Why yoga at sunset is the best part of a surf day

Your body is already warm, which means you can move further with less effort and far less risk than a cold morning stretch. The work is also fresh: you are releasing exactly what you just used.

There is a simpler reason too. A surf day ends abruptly — you come in, you eat, and the adrenaline takes hours to drain. An hour on the mat gives the day somewhere to land.

Sessions here are slow and mostly floor-based after a surf day. Expect long holds, a lot of attention on the shoulders and hips, and some breathing work at the end rather than anything strenuous.

The shapes that help most after surfing

• A supported backbend to open the chest after hours of paddling.
• Low lunges for hip flexors shortened by lying on the board.
• Thread-the-needle and gentle twists for the upper back.
• Legs up the wall, which does more for tired legs than it has any right to.

Most people who end up on the mat here have never done a class before and came because someone else was going. You do not need to be flexible, and you do not need your own kit — mats and props are here.

Nobody has ever regretted the hour. Plenty have regretted skipping it on day two.

Surf in the morning, stretch in the evening, and you can surf again tomorrow. That is the whole argument. The light over the bay at that hour is just the part that makes it easy to turn up.