Hi, I’m Kristine, born in the Philippines, raised in Guernsey. I’ve been practicing yoga for 20 years, completed my first YTT in 2003, and have been teaching SUP Yoga for 6 years. I feel incredibly blessed having found SUP Yoga on one of my travels. From the very first time I got on a board it felt like a coming of home, I can’t describe just how natural it felt being on the water in this way so I decided to show people instead and knew I had to take it home to Guernsey. The passion was ignited and I needed to get the training and knew the teaching I received would help to define and shape the teacher I would become; a wish to be a teacher that students would instantly feel comfortable and at ease with to join a SUP Yoga class regardless of in/experience of SUP &/or Yoga. 

 

Becoming a yoga teacher can feel both exhilarating and overwhelming with the sense of responsibility that comes with it, when you add water and the SUP yoga certification it can feel even more intense, there’s the additional pressures of learning about tides and weather too! So much to think about and consider, it’s not just a case of grabbing a board and getting out there. As a teacher you ask how to start doing what you love, and charging for it while of course always being vigilantly mindful in the safe participation of your students from start to finish in every class. As for the student, when trying something for the first time you can feel apprehensive or fearful and can raise doubts and various questions … yet there’s an inner voice guiding your resonance towards that teacher telling your gut to ‘go for it!’.

 

There’s a lot of anxiety in the world today and I want to give students a glimpse into how relaxed you can feel when connecting to the present moment, away from monkey mind and the mental masturbation, switching off from the stresses and strains, to do lists, regrets, and worries and just to simply ‘be’. Connecting to source. One SUP Yoga practice at a time. I wish for students to experience how serene it can be practicing yoga on a floating mat and how through the breath you can feel entirely connected in the most authentic way possible, every cell in your body feeling wholly connected to the water beneath and the air above, that you don’t have to be advanced or ultra flexible to join, but to arrive with an open heart and mind to possibility.

 

 

SUP Yoga has taken off big time over the past couple of years, it’s fantastic, so why not have a platform like the ISYA where like minded teachers can come together in CommUNITY where we can participate in sharing information, experiences and ideas with fellow teachers, this can only be a positive, right? As surely helps to facilitate and enhance your own teaching in SUP Yoga. Equally, the ISYA is a wonderful resource where students wishing to attend a class can access the vast array of teachers out there, gaining insight into their teaching style where a student can meet the teacher before even attending a class, or by simply searching by a more specified location. I feel that the support of the ISYA having my back helps my own students feel relaxed knowing that I continue to remain current and up to date in the field of SUP Yoga thereby helping to mitigate incidents occurring or things going wrong, information is food for the brain there’s much to gain!

 

 

Representing SUP Yoga Guernsey (Channel Islands) since 2014.