A Marriage of Two Loves…

Long live my Master
Who taught me capoeira–
It is water for drinking
It is iron for striking
It is from the sacred drums…

–Capoeira Song

So, I love capoeira–and I love the sea. Put them together–and what do you get? Underwater capoeira! Yesterday, while stroking in the sea, I felt bored with my usual routine. I usually start off with some laps (a medley of freestyle, breast stroke, butterfly), tread some water, add in strengthening exercises, and then float in corpse pose to be lightly bronzed by the setting sun (the best part, of course). It’s a fun and varied program, but yesterday I was hungering for something different.

And then it hit me–what about practicing my capoeira moves–in the sea? What better ingredients could be better to mix, than these two loves?

The sea: my life, my love, my medicine, my friend…

Capoeira: my dance, my fight, my (he)art, my soul…

Of course, capoeira has been played on the beach since its birth in Brazil–but to actually practice kicks and strikes in the water, I realized, would be different than playing on the beach–which is always a kick.

The best time I’ve ever had playing beach capoeira, was when I traveled to Colombia for a capoeira baptism & tournament in Santa Marta–which sits on the Caribbean Sea and at the foot of the highest peaks in the country (boy was it hot!). If you haven’t been to Colombia–definitely add it to the list (especially before more tourists start “discovering” it).

While playing in the water yesterday, I re-lived my time in Colombia, while throwing different capoeira kicks, like Meia-lua de Frente (Front Half Moon Kick), Ponteira, Benção and Queixada. Today, I’ll continue this experiment in about an hour or so and see what other moves work underwater. Give it a try sometime–it’s incredibly freeing to dance and fight in the water–not to mention, it’s way better for the joints–than trying to kick and flip on land.

When I got home from the beach, I wanted to see if this was like a “thing”–underwater capoeira. What I found was this awesome video online–of capoeira teacher Rafeal, who coaches Bantus Malaysia capoeira, doing capoeira underwater in Malaysia. This sports drink commercial provides great ideas for moves to try underwater in the pool. Enjoy!