Surfing Life While Surfing the Waves - Essay Example

Surfing Life while Surfing the Waves In order to ensure that the blood of surfing continues to his progeny, my father taught me how to surf when I was only two years old. Some toddlers do not even know how to swim yet, but I was surfing with my father already by that time. My father was a true-blooded surfer. He told me while I was still very young that a surfer out in the ocean having a bad day is ten times better than a good day outside it because “there’s no better feeling,” as he regularly says. I have never understood him until I caught my first wave. I grew up in Cocoa Beach Florida, a perfect community for surfers. Surfer culture is embedded in its history, and my father was part of both the culture and the history. He has won several surfing competitions himself, and he could not wait for his children to be barreled themselves in the waves. Surfing creates a strong intimate physical, emotional, and spiritual bond among nature, surfers, and their fellow surfers that can produce a lifelong addiction for the waves. I was two years old, waiting for my first wave, ready after the months of preparation for it. I was a bit nervous, but my father egged me on. Before that moment, I watched him get barreled many times. The awesome sight of his body getting into a powerful blue tunnel of waves was enough inspiration for me to try it. My father already prepared me physically, mentally, and emotionally for surfing. Physically, we swim and walk an hour or more each day. He also taught me surf training workouts that were simple and easy for kids, such as leg lifts and single leg balance drills. The leg drills were quite hard and tiring, but my father knew how to motivate me. Emotionally and mentally, he prepared me for the anxiety of waiting for the right waves and being disappointed if the first tries were not successful. He told me that not many waves can last longer than I can hold my breath, and knowing this kept me calm. It means that I became more relaxed because I did not have to fear for something that might take longer or faster than expected. My father also taught me to choose my waves smartly. He said that I should avoid the first couple waves in the set because large waves often followed. He told me to choose a wave with a tapering shoulder so that I could safely reach the shore. All these preparations paid off, when at two years old, I had my first taste of surfing addiction. I could not explain how it felt, being so young then. The first try was just riding the waves and it felt like driving without wheels. I felt like I was flying, floating up in the waves with nothing to stop me. I tried many times before I got barreled. The experience could not be put into the right words that are good enough to capture its beauty. I just knew that however short the tunnel was, I have never felt so free, powerful, and connected to my soul. My father was immensely proud of me. He knew he has found a lifelong surfing companion. Looking back, I see that experience as spiritually enlightening. Connected with nature through the waves, I reconnected with my nature, my soul. Riding the waves and going inside the barrel were two ways of being soulfully alive. After learning surfing 101, I started to join competitions, winning and losing some, but always eager for the experience of surfing and connecting again with fellow surfers and nature itself. In Cocoa Beach, I entered two contests and word third place in both. I wanted to win of course, but more than that, I wanted to surf and bond with other surfers. A surfing competition is an oxymoron for me. There is no real competition when surfers already find the experience supremely rewarding in itself. They cheer for other competitors as they ride the waves and get barreled. It was like they felt it too- the joy of the waters that we seek, not to control, but to simply flow with, or rather flow on or flow inside. We are one happy community, supporting each other and sharing news about the next swells and stories about our surfing and other life experiences. My father was happy with my winnings and supported my surfing lifestyle, where the next natural step was to ride the waves all over the world. Some of the waves were in South Africa, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Australia. In South Africa, we surfed at Elands Bay and Long Beach during the summer. I enjoyed the Elands for its outback style hotel and its beautiful frontier location. The westerly swells were plentiful and easy to catch. Long Beach has the most consistent shore breaks, and I enjoyed the small and medium swells. The people were hospitable and kind. In Puerto Rico during winter time, we went to Surfer’s Beach and Wilderness. The locals taught us where the best swells came and how to best ride them. Winter is the best time because of the weather and winds that create spectacular large swells. I remember that this is one of the places where I rode the biggest wave. Just the memory triggers adrenalin and joy. In Costa Rica, we went to Tamarindo, Playa Avellanes and Negra, Nosara, and Santa Teresa & Mal Pais. The best thing about Tamarindo is it is home to the world famous break of Playa Negra (south) and Witches Rock (north). Other places are quite magical in terms of culture and waves. I made sure that in every place I visit, I learn something about the people’s culture- their beliefs, values, and practices. The locals always manage to teach me something new about surfing and life. In Mexico, we went to Puerto Escondido at Oaxaca, Sayulita at Nayarit, and Pascuales at Colima. Puerto Escondido is for advanced surfers and the waves were challenging. These were the waves that exhausted me and made me sore for weeks. In Sayulita, the surfing community is supportive and hospitable. They gathered for the north swell from December through April. We went there in December. Pascuales creates monstrous waves too. The rivermouth beach break can break from both left and right, and can result to waves with the height of 10 meters. In Australia, we went to Bells Beach in Victoria, the Gold Coast in Queensland, and Bondi Beach in Sydney. These communities have vibrant surfing cultures that offer an alternative lifestyle where people see surfing as communing with the waves of life. In Bondi Beach, I met several famous surfers who chose to live in Australia. They are living the life. With all these great adventures, I came to see what surfing is all about. Surfing creates a strong intimate physical, emotional, and spiritual bond among nature, surfers, and their fellow surfers that can produce a lifelong addiction for the waves. It is in there, in the waves and the beach, the totality of the experience that makes me connected to nature. As I ride the waves, I hear the ocean and seagulls, I taste and feel the saltiness of the waters, and I feel that I am in the right place. Fellow surfers offer companionship too that encourages me to surf more. They know the feeling, that indescribable almost mythical feeling of flying and digging in the swell. When I hear them cheering or consoling me for a bad day, I know I have found my siblings by waves. I imagine us being born from the ocean. Surfing is lightness. The lightness is felt inside and outside, floating to one’s identity. Surfing can be spiritual too when it feels like an answered prayer for a deep connection to nature and oneself. Surfing is addicting because it is an exhilarating and empowering experience. The waves create physical and emotional sensations that trigger the adrenalin to overdrive. After one wave, there is the urgency to catch another one. Exhilaration increases from one wave to another. In addition, surfing is empowering. When I surf, I feel freedom to become anyone I want to be. I surf and I feel no controls stopping me from my destiny. Surfing is a mixture of dreams and doing. Surfing is a lifestyle of action, excitement, and power. Because I am passionate about surfing, I came to California to go to college. California is a new frontier for me to further surf and to advance my education. It is a place where learning takes two forms- learning by experience through surfing and interacting with community members and learning by university education. I would love to study, live, and surf in California. It is a surfer’s world, as it is an intersection of multiple cultures and intellectual groups. I see myself actively participating in its diverse facets- school, community, and environment. I see myself further up high, raised by the worldliness that California offers. Read More

