The Secret of Old-School Classical Longboarding: Chi Gung Soul Surfing

Aloha Tribe,

As you all know, I love the longboard. It spiritually fits me.  I guess it's because of my hippy girl nature, that, and the Chi Gung and Shamanism I've practiced for a lifetime. You see, such a way of looking at life, that is to say, truly blending with the energy around you, the chi or qi, creates, a receptive harmony that just fits naturally with the longboard.

Sure, all of us see ourselves as Soul Surfers, yet, how few of us really understand what that really means? Naturally, the answer can only be found deep within each of us, in our own way, for, only ourselves, for we each walk our own path. Mine, happens to bushwack the wilds for that is my nature.

Soul Surfing, to me, is deepest explored using Chi Gung, since, as a tool, this 4000 year old Chinese art not only supplies the exercises and tools to do the job, but more so, supplies the language too that so many of us as surfers, lack. After all, we can say, we're stoked. But, what does that really mean? And, are their various levels or degrees of stoke even for ourselves? Of course there are. In fact, the depths are not only unexplored, which makes them utterly exciting, but more so, are virtually even unknown.

To find the secret of longboarding, all we really need to do is to find, within ourselves, that which allows each of us, for ourselves, to flow freely, naturally, and receptively, in graceful lines with the sea.

Sure, of course there's high performance longboarding, and, sure, many are on that path, but, for the Classical Stylist, for the Old-School Surfer, well, it's all about the flow.

And, what exactly is that flow? Well, it's how we feel the wave, and, how we blend with it and become one with it. When done the way we might dream, the result, is pure magic and feels like floating above the sea. In a way, it's not at all unlike how I like to think it would be for the comic book Marvel Super Hero The Silver Surfer, as he soars through the universe and galaxies, assuming, one could really do that, of course. But you know, that's the cool part in a way, we can, in our minds. And, as such, we can feel what is beyond us, with our energy, once, we know the secret.

Such a path of learning to feel and embrace the energy or chi (qi) around us, is what the field of Chi Gung is all about. It teaches you, basically, to simply learn to really embrace all of your senses at levels you never even imagined possible.

When in such a zone, instead of simply being on a wave, or, riding a wave and feeling the energy of a turn, there is so much more depth beyond this. You can feel the tiny ripples of each wave, the density of the water and its relationship to the bathymetry of the seascape, the minute shifts of yin and yang energy as they flow within and about you, your board, and the sea. When in such a state, it is as though time slows to microseconds, with each 1/25th of a second or even faster, not only noticeable, but more so, able to be played joyfully with.

This zone, of course, it what all pros in any sport tie into, they simply don't call it Chi Gung, merely because they haven't probably heard of the field, thus, the simply call it "the zone." But the cool thing is, once one begins exploring this in depth, there is so much to it that a mere label like the zone is like a simple title on a book without any of the details that are in the book. In other words, it means virtually nothing without the depth.

Of course, to enter such a zone, one needs access to both the right and left hemispheres of their brain. The left hemisphere, for logic, and the right, for feelings and emotions. Combined, one enters the realm that few, even elite athletes, know.

We all tend to set limits for ourselves, based on the statis quo that we are familiar with. And, all that Chi Gung is merely about is being willing to tear those limits asunder and boldly embrace what lays beyond in the wilds.

Such moments, in sports, occur when there is any kind of breakthrough, such as the breaking of the 4 minute mile, or the riding of a 50 foot wave. Until it's done, it seems impossible to all. Once done, many can do it. So really, the only limits are our own bravery and imagination.

And that really is what a field like Chi Gung is all about, and, that, at least to me, holds the secret to Soul Surfing, and thus, the secret to Old-School Classical Longboarding.

Chi Gung Soul Surfing for Old School Classical Longboarding, I see it as an unexplored virgin path through the wilds of the mind and body to unimagined places yet to even be created.

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley