Life lessons from a lapsed surfer.
I spent some time over the last couple of days at the shore. In between bouts of relaxing in the sand and splashing in the waves with Elz and Liz, I took some time to surf.
It's been more than a decade since I surfed with anything resembling regularity. My time on the water, both by myself and while teaching Elz (who did great) gave me the vocabulary I needed to express some life lessons I've learned over that time period.
1. The Jersey shore is an awful place to surf; but even there you can find waves and have fun if you’re willing to be patient, keep your eyes open, and work for them.
2. Paddling out is the toughest part. You won’t get any of the thrill of sliding down the face of a wave unless you first push through those same waves breaking past you. If you’re going to get out, you can’t be afraid. You can be prudent, wait for a lull, find a channel to take you outside; but you can’t be afraid once you decide to paddle out.
3. There comes a time, when you drop in, when you have to commit. You can decide to pass on a wave when you see it from a distance, or when it's right upon you, or even when you're already paddling in, but once you tip over the edge there’s no turning back, and if you waver you will bail.
4. As with almost anything, the only way to get stronger and better is to struggle, fail, and try again. You’ll mess up duck dives and get tumbled into shore, you’ll wipe out and get dragged along the bottom of the ocean, and you’ll miss waves because you didn’t move early enough or paddle hard enough for them. Learn and move forward and you’ll improve, give up and you won’t.
5. There will always be other waves. Maybe not today, but as long as you keep paddling out there will be more waves.
6. This is all so much more fun with a friend. There were a couple hours where Elz and I were just sitting on our boards on a mostly flat ocean. It was one of my favorite stretches of time the whole trip.
