El Surf y La Vida

Sometimes I’m surprised I wasn’t born with gills.

My life in the water started when I was eight and learned how to surf in Hawaii with my dad and Uncle Kimo.  At 13, I joined my high school’s swim team.  I sucked, but I fell in love.  I got better and ended up swimming competitively through college.

From my early childhood until now, I have basically devoted my life to the ocean, whether swimming in it or dedicating my time to finding and riding the “perfect wave” for me.  The idea of the fabled perfect waves seems a bit juvenile to some.  It’s no secret that people who associate themselves with the ocean march to the beat of a different drum, with sun-bleached hair, tanned skin and an attitude that is perhaps a little less high strung than others.

Although I am not the best surfer in the world (not even close, let’s be real), it is something I love and enjoy.  Surfing is not just a sport for me, it’s a perspective, it’s a way of life.  Yes, that sounds dramatic, but hear me out.  Surfing can teach you life lessons you won’t learn anywhere else.

1. Every time you fall, get back up.  There is no other sport I have ever done that you, literally, fall of every time and have to get back on the board, paddle back out and go again and again and again.  What an incredible reminder and metaphor for life.  Growing up, so many of us are trained to be afraid of trying things because we are afraid to fail.  In life, however, you must think the opposite.  In life, you are expected to fall over and over again.  What matters is if you choose to get back on and paddle back out.
2. Surfing and life are spiritual journeys.  Both surfing and life require great amounts of focus and discipline and confidence in yourself, as well as trust in the process and journey.
3. Mind over matter.  Our attitudes shape our reality.  If you think you can’t, you’re right.  If you think you can, you’re right.  It is important to think and remind yourself that if you believe you will reach your goals, achieve your dreams, succeed in your life, then you will.
4. Be present.  Be here, right now.  By staying in the present, you are able to adapt and adjust your paddle, pop up and ride the wave.  In life, there is planning involved with obstacles and opportunities at every turn.  If we lose our focus, we can be thrown off our path, or thrown off the board.
5. Have persistence and perseverance.  “Catching” opportunities we hope to “ride” in life requires us putting in the effort.  It could be a job, a relationship, or a moment in time.  The point is that unless you are lined up in the direction of whatever is coming your way, it will either casually pass underneath your nose or come crashing down on you hard.  On the other hand, it your effort is aligned with the force coming at you, that effort will pave the way for more joy, success and excitement.

So… is surfing a good metaphor for life?  Like life, surfing is extremely difficult.  Like life, it can be frustrating.  Like life, it requires unbelievable balance.  Like life, the more risks you take, the greater the reward.  And finally, like life, riding a wave provides you with a simultaneous occurrence of events that provide an opportunity to become “one with nature” while experiencing the magical feeling of flying we imagined as kids along with the sense of achievement that we crave as adults.  It provides total fulfilment on all levels.

I was very thankful to get to go surfing during a recent vacation in El Salvador, in a small surf town near Libertad, called El Tunco.  Although El Tunco proved to be more of a big-wave surfer paradise, I didn’t hesitate to wake up every morning at 6am to go check the surf and either paddle out or go for an ocean swim.  Only after one week of surf and ocean and heat was I able to completely recharge my batteries and come back to Buenos Aires ready to take everything head-on.

El surf y la vida…