Guy/ Gals,
This may seem a strange question, but it is somthing I’ve pondered for years. How many of you have had dreams (during sleep) of, or about, surfing? I have always been surprised by my own experience, which is VERY FEW. I only recall two occasions of surfing related dreams, in all the years of my involvement in surfing. I have always felt I should have had more. So, that’s the reason for my question. What has your experience been?
a little while ago i had a dream about a new surfboard design (which would never work) but i woke up wondering “what if”? it’s really wierd how you remember some dreams but forget others. maybe you had some dreams and forgot?
i’ve been surfing since '63.
only had 2 dreams of surfing which i can recall.
dreams took place during a recent east coast flat spell.
i was surfing on what appeared to be a board around 6’6. a rounded disc shape.
funny thing was it was on land, on the sort of grassy swales one finds around interstate overpasses…sort of like skateboarding, but not. there were others doing the same thing there, but i didin’t recognize them.
sort of like hovercraft surfing but without any discernable means of power…maybe antigravity. pretty wierd, huh?
so…dr. freud…what do you make of that?
“sometimes a surfboard is just a surfboard”
Surfing since '79 and have had a few. Not very many and they are always really good or just normal. Never scarry. But then I don’t dream much in general, or at least I don’t remember many of my dreams.
I’m close enough to the ocean to hear waves, and when it sounds big I sometimes dream of riding big waves. Not all the time, but fairly often. Power of suggestion?
I often dream of surfing. The twist is that I will dream of going to the waves seeing the waves. But I never get in the water or surf. It is dissapointing to wake up with perfect waves fresh in your memory, but no memory of surfing.
Mostly my dreams tend to be “technical” in nature, and not about events or fantasy. If I go to bed thinking about a puzzle, I usually wake up with the solution. When I have dreams about dreamy things, surfing is a popular theme.
When I was a kid and all I did was surf… and I felt it was important to shred… I had surfing dreams almost every night. But then surfing was like a puzzle. I’d surf in my dreams then wake up, go to the beach, and surf better than the day before.
My “happy place” is on a deserted beach, with palm trees, jungle, and perfect barrels - rights and lefts (sometimes scantily or non clad women but always good waves… and the girls always surf too). Whenever I’m stressed out, that’s where I go in my head. That spot has made it into my night-time thoughts many times.
I have a hard time falling asleep. Instead of counting sheep, I mind surf.
When I go to sleep imagining riding a wave I usually have some dreams of myself surfing.
The other day, when thinking about surfing, it took me a few minutes to realize that the wave I was remembering was one from a dream (a good one). I knew it was a false memory because I was surfing regular foot and I am goofy foot.
Some of my best waves have been in my dreams…
I have a hard time falling asleep. Instead of counting sheep, I mind surf.
Mind surfing is what keeps me from falling asleep.
Same thing for me…
I almost ALWAYS am thinking about riding a shoulder high left on different boards until I fall asleep, but I can’t remember ever dreaming about surfing. You’re right, that IS odd.
Funny, it’s a green walled out shoulder-high right for me. Works in minutes, for years now. I’ve dream-surfed a few times too.
“If I go to bed thinking about a puzzle, I usually wake up with the solution.”
I recall recently reading about the evidence that the brain actually uses the sleep cycle for exactly this function (e.g. solving math problems), and parts of your brain become more active while you’re asleep. Here’s info about one such study (not the one I recall but whatever):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3418017.stm
Thus the old expression “sleep on it” makes sense. If you’re having a problem figuring out how to fold glass around those weird wings, or build a new jig, or re-arrange your shaping area, sleep on it and maybe it will be obvious in the morning. (and thus, voila, this curious thread becomes surfing-design-related!)
I dream a lot about surfing but rarely do I actually get to surf…only two come to mind. Most of the dreams revolve around deciding what kind of board to shape and then screwing it up. Go figure…
My “Happy Place” is thinking about finding a time machine and heading back to the Ranch in the 1850’s. I fall asleep organizing the Chumash to fight the Spanish instead of surfing. Go figure…
I’ve had a bunch. Surfed this incredible right hander somewhere in the carribean which of course doesn’t exist. The worst though is dreaming about work and then waking up and having to go to work. I’d rather dream about surfing …
not sure, but i had a golf dream the other night…that was strange as i have golfed a sum total of 3 times in my life.
best part was, i was playing with tiger woods
Hi Bill -
Not many dreams about surfing but I have had dreams as a kid in which I was standing up and peeing directly in the toilet. The stream was dead-on perfect aim in the center of the bowl… and I woke up in a wet bed.
It has come to the point in my life when nearly every time I pee, I’m happy if I don’t wake up in a wet bed.
Bill, I don’t think I’ve ever had a surfing dream! Maybe surfing is surreal enough on its own.
My dreams tend towards the completely strange and very complex… a couple nights ago I dreamed I was P.Diddy but worked retail in Cleveland. My wife (my same wife, but Diddys’ wife in the dream) was a “power shopper” at REI and we were allowed to shop past closing and sleep in the store in their tents & sleeping bags. But when we woke up I couldn’t find any toothpaste and was worried about being late to my job back in Cleveland. It was fun, I was wearing a fancy suit & all the gold bling & everything. But I didn’t want to be late.
That’s pretty much how most of my dreams go. 
The surfing dreams - I never get to surf either! So weird. Sometimes I do get into the water but either the waves disappear or I never catch one or I catch one crappy closeout…A select few times I have caught some nice rides… It seems like I would be able to dream about surfing a perfect wave and catch rides that went forever and ever…but no such luck…I wonder what does this means…any experts out there???
Ive had a few. They tend to be weird though. I had one where I was on a ship owned by a friend of mine who owns a surf shop and we were going to a contest somewhere with a bunch of the CT guys and my friends (as well as some random people who I know but don’t surf). We kept stopping at places to surf but could not find the contest.
It has come to the point in my life when nearly every time I pee, I'm happy if I don't wake up in a wet bed.
When I was little my Japanese grandmother taught me that if I was having a dream about peeing, I should jump up and go to the bathroom in real life. To this day if I’m looking for a bathroom in a dream, I wake up and go.