Surfing and the game of life ...

Day 1: Sunday , the first sunrise we saw at Costa Rica

Surfing is one of the hardest sport to try. It is fascinating how parallels can be drawn between being  successful in Life and being successful in Surfing. Many virtues essential for living a good life are also needed to being good at the Surfing sport. 

Patience: It's a very hard sport to learn and could even be considered as a sport that would take a lifetime to learn. Ie. The level of pro cannot be reached within a set time limit unlike other sports. 

The more you surf, there is always something new to learn depending on the tide we encounter. 

Perseverance: Every body who tries to surf would fall the first time and umpteen times over. The ratio of successful surf could even be as bad as Thomas Edison's route to electricity discovery. i.e.: falling 1000  times and riding the wave succesfully just one time

Opportunity:  Part of the trick to successfully surfing is to wait patiently for the opportune/right wave to take the leap and attempt to surf without falling. 

Growth: The "right" wave could be compared to life's challenges or problems one can attempt to take or solve depending on one's maturity level. ie. An experienced surfer can leap on the big tides whereas a beginner would patiently wait for the smaller tides. 

Courage/ Ability to fight fears: The tides can be dawnting. Especially for a beginner who is not very familiar with swimming in the ocean. Part of the trick to success at learning to surf is to be unafraid/ avoid negative emotions such as fear of the rising tides/ fear of the unknown and taking the leap with mere trust in self.  

Practical experience:  No amount of reading alone would help one get good at surfing. No amount of training/ core conditioning/ practicing paddling on the board outside water would help as much as actually diving into the water with the board. The only way to successful surfing (just like life) is to actually take the plunge and DO it.

  

Risk: A high risk sport. Can fall off the board and sprain an ankle/ knee. The board can hit your head/cut your face. If the waters are too rough/ if we are in too deep we may even drown. 

Luck: Somedays the weather may just be plain bad with lot of high tides. This could even make it not possible to surf for the day/days in a row. Similar to life as to how we never know for sure if we will be alive the next day to get a chance to play the game of life :)!

 It is definitely not easy to understanding these realities , to accept them and keep going on and on !

But the reward, the sweet reward of doing so ................................  

  .........................is to discover your capability to Surf for Life ;).