The sound of singing birds began at 6am. I listened for rain but heard none. I arrived at the water before dawn.
The waves were relatively low, or so they appeared from the beach. That’s another thing about surfing…what appear to be small, mild waves take on a disproportionately different demeanor altogether once you are actually out amidst them. On this early morning, just like my first lesson nine years ago, I took wave upon wave crashing head on into me as I tried to make my way out into the deeper water. My confidence on the board and my ability to maneuver had improved from just my first day out, so I met each oncoming wave with more enthusiasm and strength. I have now become a master of the “turtle roll” which I utilized time after time as the waves relentlessly crashed down upon me. I drank in saltwater by the bucket only to spit it quickly back out through my nose and mouth.
Perhaps the most demanding aspect of surfing is the amount of arm strength and cardio endurance it takes to keep paddling back out, at least far enough to keep from getting washed back into shore. I spent wave after wave in the “rinse cycle” as they call it. You are literally tumbling inside of this extremely powerful wave as it crests and it’s like being a wash cloth in the “rinse cycle.”
Through sheer strength of arm paddling and lung capacity, aside from coughing up salt water, I made it out far enough. This is the moment when you truly experience the majesty of Mother Nature. You are out far away from shore, surrounded by the endless sea of infinite ocean. The shoreline seems tiny, now far off in distance. You are seated upright with the board between your legs, like riding a horse. Actually, it is like a mechanical bull, moving and bucking as the waves roll in.
I gazed at the majesty of it all. Beautiful blue ocean all around me, off in the distance a mountain with lush greenery covering it. The sky was gray. Near the mountain a rainstorm began pouring down beneath the thick clouds forming around the cove. A sailboat moved slowly across the horizon in the far off distance. I was immersed, sitting in the midst of a master’s painting, while the powerful ebb and flow of the ocean expanded and contracted underneath me. When you surf, you begin to merge into the rhythm of the water, like the inhaling and exhaling breath of the ocean. It is like the sensation of being a baby on your mother’s chest as she softly breathes you to sleep.
The larger waves began rolling in. In order to catch a wave you must first be able to read the waves as they just begin forming on the horizon. They slowly begin to create sets. Once you get an idea of how to read them, the art is in catching yourself onto the wave at just the right moment. If you are too late, you miss it and it rolls underneath you. Too early and the break crashes down on you like a collapsing building. As the Beach Boys sang “catch a wave and your sittin’ on top of the world.” Truer words were never spoken. When you have the experience of catching a wave, there is really nothing it can be compared to. It is the all-powerful force of nature in motion and you are riding it with the entire force of it beneath you. It is more potent than a drug and easy to understand why surfers are addicted.
Nine years ago, on my first trip to Costa Rica, I caught that first wave and the experience never leaves you. Some nine years later and almost a decade older, I caught one again. I didn’t fully make it up to stand, but a beautiful wave rolled in, I got up on it at just the right moment and rode it all the way in with one leg up and one knee on the board. Once you are on it, it carries you with epic force. Nothing for you to do other than not wipe out. Just go with the flow, ride nature’s wave. This is the Tao. This is how to do life.
By this point the wave was carrying me in. I got up onto my knees, now attempting to fully stand, my left knee entered the water, now becoming a fin. I got to enjoy the full ride all the way into shore. Mother Nature carried me. I wasn’t fully standing up but I felt the entire force, the unfathomable power. Once you have that direct experience it is like merging with the ocean, you become one with it. It somehow gets inside of you and becomes a part of your being. Essentially, we are each made up of at least 70% water, some scientists say closer to 90%, so the feeling is as though the water that is you becomes merged with the water of the ocean, the water that makes up 70% of the planet. You become completely fluid. It is a truly spiritual, meditative experience beyond words.
That, in essence, is Zen. The Zen of Surfing.
___________________________
Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.
The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.
-Tao te Ching
View from the Road
Reflecting over the highlights of this past week on my morning hikes….I had a conversation with a man from Russia, a woman from China, and stumbled upon hundreds of monkeys crossing the road. I now spend my evenings talking teaching English to businesspeople in Japan. If nothing else, this makes for a rich and interesting life and keeps your perspective ever expanding.
Field Notes
From the Archives
Please enjoy The Rhythm of Nature from the archives.
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