Soul Surfing

Soul Surfing. We hear the term a lot. But what is it? And, how does one find it? Well, I don't know about everybody else, but to me, it means some truly beautiful things.

Three of my favorite Soul Surfers are Robert August, Gerry Lopez, and Wingnut. And from watching each of them on movies, and one day I so hope, in person, I have got a few basic ideas of what Soul Surfing can be all about.

Soul Surfing, it seems, is all about the moment. It's about truly loving surfing with all of your heart. It's about being fully present in the moment in exactly what you are doing. It is being right here, right now, on this wave and that is all that matters for the ride. Soul Surfing is about having fun, about fully embracing the stoke. It is about, being.

And sure, lots of us see ourselves as Soul Surfers, and in that sense, we all are. Yet, it is an art that is never ending and a path that leads us to unlimited internal potential within ourselves. And that's the exciting part of it.

Yet, among the Soul Surfing elite, there are the guys out there who just stand out, the guys who seem to really have it, like the three awesome legendary men I mentioned above. They each have something about them that goes beyond what most of us can ever even imagine. They have a depth that we can but dream of.

And how does one get there? Goodness, I don't know, I'm but a simple kahuna tuna, a mere beginner with but a loving and open heart of dreams.

But, that being said, I do know what I am doing to help myself surf my path. And that, maybe, is about all any of us can do, find our own path through surfing, for we each ride a different wave for the water is never the same twice.

All I know is what is working for me, on my own little waves, in my own way. And for that, I'm using chi gung, simply because I've studied it for most of my life and therefore it is a part of who I am. As such, I use breathing exercises and physical exercises as well as mental visualizations to bring me into that zone where lightning fast evens seem to be happening in slow motion. It is a zone that can be entered at will, once one knows how. And in such a frame of mind, with  such total sensory awareness, one can lose oneself fully to the moment.

To do this though, first, since I am but a beginner, I am learning skills. Honing each to the best of my ability, in order to be able to use them without having to think of them, to be able to use them at the level of art. I am, of course, not there yet, it is but a dream of mine. But I'm working at it. The sensory awareness part, the slowing of time to a near standstill, those, I have from a lifetime of training and dedication to the old ways. But bringing them to surfing, that is the new part for me. And that is the exciting part. I'm bringing what I know, what I do best, to the most beautiful sport and art that I know, surfing, namely, longboard surfing. With plans for big wave surfing along the way for I see both as fully related in that both require, at the level of art, total immersion into what is happening now, with the longboard, in almost slow motion in a 60's kind of style, and in big wave riding, in an intense in-the-moment presence. Both bring one to the same place, just, from opposite directions. That's what I see as their connection, and, that's what draws me so to both so deeply and passionately.

Soul Surfing, at the level of the legends I mentioned earlier, is not, I'd imagine, about this technique or that one, that is the zone for the beginner, like me, but instead, is about the flow. And that is the path I aspire to. To ride with the same feeling that I have with chi gung. I want to ride with chi. So first, the techniques need to come. And that is so where a mentor would come in handy. I dream of such a man. Or woman for that matter. To  help me on my path. But in the meantime, as are most surfers, I am but alone with the sea. And perhaps that is how it often is. For in surfing, as in life, it is within ourselves, that we truly find ourselves.

So, where am I on my Soul Surfing path? In regards to technique, but at the very beginning, the lowest of the low. But regarding being in the flow, I am where I am. For me, sitting on the flattest of seas, with nary a ripple, brings such ecstatic stoke, for even in the tiniest of movements, so subtle that they are barely perceptible, I find such great joy. My thing is movement, I admit it. Any kind of movement. Both internal and external. And such waves are such a stoke to ride with pure spontaneous exhultation.

Soul Surfing is my goal, my quest, my life. It always has been. From the day I made my first surfboard when I was in 5th grade. I caught the stoke then, and it has always been  a part of me. I guess it's like that for all of us, for we each have such cool stories to tell as we Talk Story.

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley