Monthly Archives: June 2012

Smiles to Share

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Make someone’s day easier, more tolerable or less stressful today. You have been doing so good with smiling, why not let someone join in the fun :) Share the love!

  1. Clean up after yourself after eating for your waiter in a restaurant.
  2. Fix your bed before you leave the house for your helper to get a bit more rest for the day.
  3. Say “Hi” back to the guard at work. Or better yet, say “Hi” first this time.
  4. Park within the lines so other people can park easily.
  5. If buying only a few items, don’t use plastic bags anymore – will lessen the cost for the store and the environment! Everybody happy!
  6. While driving, brake slowly and early – will definitely make the person behind you feel safer.
  7. Bring an extra sandwich or any food at work and give it to one of your colleagues. The free snack will definitely lift them up in a stressful day.
  8. Don’t print receipts when you get money from ATM’s, you’ll throw them to the trash after anyway. Less trash, less stuff to clean up. The janitor is happy, as well as Mother Nature!
  9. Compliment or thank someone today about anything, even the littlest thing. Remember, no matter how simple or superficial it is, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s the truth! “Your hair looks nice today” or “I love your bag!” will make a big difference in the person’s confidence and self-esteem.
  10. Just simply smile when you talk to people. It doesn’t only make the person you’re talking to feel happy, but notice how nice it makes you feel too!

Happy smiling, and happy sharing!

<3 Karla

Always stay positive. If …

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Always stay positive. If you have a problem, dwelling in it won’t solve it or make you feel better. Accept the situation & move forward with a SMILE! Believe that the best is yet to come, and let that make you feel grateful and happy in the middle of challenges.

We spend maybe 16 hours awake and 8 hours sleeping, do you really want to use up your conscious and dreaming hours in worry? :)

Guns of Steel to Guns of Goo: Surfcuit Training Day 1

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I was up extra early last Sunday even if I went out the night before. I’m blaming it on excitement  – if you have the chance to get better at something you love doing, who would not be ecstatic? And definitely my Skwala board, Wacks a.k.a. “Cookie”, staring at me in my room helped in the insomnia attack, as I hear it telling me “You HAVE to get better”. I do work well under pressure, though I did not expect it from an inanimate object.

I got out of bed after 2 hours of staring into space trying to calm my nerves down about the day ahead, and got ready for my first day of Surfcuit training with the Philippine Surfing Academy. I knew I had to leave ASAP because I never fail in getting lost anywhere. And as expected, I missed Club Manila East Taytay even with a GPS and map, already heading towards Angono. Good thing I stopped and asked, I would have paid a SURPRISE visit to my grandparents if I didn’t. :)

As Ms. U-turn, I found my way to the resort just on time – I’d like to think of it that way since they didn’t start yet… or they were really nice enough to wait for me. Hehe Thank you PSA!

First thing’s first – the Warm Up. What’s the best way to stretch my Saturday Mojito-filled muscles and brain? Yoga! I am in love with it! The 30-minute practice outside was not only fun and relaxing, but hit all those spots you’d need for surfing: Planks for your abs, Chaturanggas for your paddling arms and balance poses to perfect your stance on the board. Tip: Bring your water bottle, and a towel if you sweat a lot. I left mine in my bag, thinking it will only be more than half the time I usually practice. Doing sun salutations literally under the sun will make you sweat, and balancing with a drop inching towards your eye makes it even more difficult.

Warrior Ones from the Batch 2 warriors!

Briefing on parts of the board, safety, paddling tips, and a bit of surf etiquette came next. I’ve listened many times about these from past lessons in San Juan, La Union and Baler – awesome spots to learn the sport. I thought I would be bored but to my surprise, I wasn’t at all. Maybe I was just distracted before with everything happening at the beach or maybe knowing I only had 1 hour to surf brings down my attention to zero. I mean I’d think “Yeah, yeah I know that already so tara na!!!”, instead of actually listening. Knowing the session is in total 4 hours, and we will not run out of waves helped my forever wandering eyes and ears to focus.

My tiny self somewhere there. I swear I was listening. :)

Finally, water playtime… if you put it that way. We practiced our paddling and riding the waves, with our coaches helping us fix our form. I  paddled… and paddled… and $#%^&* paddled. Chest high, paddle long and deep, point toes, stay center! Quite a lot to absorb but it really helped having our PSA coaches around the pool reminding us of the right way to do it. Coach Paolo lied, he said we’ll paddle straight for 2 hours. It felt like forever – and I LOVED IT. :) I knew I was going to be sore the following day but it didn’t matter. What mattered is getting the arm, shoulder and back strength to have more power for catching waves. He did say that surfing is 90% paddling and 10% actually riding a wave, and I do need to work on that big piece of the pie.

Water chaos

One of my favorites was having to save my life from the concrete wall on my left. Being a goofy footer, it’s way easier for me to head towards that side than the other. Okay fine, I can just jump off the board whenever I go closer to the wall. Being my tiny self though, I prefer stepping off at the shallower part of the pool. So that would mean I have to dodge that wall, boards and other people until I reach the midget-friendly side, to be “vertically” comfortable in the water. I want to even thank Larry, one of the instructors who was helping the students by pushing the boards. At the start I’d tell him my stance, asking him to NOT push me towards the left – for chances are I will just ram into it. Yes, VERY chicken of me. After a couple of tries though, he’d intentionally direct the board there, telling me first of course, so I would already start maneuvering the board to the other side. I was able to, and I’m looking forward to having more control of my board and my body with more practice.

check out the really bad front foot, and awkward stance.

Did we have time to rest? Of course we did! Every 15 to 20 minutes the waves subside giving us a calm playground to hang out, chat and relax in – NOT! During these “breaks” we still practiced paddling drills, learning how to turn our boards, and how to balance on them. What else? We were doing push ups on our boards while in the water! I should’ve read the fine print… I think I signed up for military training and not surfing. :) Don’t be scared though, if you do need to take a breather you can paddle out the pool and compose yourself, or run away… whichever you prefer. I’m just a really hyper camper that I didn’t get out of the water until the very end… which cost me an order of Fillet O’ Fish, large fries, juice and hot fudge sundae on my way home (I rarely eat fast food!). I was just HUNGRY and Mcdonald’s was the most convenient place I saw while driving. Another tip: Eat a bit more than what you usually have for breakfast. I only had salad and an apple that morning, and I’m still surprised I was able to walk out of the resort after 4 hours of nonstop burning!

What “break”?

To summarize Day 1: INTENSE(intensive nga diba?!) and very informative for beginners like me. :) More experienced surfers might say you won’t get stoked in a wave pool and they are right. I remember what Coach Paolo said this at the very start. It’s a definitely different experience riding in the ocean compared to anything artificial. The purpose of the training is to equip oneself when you’re doing the “real” thing. For city people like me, we don’t have the benefit of living near the sea to surf (though that is my retirement plan). This is practice. This is training. This is working on getting better to REALLY enjoy those long trips to surf spots. Who wants to travel for hours, be welcomed by great swells and just get washing-machined every time you head out? Not me. And I know that any surfer or surfing enthusiast doesn’t either.

Special thanks to Earl of PSA for taking photos while the other coaches were kicking our butts!

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Want to learn more about PSA or interested to join the Surfcuit Intensive Training Program? Check out the links below:

http://www.philippinesurfingacademy.com

http://www.facebook.com/philippinesurfingacademy

http://www.twitter.com/philsurfacademy

How about having your very own customized board? Click here for Skwala!