Inner Sea

With feet on the ground

Beatriz Felipe López Kurro Díaz. Desde el Mar. Up Suping

Every time I go to a Paddle Surf event I am surprised by how this sport has more and more fans and how it attracts spectators of different ages and places.

It amazes me how in just a few years raiders have made spectacular progress in a sport that was so unknown.

But just as SUP has forged its foundations and is consolidated in sport, those who participate in it become increasingly competitive and their goals more ambitious. Without a doubt, we have to dream big, but first, we have to know who we are, where we started from and where we want to go so that those ambitions do not turn against us.

You have to be ambitious but with your feet on the ground

They say that any past time was better, but it is not like that. If athletes like Muhammad Ali (boxer), Ayrton Senna (Formula 1 driver) or Pelé (footballer) raised their heads, they would be surprised at the amount of technology that is applied to sport today.

A technology that they did not use and that they did not need to de-target in their disciplines. Obviously everything changes and changes always bring better things but also worse.

Today those who compete have at their disposal biomechanical studies, clocks that control the heart rate. They can keep track of their speeds, kilometres, hours of sleep and they can also have materials adapted to their needs depending on the weather.

It is amazing to have these aids to achieve objectives but it is a shame to see how many raiders today focus so much on all that that they forget their true qualities and their real possibilities.

They are forgetting to forge something very important: character and attitude. And this has consequences.

THE REALITY I SEE

In all the competitions I attend as a spectator I always try to sneak into conversations between adult raiders.

Before the competition, I hear questions like how much are you training? How far do you run per kilometre? And the pulsations to how long do you take them? And strokes per minute? And with the responses they receive, they make comparisons and set objectives. The speech of these people changes at the end of the race.

I have been fatal; I train an average of…; I strive for nothing; no matter how hard I pressed, I couldn’t get my rhythm; I have better results than…It is when the person explodes in an Internal Sea of bad sensations.

What happened? Very easy. The focus was not in the right place. Far from making a global analysis of the situation, they have focused solely on mathematical training data. They overlook that in competitions variables come into play that is not being trained or measured with any apparatus.

Curiously, this does not happen among the children’s categories. The youngest does not make comparisons, they are simply going to give their all at all times. If your expectations are not met, nothing happens! because they have the peace of mind of having always tried giving all the best they had at that time. Remember: training is not the same as competing.

When it comes to recovering from unwanted results, the little ones can do it faster, while adults are dedicated to feeding what we call frustration.

Like any unpleasant emotion, frustration plays a vital role for the human being as it helps to generate new resources. If you come to understand it and control all the energy it generates, you will have before you the key to eternal knowledge and learning.

Those feelings of anger, sadness or anguish that arise indicate that there is something that is not following reality, something that has not been taken into account, something that needs to be worked on...

When you stop to objectively analyze what happened from beginning to end, focusing on yourself and your feelings, you will discover aspects that surprisingly are not in the options of your watch. But here you have to be very careful.

When you converse with frustration, there is automatically a great need to calm the discomfort that you feel. The first reaction you have is to blame others or to throw balls out. What if it was very hot, what if the wind, what if at the start they made me...

Suddenly you are an expert in looking for excuses but you are unable to see that the rules of the game were the same for everyone, or is it that the heat just fell on your board? If you are looking for excuses you will find them but you will not find anything to improve on. They will make you weaker.

If you silence them and allow yourself to be critical of yourself, a world of possibilities will open up before you. You will discover that improvement is always possible.

Learning to manage frustration comes with continuous and intense work. As always, I am going to give you some brief guidelines so that you can begin to forge a different attitude towards frustration.

Start by adjusting your goals and expectations with reality. Lean on your coach or someone you trust who will give you another vision of reality. Compare if it fits with yours and if necessary readjust.

Having the opinion and assessment of someone outside can open your eyes.

Discover the fundamentals. There is no doubt that technological advances are a plus when looking for improvements. What you should be clear about is that it is not the most fundamental or the only thing to focus on.

Do not forget to work on your attitude, your motivation and above all, do not forget to work on the ability to recover from adversity.

The frustration begins when the horn sounds. Right at that moment, critical thinking begins to compare and assess how you are doing. You stop competing to load yourself with weight.

The power of abstraction and concentration during the competition will make you obtain better results.

