Funny you brought this up. I broke my little toe 5 days ago and my wife scolded me for surfing yesterday. 3 days dry and I was starting to lose it. Tiny waves beat being dry any day.
At one point in time I spent a surfless year in the UK, working in London. It’s everything you’ve read only more of a hole…
Anyway, there I was on my first time off, standing watching a famous break called Porthleven, small but perfect. I was too rooted from months of clubbing and you-know-what…
There and then I vowed never to stray far from the Ocean, ever…
…like I buddy of mine says, “you can’t MAKE it happen.”
Sometimes you’re head’s just not in the game. Sometimes you shuffle your schedule, put off the kids, abandon your projects, disappear…
…and when you paddle out, all you can think about is what you should have been doing… and how it affected somebody else… or your marriage… or your relationship with your kid… or your co-workers…so you could go get a few waves
…because surfing is such a selfish pursuit…such a powerful drug… that, in some ways, surf spots become like crack houses…because it’s more addictive than junk…
And then you go home… or go to work… and have to look somebody in the eye…and then you pay.
They all made fun of me. They laughed at my bright red US Coast Guard wetsuit, and my crash helmet. Then they said my 15 ft board was too big, and made out of wood.
Ran me out of the water for 20 years.
But I showed them, I put a GPS on my board. Now I’m the fastest surfer on the planet. Look whos laughing now.
I stopped for 2 weeks because mt shoulder was so tight i couldnt move it above horizontal without pain. No big deal, it was more of a worry thing than a pain thing. Did some stretches my physio told me to do, and its much better. Still doesnt feel 100%, but its mainly discomfort, not pain, and if i paddle like ’ “turtle”, it doesnt feel funny. I Will check it out again soon, but i’ll go to a physio that specialises in swimmers/surfers.
Stopped for 2 year when I built my house. It was super physical work (ferrocement), did it by myself with some help from the wife. Couldn’t afford any injuries… Had enough from construction. And had to finish house before my wife left me. We were living in a tent and she was starting to get pissed. My 6 month project took 2 years. See pic under shaping for living thread.
Here ya go chipper we’ll see what the peanut gallery has to say
Well, I see surfermagforum hasn’t had any fresh air in the last few years…ignorance and arrogance loud and clear!
Nothing has made me stop …yet. Some things have forced some time outs. I ignored a nagging injury and kept surfing until I wound up so crippled I spent weeks with a neck brace and excruciating pain…I learned a lesson there…I hope…
Something I would ad to the original list which I thought about coming home this afternoon: losing friends to surf with. Others quit, drift off, move, and get the same life-bogging situations as the rest of us. I can remember lots of memorable sessions that were memorable not for the surf but for the fun in the water and on the beach. Yeah, you could say “a crowded break is full of potential friends” but I would counter with “paddle out and feel the love”.
stopped for two years after college—because they drafted my ass! basic training, warrant officersch/chopper school then off to wonderful SE asia where i discovered that a couple of bottles of good booze and the air force pukes would bring a surfboard from Oz in the belly of a B-52 and you could surf almost every in the China sea! not great but it was wet and some days were great…
Afterward, i swore NEVER to life outside of tide water, and i haven’t !!! i surf more now at 60 than i did at 22----wife says that i get weird if i don’t get wet in the ocean(actually she said ‘weirder’)
Hey Chippppeeeeeee, I was going to tell you I stopped surfing because I ran out of ocean or went home or back to work or something lame but then read Ambrose’ eloquent-as-always analysis of the bigger deal. I now realise that the best surfing I do is while I’m not actually in the water, it’s when I’m in my garage making stuff and dreaming about being a half decent surfer on some pristine desserted piece of ocean.
I’m off to get my wetty on for a session in the garage, I may even put some beach boys on the stereo…WHOOOAAAHH NO!
Nicely put, as always Ambrose. That will make me smile at work tomorrow driving between appointments with my hand outa the window in the pissing down rain and murky shite fog that is old England. Cheers, I need all the smiles I can muster at work at the minute.