#6 ~ Wonderful Exhaustion

Candid Shot by DB

I dare not forget November as a solid part of the San Francisco surf season. The surf has been so fun for the last week and I have surfed so much that I am wonderfully exhausted. This morning’s session had to be cut short out of sheer muscle fatigue. Good waves kept coming through but my jello arms were giving way to late drops and subsequent thrashings.

When I realized that my get-up-and-go had got-up-and-gone a thought from the Surfer’s Path article on Ocean Beach (issue #55) flowed through my mind. Pete Reich states, “I think it’s tough to get good at Ocean Beach. There’s a lot more paddle time versus ride time, compared to a place like Santa Barbara or San Diego where it’s less intense to get to the surf and ride it. So it’s difficult to learn and progress here, although you do of course learn how to deal with big waves.” That is a pretty accurate description of my last week. Paddle, paddle, paddle and more paddle!

It’s really amazing how much paddling it takes to get waves at OB. Between the treadmill of whitewater, the ever shifting peaks and the relentless sideshore current surfers have to keep their arms moving constantly. The cool thing is that it forces one to be in great physical condition if you want to surf. The tricky side for me is that I have fantasies about being an extremely good surfer which will be difficult to achieve at OB.

Maybe that’s what I love about this place. It’s the ultimate life training ground. Just as in our day to day aspirations if we want something we have to really give it our all to get it. One of my most respected acting teachers Jon Jory achieved amazing success in his still thriving career. Amidst his stories of glory were relentless obstacles. His way of overcoming them was simple: just keep working! By continuing to work he was always learning new things, challenging himself and ultimately triumphing in his medium. OB reinforces this idea through paddling.

At some point it becomes natural to just keep paddling. A 30 minute paddle to reach the line-up followed by an entire session of paddling against the current just to keep from drifting along the beach becomes instinctive in the journey to ride the waves. Even places that are more user friendly will yield rewards to those with a diligent paddle ethic. OB is good for those stubborn students like myself.

#5 ~ Beginner’s Mind

October…my wife’s birthday month….my buddy DB’s birthday month….my parents wedding anniversary month…..and the beginning of fall……all of this adds up to good times and good surf! This is the time when the conditions at OB all line up for sunny days and offshore winds. It’s no secret. All local surfers who have their head even slightly above water know that this is the beginning of surf season!

I wake up with my daughter at 6:00am everyday. After singing her a few rounds of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds while freshening her diaper I deliver her to Mom for her daily super vitamin of breast milk. And now it’s time to check the surf. From our back porch I can see the flags hoisted above the city skyline pointing due west as the warm winds come from inland and journey out to sea. They are beacons guiding me to the water. After a cup of hot water to stoke my internal furnace I gather my gear in anticipation of what I will find when I reach the wilderness of Ocean Beach. A few kisses for my ladies begin my quest.

The flags never lie. As I crest the hill of the Great Highway to reveal the ocean I see a surf mag image come to life. Silken barrels are peeling from peaks stretching as far as my eye can see along the shore. Tell-tale mists of water are fanning off the top of every pitching wave. The sun is shining; the air is warm. It’s epic.

I suit up as efficiently as possible to avoid any delays in getting in the water. At the water’s edge I do a warm-up I learned in a Tai Chi class while surveying for a comfortable way to paddle out. Upon entering the water I give thanks to the ocean for welcoming me once again. I also pay my respects to the over 60 million Africans who lost their lives at sea during the 300 year African Slave Trade.

The paddle out always seems easy with the wind at my back. As I paddle over the tops of waves I can see rainbows in the sunlit fanning mists. I see people pulling into and coming out of barrels and fantasize that I may be so fortunate when I reach the line-up. The unridden, unblemished waves are gorgeous. Every breath and glance yields potential.

The vibe in the water reminds me of my childhood days. The whole pack becomes friends as we paddle in this liquid playground. My favorite moments are when a gorgeous set wave appears on the horizon and everyone sends out a cheer…..not because anyone is riding it…..we are simply celebrating the wave! And if someone is fortunate enough to catch it the cheers resound again. We all become the free-spirited, expressive kids from our younger days.

I often think about how growing older tends to coincide with less freedom. A classic scenario of youth is a teenager lashing out in a moment of anger with a thought like “I can’t wait until I’m older so I can do whatever I want!”. To some extent this is true; we can make choices for ourselves once we become ‘of age’. The catch is that we also tend to limit our possibilities…..whether we know it or not. We put barriers around how we behave, how we feel and what we do. For many of us that age ripened ‘wisdom’ translates to having higher, more durable self-limiting walls.

Shunryu Suzuki, the Zen Master who founded the respected Zen Center in San Francisco, states, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”

Age has a way of making us ‘expert’s’. I’ve been on a journey to chip away at these walls. It’s been a bumpy road that’s taken me around the world, through many jobs, upon many meditation cushions & into the water. And since I still find myself running into these invisible walls everyday I am thankful for the epic surf days that bring out the ‘beginner’ in me.

The journey continues……