Originally Posted by
Charlie Boy II
[Dear Guest/Member you have to reply to see the link.click here to register]
First and foremost there's the natural element. The ocean, the sun. Tides, wind, sand. You spend hours and hours in storms, sun, gale force winds - it gets you out in the ocean when otherwise the only place you'd want to be is at home in front of the heater. You learn to read weathermaps, to judge how such and such wind is going to affect a south easterly swell at this break or that break. How the tides are going to affect it. What the sand banks are doing. You accumulate a wonderful store of specialised knowledge.
Apart from that it builds your strength and the confidence you get from becoming accomplished at an incrediblly difficult discipline. In big conditions it forces you to confront your physical fears - something there isn't much scope for in the 9-5 office grind.
It keeps you fit and rips up your back and your torso. And also, because the act of surfing is so difficult it forces you to focus so completely on what you're doing that, on some days, it pushes you into a meditative state. You can get so totally absorbed in what you're doing at that exact moment that everything else melts away.
And it's just so damn fun.
