I was out at Bolinas early one monday morning, way out in front of the lagoon as the tide was the lowest I had seen it. The waves were fairly small, but the surfers that were there: two guys in their late 60s and a couple others, were riding them forever, all the way to the beach on long left breaks.
I was catching them, but I was having trouble riding the left break — I’d just ride them straight, a much shorter journey. I complained to one of the surfers about my inability to ride the line with my back to the wave, and he said, ‘Ya, it takes a leap of faith’.
There are a couple ways to ride the line as a beginner: you can either point your board at an angle, paddle and try to catch the wave at that angle, or you can catch the wave perpendicular to it and do a bottom turn. The former is much easier, but not all waves are amenable to catching it like that, and the latter really does take a leap of faith, at least for a beginner like me, because I am concentrating on all the variables of catching the wave, standing up and turning in time to still be on the wave before it breaks. So much so, that I can’t really look at the wave much until after I turn. And then riding with your back mostly to the wave is just harder, less visual queues, and less natural flexibility in that direction.
I have been thinking about the role of faith in my life, mostly because this whole idea of using my imagination to give life meaning seems to challenge the notion of faith, after all I am making up up or choosing stories. Does it really make a difference whether we pretend something or truly believe it?
I think it depends on what we do: whether or not we can take a ‘leap’ and act on it. Sometimes that leap is the effort of choosing a better story for ourselves. Sometimes its doing things the ‘right’ way instead of the easy way. Sometimes its choosing to follow hope instead of despair or apathy.
Its the choices and actions that matter.
I could simply stick to what works when catching that left breaking wave and ride it straight out, and I can have some fun doing that, but my rides won’t be as sweet, and I won’t progress as a surfer. I am going to have to sacrifice a bunch of rides just trying to make that leap. But its worth it. When it works, there is nothing like it. It is so exhilerating to take a risk on a blind step to find that not only did you not fall, but you’re flying.
