Aloha Tribe,
For Valentine's weekend, I went to Whidbey Island for 4 days of surfing. I had a truly beautiful time. The surf was between 18 and 22 foot, Churly Churly, often Closed Out, some beautiful Peelers, rain, some sun, and lots of seafood soup.
The best way to ride most of the time was ahead of the whitewater, often simply in a Prone Out. But that got me to thinking. Proning Out is, more or less, for the most part, a lost art, it seems. So few do it, fewer still truly study it, and less, master it.
Yet, it is a truly beautiful art, filled with subtle details to be explored. I'm finding all aspects of surfing moves and techniques truly fascinating, and each offers a depth that adds yet more flavor to our art.
It's the tiny distinctions between each type of move, the thing that makes it unique, yet, more so, gives it room for personal expression, that so captures my heart and soul and mind. For, as with each of us, it is all about the ride. That feeling of being one with the sea. Learning from her, embracing her, feeling her within you and around you, being truly one with the surf. That, to me, is what surfing is about. In part.
Of course, I'm drawn to the boards themselves, how they are shaped, each line, and, why. I am drawn to our fascinating history and culture, to our legends and giants in the field, to the person who's just having fun. The food fascinates me, as does simple things like waxing my board, for in that, I find a spiritual sense of peace and depth and beauty. I love riding around with my boards on my car, or, in it. The smell of my wetsuit, fresh from the sea's embrace. I truly love being part of the Tribe. A sister to all of you.
I'm stoked. I admit it. And, I can't get enough. I love our movies and our literature. Our paintings and our sculptures. And our music.
For surfing, to me, is a way of life. A truly beautiful way of life that permeates all of me, making me who I am, and each of us, who we are.
I'm finding that exploring something seemingly simple, like, Proning Out, to have such a complexity to it that it seems endless in its offering and lessons. And that is but one move.
It's all about the feeling. The movement. Both within me and outside of me, that draws me so. And that's why I so love combining surfing with Chi Gung, because that art offers such a truly magical way to explore the depths of feelings and sensations even more than ever imagined, using concrete training exercises based on ephemeral experiences.
My NOHO Surf Trainer is giving me truly a wonderful way to explore deeper into the moves I find myself studying, for a ride on a wave is so short, yet, paradoxically, forever in feeling, and, that feeling can then be colored and flavored into new creations and experiences of sensual sensations.
It was, a great weekend. The surf was wild and rugged and raw, primal in its power and fury, and oh so very vigorous. I can still feel its flowing.
Bodaciously Stoked,
Lily of the Valley
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