Surf Yoga Soul

Finally the long awaited Surf Yoga Soul arrived today (thanks to totalfitnessdvds com). I previewed all of it right away and did 6 out of the 7 segments afterwards. It has a short introduction where you can see Shiva in her surfer girl mode on a surf board and on the back of a convertible explaining the DVD , it was cool.

This DVD has fun yoga practices definitely with surfers in mind (there's an obvious focus on upper body and core strengh since it's important for surfing) though anyone can do it. And finally , it has a matrix like Shiva's first DVD's so you can customize your own practice. There is some new and excellent music except one song I recognized from Fluid Power which is also great and has a beautiful setting - on Polihale Beach ,Kauai. The production quality is great as with all of Shiva's DVD's.

For playing the segments you can only go to the Matrix and choose whichever segment you want in any order and press "ride the wave" (play).

here's some explanation on the segments :

1. Wave Meditation (9 min.) - Shiva introduces this moving meditation that consists of "surf yoga pop ups" which you can see on youtube and have movements from the kalari martial art that Shiva is studying. It ends with some short free form movements. It was a lot of fun and features 3 other people including the surfer Alex Smith and Micheline Berry who has some nice yoga DVD's of her own.

2. Mandala Namaskar (12 Min.) - Similar to the M. Namaskar 2 on Fluid Power yet with some different poses including warrior 2 variations , bow pose instead of upward dog and yogic squats.

3. Agni Namaskar (17 min.) - yes , it's the same namaskar from the previous upper body DVD but a bit shorter and modified (there's less standing postures and backbends) although you still do 108 pushups in 9 rounds! I was a bit disappointed to see this as I expected to see some more new stuff from Shiva yet it is still all new footage and with great new music.

4. Breath Wave - 5 minutes of pranayama focusing on ujjayi and 3 part breath to expand lung capacity.

5. Balance Flow (20 min.) - the most advanced and my favorite segment. It starts with balancing on one foot and your other leg moves back and forth bent ending in warrior 3 with clasped hands behind. The segment ends similarly with warrior 3 with bent leg with one arm grabbing it (like dancer's pose). In the middle you get a challenging flow of crow pose , hip opening lunge with pushups , single leg crow , side plank and twisted chair to twisted crow. Finally a Shiva DVD with arm balances! I haven't seen them since Yoga Shakti.

6. Flexibility Flow (11 min.)- a nice segment that starts with shoulder stretches similar to the ones on Yoga Shakti. It moves to plank , forearm plank , bow , pigeon , janu sirsasana with a twist and seated forward bend. the background music on this is a "regular song" with a guitar , it was quite nice.

7. Shavasana (2 min.) - very short.

There are 2 bonus segments from her beginner's DVD and from the Jivamukti Yoga DVD.

. All in all this is a great addition to your yoga library whether you're a surfer or not.