Revealed: The great Garrett McNamara once questioned his place in the surfing world!

Motivational!

Do you ever feel glum when you look around and see all the epic people changing lives, doing important and amazing things? I sometimes do. I had big dreams, man. Dreams that once seemed so attainable. I was going to compose sonnets more beautiful than Beady Eyes. I was going to discover the biggest wave in the world and surf it like Garrett McNamara. All I ended up doing was writing Cocaine + Surfing (Buy here! The perfect gift for everyone on your Christmas list!).

A failure.

And so it buoys my very soul when I read that Garrett McNamara, the man who discovered the biggest wave in the world and surfed it, struggles with self-doubt too. It was tucked into a story about how he is going to solve the nasty too-much-plastic-in-the-ocean problem and let’s read about it.

Big wave surfer Garrett McNamara has launched a campaign to fight plastic pollution in the seas in an effort to “give back” to the ocean that gave him fame.

McNamara, who started surfing at 11, has made a name for himself for riding waves from collapsing glaciers to pioneering tow surfing and breaking the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed, in the Portuguese town of Nazare.

“Everything I have came from the ocean and I feel it’s time to give back,” McNamara, 51, told Reuters during the launch of his anti-plastic campaign in Lisbon. “The government needs to declare a state of emergency and mandate laws now.”

Originally from Massachusetts, McNamara discovered the biggest wave in the world off Nazare, 120 km north of Lisbon, and set his first record in 2011 when he rode a 78-foot (24 meters) wave. Two years later he beat it by riding a 100-foot (30 meters) wave at same spot.

McNamara’s surfing career slowed in 2016 after he fell off his board and badly fractured the humerus bone in his left arm. He questioned his place in the surfing world and is now pursuing a “bigger purpose”, he said.

With the new initiative, he hopes to encourage world leaders and companies to reduce waste and production of plastic.

Etc.

And is that why I feel like a failure? Because I am not pursuing a “bigger purpose?” My very own “special purpose?” I shall be thinking on these things for the remainder of the day.