To Read a Wave: Assessing Close Outs, Rights, Lefts

When I first started surfing, I recall that the surfing veterans around me astounded me with their ability to judge waves. “This one’s going to close out—watch,” they’d say. And I would believe them and watch, astounded, as they called it right nearly every time. I looked for clues in the water that would allow me to see what they were seeing but I couldn’t. “This one’s a right,” they’d say. Or, “This one’s a left.” And again, I would watch the approaching liquid energy and think how the hell? when the wave would roll through and they’d be right. What sort of blessed divination were they gifted with? I wondered. It went on this way for years, this proven prophecy followed by my impressed headscratching.

Then last year, I started surfing nearly every day. I’d been surfing a lot before that, or what I considered a lot, but it was 2018-2019 that the obsession really took root and I prioritized it over essentially everything else in my life. Drive, zip, wax, run to water. Drive, zip, wax, run to water. Like a repeating sequence in a movie.

And last week it dawned on me that I was calling waves, without even thinking about it. I was sitting in the pocket and I realized I now know, mostly, when to go left and when to go right. I now could pull off a wave that I realized was going to close out, or not even paddle for it to start. It was a moment of sunshine. I realized that the year of being in the waves, watching the waves—it had given me that secret, invisible knowledge that the other surfers had so shocked me with. It was a 10,000 hours moment, one for which the only guidance and curriculum was this: Surf as many hours as possible.

It’s the only way.