Don’t think about it, just go. Paddle out. Put your suit on and catch a couple. Remember, 3 waves counts as a surf. 3 waves, or an hour – your call.
When’s the last time you regretted surfing? When have you gotten out of the water and were actually bummed that you paddled out? I don’t know if that’s ever happened to me.
I will say that one time my board hit me in the back of the head, prompting staples (or stitches? I don’t remember). The waves were pretty damn good that day though, I remember that. So no, not even that could bum me out.
I guess I can think of the worst time to surf – when you get skunked. Not just like you pull up to your local and it sucks, when you thought it would be good. That’s too simple; happens all the time. I’m talking when you drive for a couple hours in search of something special, surfing a good, renowned wave, and you get nothing. Or close to nothing. Getting out of the water after a long mission, to have surfed little to nothing – that does suck.
Even then though, is it the actual surfing you regret? Or is it the fact that you are an idiot and you have no idea how to forecast swell or time that specific spot? Probably the latter. “Fuck. We just drove all the way for this? Might as well jump in.” The surf, yeah it sucks, but that’s just because you are sour. Had you woken up in front of that, and took the exotic journey out of the scenario, it wouldn’t have been that bad.
All that being said, just paddle out. Be selfish. Go in late to work. Push that lunch meeting back. Don’t be lazy. You’ll always regret not surfing. The opposite is hardly true.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield