Yesterday morning I had one of the worst sessions of recent memory. An absolute shocker. As Jordy Smith once put it, I was bogging both rails at the same time. I could not figure it out. Waves were fun enough. Crowd wasn’t too hectic. I actually got into a few of the better set waves that came through for my surf, I just completely fucking blew them. Unbelievably frustrating.
I’m really looking forward to washing that off today, but I have about 3 ruined waves stuck in the back of my head. So I’m nervous. What if it happens again? What if I have begun my inevitable decline – the point in which your surfing is no longer improving.
I don’t believe this is what’s happening. I’m still (relatively) young. I’ll be 30 in a month. I should still have a couple of years of surfing at my peak. Nonetheless, that session yesterday got me pondering my future; How does one deal with the Human Struggle? – the fact that we reach a stage of life where we are no longer growing, there is no more progress. Instead we are faced with decline and regression. At least physically. Mental and emotional states may vary. But the body and its ability is what we are talking about, because that’s what we use to surf.
Would I keep surfing if I got worse at it everyday? It started with my top turn yesterday. I completely buried my front foot on one. My back foot slipped off the board before I even got a rail in the water on another. I started to hear chirps and whispers around me in the water. Fuck. I shouldn’t even get another set wave. Let me just get myself right on some of these insiders. Then, even on a smaller little right hander, was my pop up getting slower? Did my knee just touch the deck? Damnit. What the hell is going on? I’m out of here. I was heated.
So yeah, that was how my surf went yesterday, and I’m concerned. Maybe I wouldn’t surf at all if I was suffering out there everyday. Maybe I would. Maybe I could learn to accept my destined downfall. To love and cherish the one ride per session that I could pop up clean and still get down the line. I guess I will make that decision when it needs to be made. For today, I’m trying to fucking rip. Like Doug Silva said, I want to blackout the sun with my spray. Otherwise, what the fuck are we even doing out there?
Get after it.
Cheers.
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield