Surfer Dudes

Whenever I visit the ocean on the west coast, I see a lot of surfers. I don't know where they come from, but they all bring their wet-suits and surfing boards with them. The west coast cold water doesn't seem to bother them too much. They put on their wet-suits and take their boards into the water. They swim to a certain distance where there are waves and then wait. I found out that surfing was not as easy as it always seemed to me. Waves are not as friendly and soothing as they seem from a distance. If you are out there with the surfers, you would notice that waves come at different angles. Not only that, you may have one current coming in, while the other receding. If you get caught in such a motion, you can flip a full circle just standing there.

The surfer dudes know what to expect. They don't always catch a wave. Sometimes they miss it. Sometimes they catch part of it. Sometimes they do so well that they can have a full 20 second glory of riding an amazing wave standing on their board. But thats the thrill--catching the right wave at the right time. Nonetheless, the whole thing is very exhausting.

A lot of times we look for our niche in this world. We want to find out what we are best at and then do it. I think we should learn from the surfer dudes. See, even if you wear a wet-suit and have a surfing board, it doesn't mean you would always catch a wave. You have to jump in, and then wait. You would certainly fail. But thats part of surfing. In order to achieve anything big, we have to be able to digest failures like lost waves.

Last but not least, you have to be in the ocean to catch a wave. Nobody catches a wave sitting on the beach.