Let's watch Nick squeal with glee!
Nic Von Rupp is living my dream.
He’s handsome, he’s a talented surfer and, as a result of those attributes, he’s paid to chase incredible waves across the globe.
Which makes me wonder, is Nic happy?
I’ve never met the guy, so this is more of a large scale sociological question than a psychological evaluation, but it’s interesting how people with “everything going for them” are often quite miserable. (See: Dane Reynolds in Chapter 11.)
I’ve spent this year doing a fair bit of globetrotting. Hitting bucket-list destinations with the general goal of achieving, I suppose, some sense of universal contentedness. And while my experiences have been amazing, far exceeding the alternatives of sitting behind a desk or hammering nails, I can’t say my overall happiness has increased.
Petty issues continue to bug me, my dog still incites daily stress, and the weight of an unclear occupational future constantly affects my mood. Try as I might to surf the negatives away, at the end of the day, I’m still me. Despite my incredibly charmed life, I’m not necessarily any happier than someone “less privileged” than myself.
Of course socioeconomic status makes a difference in this discussion, but maybe not to the extent you believe.
For some people, happiness seems an inherent aspect of their personality. They were born that way. For others, happiness is earned through commitment to an optimistic outlook, spiritual enlightenment, or any other number of self-help practices.
For others, happiness seems genuinely unattainable. It could be a genetic thing or a confluence of negative events that leads these folks to eternal pessimism, but in any case the result is a miserable existence.
The interesting thing is that, on either side of the draw, you’ll find humans ranging from piss-poor paraplegics to multi-billionaire playboys. Beauty queens to butterfaces. Geniuses to nitwits.
It’s not what job we have, where we’ve travelled, or how beautiful we are that makes us happy. It’s just… us.
I think, on a 1-10 scale, I fall around the six-point-five mark for general happiness (just above the anti-depressive threshold).
What about you, readers? Are you generally fulfilled?
And Nic? Do all those tubes have a lasting positive effect, or are you just as susceptible to bullshit as the rest of us?
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That was cool. Imaginative.
You wouldn’t give two shits with one of those Hurley checks under the tissue box on your nightstand.
How the fuck does your dog incite daily stress? Its your dog. Does your dog not like you?
Oh he loves me. Just loves to get into mischief even more
Take your dog on a surf trip. Doesn’t require globetrotting and is inclusive in an anti-depressive way.
As a goofyfooter, this clip would have gone into my all time favorites if there were less clips of that gorgeous gal staring at the sky. The clip focuses on that almost as much as Nic’s tube riding. She hot, but Christ that was annoying.
I try to hover around the 6-7 zone but plunge into the two’s and three’s regularly. It’s hard to be happy when you limp around from heating pad to heating pad with a mouth guard in so you don’t break your teeth or bite your tongue off. It could be worse though! I could be a comment moderator at STAB! I would surely off myself.
Pro’s don’t care–they either become sales reps/team managers or start surf schools anyways. Their limited exposure to education doesn’t seem to hinder them from making a buck off surfing. It’s frustrating to say the least.
Research the concept of a “happiness set point” Mike. It explains the phenomenon you describe where peoples happiness isn’t impacted as much as you would expect by their circumstances. Also how good’s surfing in 2017? We’ve got a german pro who rips and who absolutely charges in hollow tubes. Deutschland über alles indeed.
just like the eternal question, is Fred Morais the new Tiago Pires? i wonder aloud, is Nic Von Rupp the new Marlon Lipke?
Yes – The eternal question indeed! Its a unique surfing sub-genre – the Portuguese embedded teutonic professional.
I smashed his misso. Fuck the rupp.
definitely not.
Michael, I think you missed the message of Dane’s Chapter 11. I enjoyed Dane’s commentary, even if it was a little scripted, and thought his honesty was refreshing
me too! but did you not recognize the underlying sentiment that dane has always been a little sad and anxious deep down?
That’s what he says in Chapter 11, that’s part of the honesty
Never met the guy, and yeah he doesn’t sound super stok-ed all the time. But he’s not exactly wallowing in his misery starting up a small business, and being a new father
My advice – get a job.
he’s got a job hasn’t he?
I dunno… MC, is this BG thing your full time occupation? If so, maybe it’s not satisfying enough and you should get a ‘proper’ job. Make surfing your release from that and you’ll enjoy any wave that become available [trust me]. Don’t forget, Nick Von Rupp’s job is making surfing based content for his boss[es], he’s not just drifting around aimlessly.
proper jobs, and their subsequent inflexibility, drive me close to insanity. but i do understand the sentiment!
Jobs pay money, longtom.