Becoming a surfing mum, notes from early post-baby surfs
By Lizzie Lawson
This week I enjoyed a surf with one of my good friends who was getting back into the water for the first time after having her baby.
As a mother of two myself, I knew how big a moment this was for her.
When I took the same step after having my kids, I remember thinking there was a lot of information about most things to do with mothering and babies, but not a great deal on becoming a surfing mum. So, although not an exhaustive list of all the highs and lows, here are a few of my more vivid memories of those early post-baby surfs. If you want a supportive space while you ease back in, our Waterwomen Programme is designed for exactly that.
Your pre-baby wetsuit may not fit…
And that’s ok. You’ve just spent nine months creating a human and however many months tending to the little person in a sleep-deprived haze. I will admit that after one attempt I gave up and purchased what we now affectionately call the “maternity wetsuit”.
These days my maternity suit is often loaned out to visiting friends, mostly male, which always amuses me given its original purpose. But it had its day, it kept me warm, enabled me to pop up, kind of, and paddle. Basically, I could move, which is essential for surfing, so squeezing into my pre-baby gear was off the table.
On the upside, getting in and surfing helped me get my body back and eventually I found the surplus neoprene in the legs and arms of my maternity suit was filling with water and I was back in my old suit and feeling great about it.
Sharks and tsunamis… in Cornwall…
Clearly not. But if you are anything like me you might find your imagination runs riot the first, or even second, fourth, tenth time you leave your little bundle and hand yourself over to the mercy of the ocean.
Some of my more far-fetched fears were quickly allayed, but gone was the pre-baby abandon with which I paddled into waves or recovered from wiping out.
As the kids got older and I got used to leaving them, my mindset became more relaxed. I was never a reckless surfer, I am simply more safety conscious now that I am a mother. In my view, you can never respect the ocean too much.
Your body and brain might not talk to each other
The words “pop” and “up” may feel a long way off the first time you try to surf again. It was as though, at some point in pregnancy, the wires connecting my brain and core had been cut and someone forgot to re-attach them. I flailed around, clambering about on the board, barely able to stand in the water.
A wise woman once said that for each of the nine months of pregnancy, it takes a correlating period of time for your body to recover. I have no idea if this has medical foundation, but by about nine months post birth I was back at my old level and my brain and body had reconnected.
After my second pregnancy, just knowing from last time that I would get there in the end made it so much less frustrating. I even enjoyed the journey, seeing my fitness return and hitting each progression milestone.
Bedtimes versus tide times
Post-partum surfing is a small window of time, motherhood lasts far longer. In my pre-baby world, surfs were planned around tide times and swell patterns. Post-partum, they were planned around feeding schedules and sleep times.
Now that my babies are little people, school, my work commitments, and their activities shape my day. Surfs are planned around family life either at the last minute or well in advance of knowing conditions. Sometimes you luck out and sometimes it is a total write off.
This may sound frustrating, I find I am quite sanguine about it. I am grateful to get in the water regularly and even more grateful when I time it with good waves. Plus, it is less disappointing when it does not work out if you have not put effort into planning it.
My kids are just starting to catch their first waves, hopefully the time will come when we can all surf together, then we can get back to checking the tide times again. If you are easing back in, a gentle weekend like our Newquay Beginner Weekend is a friendly, low-pressure option, and for warm, mellow rollers consider our Barbados surf trip or Portugal surf trip.
You can follow Lizzie and her crew of mini-surfers here, @city_to_beach.
We think pregnancy and surfing should be talked about more in surfing media and we want to hear from you.
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