Can surfing and building surfboards be sacred?
Religion can be defined as beliefs and practices generally held by a community, involving rituals and appreciation of cultural traditions, history, writings and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience.
The ancients believed it was all much more than dust in the wind.
What about you?
definitely more like religion for me
When I was on Reunion some well dressed people came to my ‘cas creole’ one day talking away in French, which I didn’t understand very well. Sounded like they were talking about quality of life where I live etc, so I thought they were from the mayorie (local govt) taking a survey or something.
Ended up they were sort of bible bashers, so in my very basic French I explained that I lived in this shack, worked just down the road making boards, and went surfing out there using the boards, pointing to the spot.
A word that came up, which means the same in French, was religeon. I tried to explain that this was my religeon. They looked at me strange and eventually left, probably wondering who the idiot foriegner was living in a shack.
I went surfing.
living life with purposeful
awareness can lead to a state of mind
in the light.
Sacrement
,consuming foodstuffs
mindfully with the creator
in mind can be enlightening.
yes surfing can be done at a higher plane
sacred … sure…
dont tell any body
…ambrose…
Can surfing and building surfboards be sacred?
Religion can be defined as beliefs and practices generally held by a community, involving rituals and appreciation of cultural traditions, history, writings and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience.
The ancients believed it was all much more than dust in the wind.
What about you?
Religion also revolves and is most often based on opinions of the afterlife: how to get there and what to expect…
While Id like to be catching a few at my favourite devine reef I dont know that surfing has an afterlife ethos?
Tho I would like to hear suggestions 
rif.
reincarnation as a dolphin?
anyone seen the “big blue”
NO.
before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water
after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water
I guess What I’m about to do is sacrilegious… move to Kansas. Is that one of the seven deadly sins? I guess I could still shape just not ride.
i guess it could be but what would that really change in how and when we make them
but in the words of ziggy marley “love is my religion”
‘The ancients believed it was all much more than dust in the wind’
Sorry mate, foam dust in the wind for me.
From what i have learned as a begginner, surfboard making comes about by the application of known mathematics, physics, observation, logic, trial and error. I would even go so far as to say that if anything, board building for me has lost a lot of its mysticism and secretness thanks to Sways. After all, isnt it just foam, fibreglass and fins? Surfing gives me immense pleasure and gets my endorphins and synapses firing away.
By definition, if you are going to define surfing as a religion than you have to invoke some sort of supreme being (some would say huey etc) that is the surf god. You cant invoke the christian-judeo god cause then it wouldnt be the ‘Surfing Religion’ it would just be a bunch of christians surfing. Then, as most religions have a defined hierarchy you will also have to find yourself a figurehead to spread the message of suring around and a bunch of priests to do his bidding. While all this is happenning, you just realised that their is a lot of different types of surfing - longboarding, matt riding, bodyboarding, SUP etc - will this new religion include these? If not, will there be a surfing holy war?
Ado
Can surfing and building surfboards be sacred?
does that make running a surf shop into Simony? Then there is the question of professional surfing; just what does that become?
From http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/religion
religion (plural religions)
- A system of beliefs, including belief in the existence of at least one of the following: a human soul or spirit, a deity or higher being, or self after the death of one’s body.
- He couldn’t abide by any religion that didn’t allow for wrongdoers to be punished after death.
- A number of customs and rituals associated with such beliefs.
- When it comes to religion, she doesn’t believe, but she loves to attend the ceremonies.
- Anything that involves the association of people in a manner resembling a religious institution or cult.
- At this point, Star Trek has really become a religion.
- Any system or institution which one engages with in order to foster a sense of meaning or relevance in relation to something greater than oneself.
Which is an acceptable set of meanings, at least to be going on with. So, let’s test 'em on surfing ;
A system of beliefs, maybe, but waves and surfcraft don’t necessarily imply a soul, deity or afterlife. More a here-and-now kind of thing.
Ceremonies? Again, not implied or necessary. Unless you want to consider surf contests as religious services of some sort, a thought that makes me shudder.
The association of surfers? Well, in that case Sway’s here gets an interesting status too - is this, then, an evolving gospel?. Besides which, can you not surf alone? Indeed, doesn’t everybody surf alone?
This is a slippery one. If someone gets a sense of meaning or the feeling that they are meaningful to the cosmos, the world, the sea or a wave by surfing…okay, neat, though I’ll say that the wave comes before and is independant of the surfer. Well, give or take wave pools, which themselves then verge opon heresy or idolatry. The sense of meaning is subjective, and using such a definition then just about any act a human does could be interpreted as being part of a greater something or other. The cycle of eating, digesting and then excreting seems to be well within this definition, indeed more so that surfing. Consider the religious obsevances that would foster…
The ancients did indeed believe that there was more than dust in the wind. But they believed a lot of things we have since discarded. Thunder isn’t the prerogative of Zeus any more, nor is it thought especially necessary to sacrifice the fat of rams to Neptune before setting out on a sea voyage. If somebody really, really needs to go through life with a belief system connecting them to a religion, well, okay, but please don’t ask me for donations.
