Catching The Perfect Wave

I love going to the beaches in Bali and watching surfers.

I mean, sure, there are lots of surfers who are pretty to look at. It takes a fair amount of physical prowess to haul yourself around the ocean by paddling and then balance yourself on a piece foam while riding along a curling wave.

But surfers are fascinating to watch in their process and execution. Having lived in Maine my whole life, my experience with surfers and the surfing culture is limited to stereotypes from the Valley movies of the late 80’s and most Saved By The Bell references.

In other words, meatheads or burnouts who laze about life focused only on getting to the beach to laze around on a surfboard and play in the ocean.

I’ve come to learn this is SO not the case.

Two days into our adventures together, Jenny and I were the ones lazing about while my friend Tommy (who took the insanely awesome surf photos on this post) was out tearing it up on his surfboard.

This adventure began after Tommy had pulled up a dashboard rivaling NASA’s simulators on his computers to explain the conditions he looks for before heading out, surfboard bungee corded to the rack on the side of his motorbike. Things like water temperature and wind and ocean swells and phases of the moon. Not in the weird “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah maaaaaaaaaaaan….just look at the charts. Today is gonna be gnarly, dude. Totally gnarly” way (told you I have a very limited experience) but in the “I could possibly give a dissertation on oceanic science and technology after I catch a couple waves today” way.

A total science geek myself, I was (of course) glued to the screen learning about the method to this madness.

Which is how Jenny and I came to be sitting  in beach chairs at Balangan Beach on the Bukit in Bali (alliterate much?!) watching the legions of surfers a few thousand meters away. I turned to Jenny, fixated on a thought that emerged from watching them sit on their boards. “It’s funny the different ways you can look at those surfers sitting and waiting. You can either assume that they are wasting time bobbing along, constantly waiting for the perfect wave to come along. Or you can realize they are stringing a mass of computations about the current wave, the upcoming wave, the ebb & flow of tides, the surfers around them, and a bajillion other things…a congruence of factors that brings the perfect wave.”

Who would have thought surfers were so deep?

It is important to note that I know nothing about surfing nor was I even one smidge drunk at this point. If you come sit on a beach with me for an afternoon I will likely unleash these little nuggets of speculation on you as well.  And if I am interested in what you are doing I will likely grill you ad nauseam to understand more.

Some waves last just a few seconds before cresting, others are hundreds of meters long. Still people drop their boards into the waves every day. How do some succeed while others wipe out?

• They Know Their Shit – Sure, some people hit it lucky and catch a fantastic wave as a rookie on the fly. These people are exceptions not rules.
• They Do The Work – I’m fairly certain that Tommy has about 736 other things to do than monitor reports on ocean tides, but pulling all that data and making an educated plan at the best place to set down his board pays off in dividends.
• They Recognize The Opportunity – You don’t get the ride of your life by sitting on your board and waiting for some omnipotent voice to tell you when to pop up. See all the pieces coming together and go for it.
• They Make It Happen –  Ride that wave, baby!

That last point is the most important and what I observed sitting with Jenny on the beach. Looking out at what was happening it would be easy to assume that the surfers were just sitting there. Waiting. For the perfect opportunity to ride off into the sunset. Which happens maybe MAYBE once every session. That’s the thing that separates them.

The people who execute. Who stand up and ride their perfect wave.

Tommy told us before we left how cool it is to think that the perfect wave he was going to catch that day was already manifesting out in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

We all have perfect waves manifesting for us somewhere.

What are you going to do to catch yours?

Photo Credits – Tommy Schultz