Shiva Rea: Surf Yoga Soul

I really liked this DVD. This DVD would not be a good choice for someone completely new to exercise as the main flows are pretty challenging. But if you have a good knowledge of what you can and can't do, and are willing to take things slowly, you may enjoy this.The DVD includes two meditations -1) Wave Meditations (9 minutes): This is a mostly standing meditation with some free form arm movements. It was nice for a change.2) Breath Wave (5 minutes): A sitting meditation focused on breathing. During one portion she does a 3 part breath where you pause while inhaling. I had a difficult time following her cuing and felt like I was holding my breath for a long time waiting for her to catch up. I think after a couple repeats it would be fine, though.There are three "strength flows":1) Agni Namaskar (17 minutes): This was actually my introduction to the DVD as I had decided I wanted to master Shiva's 9 sets of 12 toe/full pushups. I think pushups are an awesome exercise that help stabilize the core in addition to providing upper body strength. While I have Shiva's Upper Body Core DVD that also contains 9 sets of 12 pushups, and her Daily Energy DVD that has a few less - I selected this one as it was the simplest and shortest and let me focus on the pushups without too many complicated poses in between. She starts with chair pose with a chest stretch, moving into forward bend, dropping into plank before starting the first set. After the second and third sets she moves into anahatasana to stretch the shoulders, cobra, upward dog, flowing into downward dog, going into a lunge with chest stretch. This cycle is repeated three more times.As my goal was to work on full toe pushups, I started slowly with this flow - initially doing three sets of 8, and now at 9 sets of 9 toe/full pushups. So, almost at the 9 sets of 12!2) Mandala Namaskar (12 minutes): A mostly standing flow including fluid arm movements throughout while moving between yogic squat (knees out) and Warrior 2 with side bends. Between cycles she moves to plank, bow pose, and downward dog.3) Balance Flow (20 minutes): I still need to try this flow, but as mentioned previously it includes arm and standing balances.There are two options for finishing with:1) Flexibility Flow (11 minutes): I really like the shoulder stretches and have used the first part of this flow many times. But I didn't really care for the inclusion of planks into the middle of a flexibility flow - in particular after doing so many pushups! The closing poses are sphinx, bow, cobra, pigeon, head to knee pose, twist, and forward bend. Despite the planks, I did really enjoy this flow.2) Shivasana (2 minutes): A little on the short side!

I got this DVD after my first surfing season ever. I struggle surfing due to shoulder tightness, balance issues I didn't even realize I had (I can skate, do kung fu, bike, but not really keep trim on a board while catching a wave!), and also anxiety about crashing (which I do because I'm anxious, ironically). I consider myself a yogini because I do yoga almost daily, though I generally just do a basic sun salutation. I got this DVD to help with surfing, and after only doing it once, I'm quite certain it will. I suppose if I was going to intermediate to advanced yoga classes, probably nothing on the DVD would be useful. But as I'm not in classes at all right now, having something push me to do Bakasana and a billion push ups is very helpful. And I love how Shiva Rea is always talking about surfing...because in this practice, Surfing is my goal and I probably wouldn't being doing such challenging yoga work if it weren't for surfing. Plus, when she talks about surfing, it helps me to visualize what I'm doing better.That being said, I also think that people must be careful when doing yoga absent an instructor. It's so easy to mess your body up by doing something wrong, or pushing too hard even if in the right direction. Me, I've trained in martial arts for years and have been to plenty of yoga classes in the past that I felt relatively ok doing most of this DVD. Even being as in shape as I am, some of the DVD was challenging for me (I also tried to do the entire DVD my first time! Ambitious!). My point is, don't decide not to buy if you are a surfer looking for some land-locked training. But if you aren't a practiced martial artist/yogi, then just remember to not push too hard, and don't be afraid to seek out advice about things like hip positioning (SO IMPORTANT!) or asking a friend to spot you in Bakasana!

Just okay. You can select which part of the workout you would like to watch. I found the "riding the wave" metaphor a little over done. Yes, the title is surf yoga soul, but I was hoping this was just upper body strength and balance. I found it irritating that her cueing wasnt enough to just do the workout as in a yoga class...I found myself having to watch the screen. Maybe that's just her style. The sun salutatiins with pushups were tough! I'm sure if I add in the sun salutation portion once a week to my normal workouts, i will notice a difference quickly. Overall, just okay. I was hoping for more.

