Surfing isn’t exactly a marathon sport. When you really think about it, when you go surfing, you don’t really spend all that much time actually surfing. There’s a lot of waiting, a lot of paddling around, and a whole lot of staring and thinking about other things other than surfing. It’s why surfing is so meditative–you’re forced to turn off everything other than the present moment. It’s fantastic.
That said, it sure would be nice to actually surf more, so let’s take a little trip down arithmetic lane. I’m going to base it off my own experience, just because the numbers make more sense.
I surf an average of 4 days a week, for around 2 hours each session. Depending on the day and the board I’m riding, I’ll probably catch one every every 10 minutes, and ride it for around 8 seconds. So with 8 hours a week and 6 waves per hour, I’ll actually be surfing for 384 seconds… or about 6.5 minutes per week. Which is just under the length of Marlon Gerber’s single wave on a Sumatran tidal bore. What. The. Fuck.