I just knew that however short the tunnel was, I have never felt so free, powerful, and connected to my soul. My father was immensely proud of me. He knew he has found a lifelong surfing companion. Looking back, I see that experience as spiritually enlightening. Connected with nature through the waves, I reconnected with my nature, my soul. Riding the waves and going inside the barrel were two ways of being soulfully alive. After learning surfing 101, I started to join competitions, winning and losing some, but always eager for the experience of surfing and connecting again with fellow surfers and nature itself.

In Cocoa Beach, I entered two contests and word third place in both. I wanted to win of course, but more than that, I wanted to surf and bond with other surfers. A surfing competition is an oxymoron for me. There is no real competition when surfers already find the experience supremely rewarding in itself. They cheer for other competitors as they ride the waves and get barreled. It was like they felt it too- the joy of the waters that we seek, not to control, but to simply flow with, or rather flow on or flow inside.

We are one happy community, supporting each other and sharing news about the next swells and stories about our surfing and other life experiences. My father was happy with my winnings and supported my surfing lifestyle, where the next natural step was to ride the waves all over the world. Some of the waves were in South Africa, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Australia. In South Africa, we surfed at Elands Bay and Long Beach during the summer. I enjoyed the Elands for its outback style hotel and its beautiful frontier location.

The westerly swells were plentiful and easy to catch. Long Beach has the most consistent shore breaks, and I enjoyed the small and medium swells. The people were hospitable and kind. In Puerto Rico during winter time, we went to Surfer’s Beach and Wilderness. The locals taught us where the best swells came and how to best ride them. Winter is the best time because of the weather and winds that create spectacular large swells. I remember that this is one of the places where I rode the biggest wave.

Just the memory triggers adrenalin and joy. In Costa Rica, we went to Tamarindo, Playa Avellanes and Negra, Nosara, and Santa Teresa & Mal Pais. The best thing about Tamarindo is it is home to the world famous break of Playa Negra (south) and Witches Rock (north). Other places are quite magical in terms of culture and waves. I made sure that in every place I visit, I learn something about the people’s culture- their beliefs, values, and practices. The locals always manage to teach me something new about surfing and life.

In Mexico, we went to Puerto Escondido at Oaxaca, Sayulita at Nayarit, and Pascuales at Colima. Puerto Escondido is for advanced surfers and the waves were challenging. These were the waves that exhausted me and made me sore for weeks. In Sayulita, the surfing community is supportive and hospitable. They gathered for the north swell from December through April. We went there in December. Pascuales creates monstrous waves too. The rivermouth beach break can break from both left and right, and can result to waves with the height of 10 meters.

In Australia, we went to Bells Beach in Victoria, the Gold Coast in Queensland, and Bondi Beach in Sydney. These communities have vibrant surfing cultures that offer an alternative lifestyle where people see surfing as communing with the waves of life. In Bondi Beach, I met several famous surfers who chose to live in Australia. They are living the life. With all these great adventures, I came to see what surfing is all about. Surfing creates a strong intimate physical, emotional, and spiritual bond among nature, surfers, and their fellow surfers that can produce a lifelong addiction for the waves.

It is in there, in the waves and the beach, the totality of the experience that makes me connected to nature. As I ride the waves, I hear the ocean and seagulls, I taste and feel the saltiness of the waters, and I feel that I am in the right place.

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