I just read this inspiring interview by Tim Baker, of Surfing Life fame, with award winning author Tim Winton.
There’s times I go out at Long Reef, across the road from my place, after a busy work day and for ages can’t seem to catch any waves that are worth writing home about. Mainly, this is because I don’t let go. Let go of the day, the past, tomorrow or what other people think. I don’t live in the moment.
Then, I’ll catch a screamer, and everything changes, I spend the rest of my surf totally ripping, totally absorbed.
Tim, the writer, describes this perfectly,
[Surfing is] a way of slowing down and processing stuff without consciously addressing it. A lot of the time we’re forced to live in the future or the past. Surfing is something that keeps you in the present tense. Some of that is just the immediacy of the problems it sets you, physical adjustments you make every half second to stay on your feet or avoid physical injury (or discomfort, at least). Some of it is just the energy required that dulls much of your other problems.
I don’t meditate much anymore, but I surf. Once again, Tim captures this,
For me surfing is about beauty and connectedness. Riding a wave to shore is a lovely, meditative thing to be able to do. You’re walking on water, tapping the sea’s energy without extracting anything from it. You’re meeting the sea, not ripping anything out of it.
And I’m being environmentally friendly at the same time,
Few other water pursuits have this non-exploitative element. As a boater, fisherman, shell-collector or whatever, I’m always taking something away from the sea, having an impact on it… But as a surfer I’m riding energy that the sea is expending of its own accord, the way a dolphin or seal or sea-lion does. The actual physical sensation of sliding down a wall of water, feeling really awake and alive and in the moment, is hard to describe to the non-surfer. It looks beautiful and it feels beautiful. Knowing that you’re not doing any damage just makes the feeling better. For some men in particular, whose lives require a kind of utilitarian mindset that can be pretty unfulfilling, this is one of the few activities they undertake in which they can do something pointlessly beautiful. There’s no material result, nothing they can show themselves or the boss. There’s just a bit of a rush, an elevated heart rate, a buzz that lasts all the rest of the day.
I am most certainly taking a copy of ‘Breath‘ on holiday with me!