plus surf theory, video analysis, land/pool practice, yoga, rest days, a gym membership, and even teaching other students (which helps reinforce your own learning) are all part of SSA's recipe to turn its students into surf instructors.

For my old muscles and slow recovery time, it was tough to keep up with the jam-packed schedule but I could skip or modify some activities when I needed more rest. SSA does not customize their program for different ages and genders, so you have to do the customizing yourself. Ultimately, your experience is as you make it.

Sōleïa Surf instructors customizing their boards

Footnotes

*I forget which surf camp taught me to jump in my popup, but it developed a bad habit that took a lot of conscious effort to break.

**Here's an article from Surf Simply about the physics of surfboards

***Old habits die hard, especially this one because it has kept me alive by drawing out my rides to the safety of a channel. Perhaps there is lingering PTSD from my month of surfing in the Mentawais...