Surfboard Balance for the Vagabond Feral Soul Surfer expressing Chi Gung

Aloha Tribe,

Why balance works, or more specifically, how, is based on relaxation. Mentally, physically, and spiritually. The calmer you are, the more sensitive you are, the more aware you are, the greater your balance. This is so whether one surfs, walks a tightrope or slackline, or a softrope either loose or slack, or any other kind of balance work. Paradoxically, to reach such a state, requires, effort, lots and lots of specific training and more so, a way totally familiarization of your particular medium, be it surfboard, skateboard, snowboard,  wire, webbing, or rope, rock, rooftops (for the catburgler types and urban equilibrists), limb, wall, rock ledge, street sign or light post, chain or vehicle (yep, urban car and truck balancing rocks - is moderately outlaw yet in the heart of art - rural vehicle balancing is fun too - tractors, cranes, bulldozers, wagons, etc.

I like to think of my longboard as having a personality and a soul. It is, to me, my friend. For, we spend a lot of time together, and, I learn from it.

I don't so much think of myself as riding my surfboard, but more so, as a Soul Surfer I see my expression upon my board as a way for the board itself to speak its own song.

Boards, I believe, are not something to be controlled, dominated, nor caged, but instead, to truly allow yourself the art of the board, requires finding a way to win the board over, in a sense, to help it help you, in your surfing quest.

To perform well with my longboard, to truly surf, is not, so much a reflection of me, but instead, shows the board in it's own sense of perfection.

For, it is not the board that wobbles nor carves too deeply on a hard bottom turn, nor is it the board who pearls or simply drops you off, instead, the board, is perfection in and of itself, thus, the lack of ability is within my own muscles.  As such, to do the board the honor that it truly deserves requires total surrender to training for perfection.

When surfing well, it is the joy of the board coming forth, showing its thanks for your hard work.

As a Soul Surfer, we are artists, surfing alone, even when surrounded by countless others. The true Soul Surfer surfs not for awards nor fame nor money, but simply for the pure love of it, more so, at an even deeper level, not for oneself, but for the opportunity for the surfboard to do that which it was shaped to do.

This level of surfing demands not merely surfing well  but more so, to surf with excellence and total precision in order for the board to reveal her secrets of flowing freely over the sea.

To surf well, truly freely, requires risk, just as with the bullfighter or the highwire artist. For, with each of these, living in-the-moment, fully, totally, with pure passion, one finds ones soul in the purity of your medium.

Surfing freely, unharnessed, as a true Soul Surfer, one finds that the world beyond ceases to exist. This allows pure movement of your body, for the love of movement itself, as an expression of what your board offers. The more you can lose yourself to your very act of surfing, the more you can focus only on that which is, the more beautiful, soft, and graceful your surfing will be, the more, you'll be truly one with your board, and more so, one with the sea.

This level of surfing requires the origins of the Feral Surfer, the lone surfer wandering the globe, as a Vagabond Feral Surfer, with but a single board and a single duffel bag for your kit. For, it is within this aloneness that you can find the stillness to notice that which leads your quest.  This level of solitude can be seen in many of our surfing heroes and the true legends of our art and sport. People brave enough to surf the wilds, alone, simply, to surf. It is within such moments, even if that stretches to touch a lifetime, that the true Soul Surfer can find balance.  And, it is at this point, that the journey truly merely begins, for from here on, one then begins to surf not as an outward expression of movement nor individuality, but, from within yourself. And, this great within is unfathomable, yielding treasures most know not to even seek. This is what something like Chi Gung brings to surfing, this ability to find surfing inside of yourself. At this level, you have taken the first step. It is here, within this first step, that you find the ability to truly explore the moves of your longboard, shortboard, elephant gun, or whatevers. Past quivering muscles lies stillness. Past stillness lies internal movement. Yang leading to Yin transforming to Yang in an endless cycle of surfing harmony. And, as for your board, well, it simply always is. Nothing more. Nothing less. Rather Taoist actually.  And in that lies great truth and the mysteries of  Vagabond Feral Soul Surfer.

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the  Valley