Waves are the Recipe: Be Surf

I can feel it on a cellular level when I need the ocean.

“Salt water heals,” my buddy Ollie said this summer. Age nine, budding surfer, she gets it.

I met Maddie at the beach today. She was soaking up as much heat as possible in the car, having been out for hours already. “It’s more fun than it looks,” she said. “Promise.”

And it was. 1-2 feet with random sets skewing on the 2+ sets and just plain CLEAN. No wind, sun was out in full force for the most part, and very few people out.

We started near Rest’s but the current sneakily pulled us north until we were nearly on top of B.H. It was ok. It was good.

The water. It really feels like the Source for me. It IS the source for me. It wipes everything clean, it refills the well, it does all the things that water does so well.

My mind is constantly whirring, like so many people’s, but when you’re surfing, even on a small day, you’re just looking at the waves, assessing, wondering “Will it go?”, wondering “Am I too far in?” wondering “Is this going to toss me?” These visceral in the moment thoughts crowd out those Dark Wolf thoughts that love to roam and lope and tear things up.

Waves are the recipe. Waves force you to be in the present. So all those questions, and then the paddle, and then you’re up and all you’re doing is riding the face and trying to throw something maybe, or just trying to wedge in and chill, and then some sort of energy geyser erupts and you’re just thinking “Weeeeeeeee!” Suddenly Dark Wolf is gone and you’re free.

Drawing the Ocean: A Perfect and Strange Morning

The other day, an early morning, before work, I jumped out at Long Sands.

It was a weird day — it seemingly looked a lot cleaner from the shore but paddling out, it was disorganized and strange. It was one of those days where you feel like perfect waves are going by all around you and you somehow keep winding up in the wrong spot. So I settled. I’ll just sit and bob right here, I thought. I stayed around where I was, paddled for what came there and I was grateful for it.

The sun was shining, and there were only a few people out, and I felt so so good, so filled with gratitude and joy. And that’s when I had the experience I’d never had before, of the ocean coming to me. Out of nowhere, perfect rolling glassy waves came through, right where I was sitting, right to me. It felt purposeful and it felt like whatever vibrations had rippled off me, off those feelings of joy and gratitude and acceptance had nudged the water to throw some perfect ones towards me.

It was a perfect and strange morning.

First Day Out with AmpSurf - Maine

At the beach on Long Sands yesterday, I got to help out with a group AmpSurf, a national organization established, per their Web site, to “Promote, Inspire, Educate, and Rehabilitate (PIER) all people with disabilities and their families through adaptive surfing and other outdoor activities.”

I found myself on Long Sands because a few weeks prior, on a sloppy-joe-kind-of-day at my old-time fav beach break near Boston, I bumped into them breaking down a day of adaptive surf instructor training.

“Hey you!” one of the girls in the group hollered. “You with the surfboard. Why aren’t you part of our group?”

I laughed. “Maybe I should be!” I hollered back. I’d come across their Web site here and there online while reading about the surf community in New England and beyond.

“Come volunteer with us!” she said. “The dates are on our Web site!” It was the nudge I needed from the universe. I checked out their Web site that night, and signed up to volunteer for the session at Long Sands. There were various ways to help out day of, in the water out of the water, etc. I’d be in the water, trying to make sure the surfers’ rides went uninterrupted and smoothly to shore.

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The group of people from AmpSurf who met me on the beach at the start of the day were amazing—warm, welcoming. They helped me and the other new volunteers get oriented and told me some crucial basic information. Folks told me it was key, as long as the surfers were safe, to let the them ride in to the shore and not interrupt their rides. I got that. The thought of someone jumping in and cutting my ride short gave me the willies. They emphasized fun and safety equally.

It was slightly intimidating, knowing we’d be responsible for folks’ safety, but we had a brief training and were paired up with other volunteers who had been there before in our groups. I just tried to focus on each ride and not overthink it, and made sure to communicate with the surfers the best I could to ensure they were ok. And our surfers were amazing. The stoke I saw in their eyes made me so happy and made me feel so connected. There’s just nothing like riding a wave. Once you do it, you’re forever changed, and seeing kids (we had three young surfers in our heats) with that light in their eyes and those smiles when they progressed on a wave and, just as important even when they didn’t, just totally lit me up. That stoked feeling just gives you this instant shared experience.

Awesome awesome day. After the event, I headed out for a little seshie on Blue Moon, since the waves were better than predicted (2-3 footers rolling through on a day MSW was saying 1 feet. Sometimes to know you have to go!) and had some sweet little rides before I realized my parking meter was running out and had to run before the meter maid got me.