Notes from a temporary excommunication
"Stress is a killer" - too true and it was a major factor why I reckon I went into AF (for the second time). Problem was, I didn't recognise it, or when I did it was too late. Stress can manifest mentally, physically and can lead to unhealthy behaviours. I definitely wasn't looking after myself just prior to lapsing. Some good advice above. Hope it all works out for the better Supa....I think you're taking a step in the right direction.
Craig wrote:Yeah all the best Supa with what you're dealing with. And that's much appreciated.
@craig , this year I was checking in with various mates from roti to nias and your reporting was spot on from the feedback I got from them . Gone are the days of heading off just in hope of waves and missing out when meanwhile another spot is pumping. The update reports are great and give enough time to hit spot x y or z
Oh wow, that's great to hear. Thanks for passing it on. Stoked.
Due to injury It’s now been over a month since I’ve been surfing . Here’s some observations from that time.
/ Surfers need to surf.
Obviously right ?
Yeah ...but nah. I’ve passed up plenty of sessions whilst able bodied without too much concern for correlative loss of joy de vivre. You’ll soon have the truth thrust into your face when the arbitrary decision to go surfing is taken out of your hands. I’ve mouthed the platitudes of surfing’s beneficial effects on my mental, physical and spiritual health countless times but it’s not till the exhilarating thrill, healthy thrush of physicality and simple contentment of a happy session is denied that the importance of our passion truly hits home.
Ebbing energy levels , decreased happiness and intermittent frustration become daily companions. Particularly if you’re like me and your happiness is heavily dependent on exercise and your desire to exercise is heavily dependent on mood. It can become a cascade of dark days if the surfing option is taken from you.
/ The struggle isn’t real
Then there’s this little thing called perspective to consider when the bottom lip starts to jut just cause you can’t go play splash- splash .
Example : Like the female character in the Tim Winton novel Breath who can’t stand the sight of snow since having her ability to Ski ripped away through injury , I’m of the sort who found no solace in watching the ocean when I couldn’t surf unless the waves were a putrid mess. It was only then that my FOMO was tempered enough to watch the ocean without feeling like I’d been punched in the stomach. I am always up for a good caffeine hit though and so I fell into a nice little routine of walking down to the beachside coffee van . I’d been leaving my run late to ensure the onshore wind would be well and truly up but one morning we took my mother in law down just before midday only to find the wind had laid down to near nothing and was starting to pulse offshore into a whistle clean 3-5 foot NE swell.
My lip started to quiver , my chest heaved with a massive intake of air ready to expel a momentous whinge about not being able to go surfing when I thought of the father of the mother in law standing next to me - and of the stories she’d told me of when he lied about his age to head to WW1. Of The terrible privations he’d endured in the trenches and the mud of France including being gassed twice . I thought of how she’d described his return home and the trials of raising a family into the Great Depression before re-enlisting to go fight in WW2 and getting his foot blown off. Then her father spent the rest of his days barely mentioning the war , the depression or the fact that he was barely able to function due to his serious and ongoing health problems.
That’s when I decided it was probably best to just enjoy my coffee with the pleasant company whilst we wandered through a flawlessly beautiful day and maybe shut the fuck up completely about the waves I was temporarily missing out on.
/ There’s more than one way to engage with the ocean
Once I’d got my head around watching epic surfing conditions without participating the weight on my spirit lifted.