I’ve been reading and hearing a bit recently about the various ways why surfing isn’t the most important thing in your life – that there’s more to the world than building swells and crisp offshore winds.
I can whole-heartedly agree with those statements, but I do feel a thought forcing itself to be heard in my brain. It’s that surfing might just be what is most important to me. Not the culture, the brands, but the simple act of riding waves and the enjoyment and insight gained while in the water.
Yes, there will be times when surfing isn’t a priority, times when circumstance ensures that you come to find clarity and realizations about the balance of your life and what defines you and how you exist in your world.
But when the chips are down, or you just feel like the whole world has been ganging up on you, tormenting you, breaking you down, there will always be the ocean. when you haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy what it offers so openly. I can’t deny the tension that builds inside of me on those days. But there will always be the ocean. It isn’t going anywhere. That blue expanse, void of the problems and issues that burden us as we try to live ashore.
We’ve all had the feeling. With that very first duck dive you feel the pressures on your mind wash away. The way you bob therapeutically over the swells as that energy passes beneath you. The way your skin tingles in shock as water sneaks down your wetsuit during wintertime. The sound of wind in your ears and the crashing of water. The endorphin high as you gather your board under your arm before taking those steps back onto the shore. The perspective that a little bit of solitude can provide as you slide some waves and enjoy one of natures many offerings.
I know that surfing shouldn’t be the most important part of my life. It is a hobby, a sport, and cannot compare to the love I have for my family, my partner and my friends. Deep down, however, I know without those meditative moments I share with the sea – without the clarity a morning surf brings and the re-invorgarting energy it bequeaths – I may not be able to appreciate what it is in my life that makes it so special.
Surfing isn’t the world. But it is the greatest tool I have to gain perspective on ever-changing, ever-more complex environment that surrounds me. So in a way, surfing may very well be the most important factor in my life. It is my compass and my scale. Surfing gives me direction and helps me seek balance. It is too important to discredit.