3rd January 2025
I first came across the concept after reading a book: ‘Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life.’
The book is a beautiful, poetic memoir of a young man’s life, told through the lens of his various surfing adventures around the world. In reading it, I became aware of the metaphor of riding waves and its application to so many areas of our lives.
When a surfer gets up on a wave, they enjoy the present moment, even though they know with certainty that the wave will eventually end. They fully enjoy this wave, with the wisdom and awareness that there are always more waves coming.
The surfer knows that they don’t have to ride every single wave that comes their way.
They have the freedom and the power to choose which waves to take, and which waves to let pass by.
The surfer knows that 90% of the time they won’t be riding any wave, but just paddling and waiting. They know that sometimes there will be long, painful periods between the waves. Sometimes so long that they may start to wonder whether there will ever be a good wave again.
They are aware that patience and proper positioning is all that matters for when the next wave inevitably comes.
The surfer knows that the only way to live is by putting themself out there in the water.
You can’t catch any waves sitting on the shore.
There’s always a risk of getting crushed by a wave, but the rewards are worth it.
The surfer knows that sometimes a wave will crash down on them and hold them underwater. They know that they may come up for air only to be hit by another wave crashing down.
They are able to weather these hits with a stoic awareness that remaining fluid will serve them better than stiffening to fight the waves.
The Surfer Mentality has broad-based applications across all of our lives.
Here are 5 ideas you how we can apply this mentality into our own day-to-day life.
Enjoy Your Next Wave: The next time you find yourself riding a positive wave, enjoy it! Don’t worry about how long it will last, when it will end, or whether you will ever ride such a beautiful wave again. Just slow down and appreciate where you are in the present. Trust that there will be more waves in the future.
Be Strategic About Positioning:
There’s a tendency to passively wait between waves—but there’s so much you can do in those liminal moments to set yourself up for a better ride. Think about your positioning and how you can make tweaks or changes that will put you in an advantageous spot when a wave does come.
Pass on More Waves: When you’re young, you want to ride every single wave. But when you catch the first wave that comes your way, you may miss the better one that came right after it. Learn to pass on more waves and wait for the right one.
Always Get in the Surf: There’s nothing good that happens sitting on the shore. Even if it’s scary, get in the water.
Be Like Water:
When you get crushed by a wave, don’t resist the water, try to be like the water. With negative outcomes in particular, which life will invariably throw at us, it’s ok to just be and experience it rather than trying to fight it.
So as you approach the days ahead, I would encourage you to think about adopting the Surfer Mentality:
Enjoy every ride while it lasts & stay blessed forever.