What would it take for you to give up the great game?
My cousin killed himself over the Christmas break. He left no note, so no one really knows what was going on.
He did send his sister this video a while back and said it explained him:
I watched this and immediately thought about his surfing. He started before going off to college and quit in his late-twenties. I never asked him about it. I started surfing around the same age and still surf.
Could you quit surfing. Is it easy?
Maybe at this point in your life you have different goals, different ideas that lead you away from the surf. Like giving it all up and moving away from the water. You sell your gear to some kid on Craigslist and move to the Midwest. Then you go through a series of hobbies and sports chasing the high you used to get from surfing.
Maybe a slow but continuous growth of responsibilities and commitments makes it happen. Perhaps having a child and gaining weight does it. Maybe the end comes when your wife asks why there are surfboards lying around.
Would you still consider yourself a surfer as you slowly grow apart from that part of your life? At which point do you stop identifying yourself as a surfer?
Maybe at this point in your life you have different goals, different ideas that lead you away from the surf. Like giving it all up and moving away from the water. You sell your gear to some kid on Craigslist and move to the Midwest. Then you go through a series of hobbies and sports chasing the high you used to get from surfing. Eventually, you land on running and whatever the latest craze might be, like rock climbing.
Is surfing even good for us? I’m in my thirties and am only just starting to figure out my career after a string of menial jobs. If I gave surfing up now entirely, would I be free to chase a real career? Is surfing keeping me at the blue-collar work level, like so many of the other surfers we see in the lineup.
I need to keep moving to feel like I am accomplishing something. I feel better when I surf. I am less agitated and it keeps me in shape. Studies have even shown that surfing helps people deal with PTSD. It keeps kids out of gangs, teaches people how to cope with anxiety and builds solid communities of people dedicated to the ocean.
On the other hand, I hate any job that keeps me out of the water or inactive. I need to keep moving to feel like I am accomplishing something. I feel better when I surf. I am less agitated and it keeps me in shape. Studies have even shown that surfing helps people deal with PTSD. It keeps kids out of gangs, teaches people how to cope with anxiety and builds solid communities of people dedicated to the ocean.
Jean-Paul Satre, the French philosopher, once said that we are “condemned to freedom.”
We have to have a purpose in life and I wonder if surfing is mine.
I don’t know… fuck fish.