Me? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism - which starts with
"Existentialism is a philosophical movement that claims that individual human beings have full responsibility for creating the meanings of their own lives.
doc…
While Id like to be catching a few at my favourite devine reef I dont know that surfing has an afterlife ethos?
Tho I would like to hear suggestions
rif.
Everything comes in waves…
----------------------------------------------->
http://www.amazon.com/West-Jesus-Surfing-Science-Origins/dp/1596910518
it’s a good read…
Then there is the question of professional surfing; just what does that become?
Pagan idolatry, pure and simple…worship of money!
If someone gets a sense of meaning or the feeling that they are meaningful to the cosmos, the world, the sea or a wave by surfing…
Many, many people these days seem to equate standing on a surfboard with walking on water in the biblical sense…worse than worshipping money, they worship themselves. They apparently fantasize about the perks and swag Jesus could command, conveniently forgetting time he spent on top of a hill later in life. It is doubtful he was thinking to Himself “My how much this looks like Tuscany”. But I could be wrong about that…
Scaredness isn’t in the activity, it’s in the commitment and belief.
9 times out of ten I go bodysurfing, usually with one of several handboards I made myself out of wood…I’m not sure where that leaves me in the surfing world, if there really is one.
Nels
They say made in the image and likeness of the Creator . . . made . . . but not existing . . .
But we’re shadows, offshoots of the original. Marvel would say the offspring with few powers as opposed to the parents with wonderful things like cosmic energy manipulation or force field generation etc . . .
But granted, we can create. And maybe thats the gift of the shadows, and the second came later to transcend our shadows and be given bodies, not of physical ones.
Notice something always new, its always changing. Ah, maybe there’s more to life than just this, what we know now.
We hold many things to be sacred, but many truths to be told. What if the truth was so big, so beyond human understanding it was hard to realize it was the truth? And piled on top of it was lies, like a uber-thick onion and you have to peel the layers away. Some layers require the right tool and technique combinations, and maybe only one instance of time to bypass it, after that, the layer is impenetrable. . . so its hidden.
And what if that one beyond and bigger than you truth also encompassed several smaller truths that validated the big one, all just as complicated as the original.
Like Voltron or transformers or some other anime robots that transform, then combo into the ultra biggatron robot that can kick ass on so many levels.
Sometimes people get it in early like, three kids at a joint called Fatima or like my grandpa just in the nick of time before the wick of life smokes out.
I was bathed in it from day one. But I feel as if I’m slick, I’m rubber, you’re glue any truth that hits me bounces off and sticks to you. And I wander upon this earth like Kane, head lost.
But slowly truth drips in like the IV of someone who nearly lost all. But actually its half.
Remember one drop I got?? This one made me realize this is not a dream.
OMG I can’t believe it!! Tyler Durden from ASF stole my gf!! Am I going to wake up from this??? Dude did you realize it? You were on the baddest set of the day. The guys on beach were straining . . . Honey did you remember to get the kids cold medicine from the market. Sir we’ve lost the 16th and the 14th is falling apart and can’t hold it. They’re going to be in range in a minute. Why do I believe? It is because I have done everything, from ousting kings, to embarrasing the Roman emperor, to most of the Scriptii females, seen the low point of men on the march and highest honor. But not one human experienced touched me. But this, only a True God could do this. And not the 20 ok’d by the Senate. . .
This drop, the physical realm, what you did two hours ago and before, during and after reading swaylocks is life is only half the story.
The second begins . . . I think (I’m not 100% sure. Man the IV is so slow sometimes. HURRY UP! Oh wait don’t hurry up, because once you get your allocated drips its on the second half of the game)
The second begins but you don’t realize it. But you loved ones left behind do.
Anyways since were just shadows of the Original . . . then like the Original we have existence beyond our understanding . . . sometimes though since we are limited, we might be putting something which actually is a lower run or lower level, on a higher one.
You know like making something simple too complicated . . .
Anycase just some ramblings . . .
9 times out of ten I go bodysurfing, usually with one of several handboards I made myself out of wood…I’m not sure where that leaves me in the surfing world, if there really is one.
Hmm- limbo?
Where kneelos like me fit in is open to conjecture…
doc…
Why bother to try to elevate surfing? Make it something more than it is? It’s simply a great interaction with nature. Something modern society divorces humans from more and more each day with our technology and contrivances.
Sacred. Bah Hum bug.
Great reply, just a really fun and challenging way to interact with nature.
Using some of that technology of course, unless you’re riding a hewn log, bamboo raft or woven grass etc, etc.
aquafiend, thanks for the link. Looked like it might be fun and the local library has it so I get for free in a few weeks…