![]() She’s come out with three DVDs that have sold more than 100,000 copies. A Google search for yoga and surfing turns up luxury resorts in Costa Rica and lots of hits on Peggy Hall. Her work has filled the niche she once sought. Hall narrates the DVDs in a calm, upbeat style, mixing in surfing footage from professionals, including Taylor Knox and Rochelle Ballard, who appeared in surfer girl movie “Blue Crush.” She demonstrates poses on a yoga mat over the hardwood floors of a studio and on the beach. Her husband, David, a graphic designer, produced the DVDs and created the Yoga for Surfers logo. Hall, who at the time worked as an administrator in UC Irvine’s extension program, decided to create a DVD. I thought, ‘I’ve got to tell people about this because it’s so amazing.'” “I was looking around for some kind of yoga for surfers video. “I felt stronger in the water, I felt calmer. Her shoulder pain went away and her surfing improved. Around the same time, she took up yoga, hoping to avoid shoulder surgery for tendonitis caused by years of swimming. That changed about 10 years ago, when Hall decided to try surfing while on vacation in Hawaii. “Back then girls just didn’t surf,” Hall says. She continued to swim at UC Santa Barbara and especially loved long-distance ocean swimming. Hall, 47, grew up in Dana Point, where in high school she was the only girl to swim on the boys team. But her story began off the shores of Orange County. Hall’s fusion of yoga and surfing has taken her to the beaches of Hawaii, Tahiti and Australia. “We just got on the wave and we’ve been riding it.” “It’s such a perfect combination,” Hall says. Out 16.5 million yoga enthusiasts, 77 percent are women. An estimated 2.3 million Americans surf, 30 percent of them women, according to Trabuco Canyon-based Board Trac, a market research company. Her company, Yoga for Surfers, coincides with record numbers of women surfers and an overall explosion in the popularity of yoga. One student describes the session as “yoga on surf steroids.” It’s also an accidental connection Hall discovered a decade ago that swelled, like the perfect wave, into a $100,000 a year business. ![]() Hall leads the class in stretches to strengthen their shoulders for paddling, core work to more quickly pop up on the board, and how to relax with visualization of a favorite beach. “Even just pulling on your wetsuit you have to balance on one leg so it doesn’t get all sandy.” “There are times you slip on your wax,” Hall says. Instructor Peggy Hall explains the importance of balance postures to a class of eight, dressed mostly in surf T-shirts. “I have a lot less balance than I thought I did,” Call, a 46-year-old engineer from Mission Viejo. Standing heel to toe, eyes closed, spine straight, Call’s legs wobble. ![]() LAGUNA BEACH – Ray Call, a life-long surfer, rides wave after wave, achieving effortless balance on his short board. ![]()
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