No excuses. You begin to see frustration as a tool for improvement. If at the end of the competition the level is too high, distance yourself, find a quiet place to breathe and tell yourself that there are still things to improve

Runaway from those who love you. Yes, yes, those who love you will make you more fragile. And not because they want you bad but because they want to see you well. This leads them to disrespect your process and to offer themselves a gold platter full of excuses.

Respectfully ask them to accompany you but in silence.

After the storm, he looks for the way. Don’t immediately start training madly and aimlessly. Take some time to reflect and find those aspects that you missed. Mark new lines of work and if possible do it in a company to continue adjusting expectations with reality.

Do not forget the most important. Be grateful for the opportunity that a bad competition gave you to keep improving.

As tennis coach Toni Nadal says:

“Always try to make a better version of yourself so that tomorrow your conscience is calm, knowing that at all times you gave your best and did everything in your power.

Beyond a result, there is something priceless: personal satisfaction “

Beatriz Felipe López . Psychologist & Coach

For the sixth consecutive year, , July 24 at the Windzone Sailing School, was celebrated with great responsibility on the part of the organization and participants due to the health situation that we currently suffer, the Discover Huelva Sup Festival, being also the Championship of Andalusia Paddle Surf, Beach Race Spanish Cup and this year scoring event for the Costa del SUP Circuit of the Fesurfing league, under the organization of the W. Isla Cristina Club and the Municipal Sports Service of the Isla Cristina City Council and by a delegation of the Spanish Surf Federation.

The format of the event invited the success of participation since it combined the promotional aspect of the sport and the federated competition, so there were more than one hundred riders who wanted to participate in this sixth edition of Discover Huelva, among which we highlight this year, the increasingly powerful andalusian team in the Elite category and the young promises in the lower categories that show the great progress of this sport worldwide and that is reflected in our coasts.

The day dawned with a strong offshore wind that fell throughout the morning, leaving at mid-morning, an idyllic setting to start the scheduled races. The little ones started and race after race it was a spectacle to see the good work of these future champions. So, after the little ones, the numerous popular and SUB-16 races began, completing the same 2.5 km route. A route marked out a few meters from the sand and that allowed the large public to follow the development of the test at all times.

FESTIVAL 2021

As a finale to the party, the Élite category. In the ¨queen¨ category, two rounds were scheduled and the winner would come out of the sum of the two times. The emotion was more than assured. Highlight the level of Fernando Pérez and Antonio Morillo, who are the role models for two young people who have been pushing hard, Sergio Toledo sub18 and Augusto García Jr sub16. the shore ... the first round with a difference of less than a second between Fernando and Antonio, leaving everything in the air for the second round.

After a break of one hour, it was decided to start the second round but, this time and due to the change in conditions, a different route was marked out, a small upwind - downwind of 3 km. With 15 knots, after a hard climb and vertiginous descent, it was Fernando who took first place and by a few meters, he surpassed Antonio and was able to revalidate his title last year. Third entered Augusto García Jr and fourth Sergio Toledo, who in the end would obtain a meritorious 3rd place. Very strong and numerous the boys of Triana, who showed a magnificent performance throughout the day.

In girls, Marina Navarro from Malaga won one more year with a great comeback over the increasingly strong Ángela Núñez who made a sensational first round, with Beatriz Alvargonzález being third. At 6:00 p.m., under a magnificent atmosphere and with the presence of the authorities and sponsors, the prizes were awarded and the Championship closed.

As a summary and once the competition is over, when taking stock we can only say that this Huelva test is fully consolidated, becoming a must for the national Stand Up Paddle and that our sport is in full growth, being the activity today most popular nautical. From Discover Huelva, we will continue betting and working on this type of competition in which federated competition and promotion among the smallest are combined.

From the organization, thank the Institutional Support of the Junta de Andalucía, Provincial Council of Huelva, the SMD of the Isla Cristina City Council, our coverage in the sea with Red Cross, Maritime Rescue, Civil Protection, Nautical Academy Balbuena, Jose Martín, Qtt and to the sponsors, Brandt, Starboard, Usisa, Hotel Estival Isla Cristina, Covey, Displayasur, to our DJ Javi Alba for entertaining the Day, to Nico from Up Suping for taking our test to another level and of course, to the volunteers already Emilio and his great team at Windzone who for another year welcome us to their Center in the best possible way. We wait for you next year