I adore Shiva Rea. I own 3 of her DVDs total. This one kind of let me down.I do love the routines. I think they are a great addition to my practice; however, I feel like the DVD is incomplete. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the shavasana (excuse my spelling) is way too short and I feel like the routines end abruptly. I'm not a huge fan of the music selection, but it's nothing I can't tolerate. The 108 push up sun salutation sequence is very repetitive, but great for practicing and doing something to get focused and heart rate up. The balancing sequence is my favorite, but just ends abruptly like I said -- not sure how to explain that further, but that is the best word to describe it. :)I pop this DVD in for the scenery and coloring. It's beautiful. But if you are looking for a first DVD of hers or want to grow your Shiva collection, this one won't make or break it.

I feel like I must be the voice of dissent on this DVD.As far as home yoga DVDs go, I tend to really like what Shiva Rea puts out; this time, I am reluctant to recommend this DVD for the general public though.As a (Kripalu) yoga teacher (I'm also a novice surfer), I believe this DVD is unsafe for a newbie yoga student. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it for most of my current students as I feel Shiva frequently misses out on important body/postural cues. The first time I did the DVD, I missed out on transitions as I was not watching the DVD constantly, but listening instead (as I was facing in different directions). Suddenly I would look up and think, "When did she get there?"I was surprised to see movements like crow (kakasana) and variations of arm balances on the DVD. For anyone practicing this at home unfamiliar with arm balances, please, please, please get out a cushion or another soft item and place it in front of your face to act as a crash mat. I knew a teacher who taught crow in a drop-in class and a student fell over and broke her nose.On the positive side, there are some great moves on this disc. I love the low lunge cross pigeon push-up maneuver. In fact, I used it in two drop-in sessions recently and my students seemed to really enjoy it as well. Also, I definitely felt I got a tricep workout from the DVD. Nonetheless, I generally walked away with the feeling that this wouldn't be safe for a beginner and I would have liked to have seen better from Shiva Rea in terms of the cues/safety.Sorry Shiva. :(

I'm not a surfer but I love Shiva's yoga dvd's and am always looking for new and different practices. I would say I am an experienced beginner. I found there was only a couple of poses I couldn't do and Shiva always give an alternative to the more difficult poses. Unlike the other dvds which feature the matrix for mix and match selection this doesn't, there is a play all selection or you choose each section you want to do and select it and it returns to this menu when its finished. I wont go into super detail as others have already done it much better than I could but there is an opening wave meditation flow which is about 9 mins, then 2 20 min flows, balance flow and one of which involves the 12 prostration push ups for 9 rounds, similar to the agni namaskar from the core dvds, a short breathing wave and another flow, flexibility 11 mins.mandela namaskar 12 mins and a short shavasana. My favourite is to do wave, balance, flow and shavasana. I can really feel my strength and flexibility improving, I would want to do it over and over again every day, but its a really nice addition to my collection of Shiva dvds. Also included from the main menu is backbends from Shivas beginner dvd and from Jivamukti Yoga dvd which is not Shiva and looked awful!

Great yoga DVD by one of the most popular yoga instructors in the US. Shiva teaches vinyasa flow yoga which is dynamic and can be challenging but it's great for building strength and increasing energy and flexibility. This DVD merges ideas from surfing and wave motion and vinyasa yoga together and it's a great energising way to start your day. There are seven options to choose from that focus on different areas including balance, flexibility, strength and relaxation. Beginners could do this practice with some adjustments as well as more experienced practitioners.

DVD might be great, I have a lot of Shiva's other DVD, her Shakti one is mindblowing.Problem with the one I got was that there is no Matrix on the practice menu, its suppose to let you create your own order and then press a "ride the wave" button and it plays them in order.No such button or feature was on mines. I emailed acacia who didnt bother to reply.Possibly a faulty batch, so I returned it to Amazon for refund and just got a region 1 version from ebay.

A high quality dvd from Shiva Rea, just as usual. You don't need to be a surfer to enjoy the benefits of this yoga programme, that will enhance both your strength and flexibility. Lovely background music and very precise instructions, as in all Shiva Rea's workouts.