Surfing is of the gods. The Hawaiians discovered surfing. For billions of years waves have broken on our shores, enjoyed first perhaps by the dolphins, seals, or transcendent fish. I would love to know how someone figured out that you could stand on a board and turn it into a wave. Canoeing into the swell must have come first and gave hints.
The first time I finally stood up on a surf board and turned into a wave, moving over the water, I was instantly and forever hooked. I was flying. This moment had taken a couple of weeks of flailing around. The hours finally paid off into seconds below a falling crest. The ride slowed and I let myself fall in the water and then my entire being exploded in a sense of euphoria. The Universe seemed to embrace me in love.
Surfing came from the Hawaiians in the 20th century, and expanded outwards in memetic joy into our hearts. With television and the airplane, it caught on quickly. By the 1950s in America, surfing had its own music, style, and California sense of cool. Surfers got the chicks, were laid back, gnarly, ripping. A lot of people try surfing, to say they went surfing, and that alone is enough to be cool (maybe.)
And the culture around it spread and changed. Some waves became populated by local gangs. Rich westerners brought the activity to remote islands. There were pioneers who rode the world's big or best breaking waves first. Islands in the Pacific like Bali, Sumatra, and Fiji became known as surfer's paradises. For all its pervasiveness, the joy of being in the water is still the primary thing. William Finnegan wrote an outstanding book about his life traveling the world surfing called Barbarian Days. His assessment, "I never wanted it to end."
Surfing is difficult because you have to learn to do three new hard things at once. First, you have to learn to balance on your board as you paddle out on your stomach into the waves. The worst thing you can do as a beginner is to start off with too short of a board and never be able to keep properly oriented. The goal is to paddle out past where the waves are breaking so you can rest and choose one to ride. When the breaking waves come towards you, you have to learn how to get up and over, around, or under them without them knocking you off the board or washing you too far back towards the shore. To do this you need to learn to balance on the while paddling.
Second, you have to learn how to position yourself at the right place to catch a wave, and to properly 'take off' when a wave is coming. If you are too close in relative to a breaking wave it will knock you around with the weight of the falling water. If you are too far out relative to the wave you might paddle to try and catch it but it won't take you. Similarly waves 'peak' and you want to learn to read where that is going to happen and position yourself just on the peak for a great takeoff. When the wave comes, you need enough speed towards the shore for it to take you and right at that moment you need to paddle hard and have your weight on the board at just the right place. Too far back and the wave will pass you, too far ahead and the board will 'pearl' under you and dip and flip you.
Finally, after some luck in figuring out balance, position, and take off, the wave will carry you forwards like a rocket and you get to learn the third hard thing - how to stand up and 'ride' the wave. There is an art in popping up from lying down to your feet to standing in all one fluid motion. The board will flip sideways if your weight isn't right and the movement of the wave will knock you off. When you finally feel comfortable standing up, you can then learn to make the bottom turn, pointing the board sideways into the crest of the wave. Once you unlock this, you have entered the zone of joy.
Watching people who know how to surf because they mastered all of this can be self-defeating since it can take a very long time to put all of the above together. Surf schools help with the first two skills. A private teacher will help you paddle out, stay on the board, be in the right spot, and push you into a wave so you can stand up easily. Otherwise, most people won't figure out quite how to get into the right spot and get enough speed for a good ride. It can be hard too to learn to surf if you don't have a good beginner break to learn on. Surfing can be dangerous. There are places to ride that are only for experts.
After I caught the initial buzz from that first wave I was forever hooked. I even picked where I went to graduate school in the hope that I could learn how to surf better. Over the years I have been lucky to surf in many places. I don't require big or fast waves. When I get into the water it is zen, I can easily stay for two or three hours if the water is warm and the waves are good. I love the workout, the sun, the ride.
I had a dream that I would live on a surf break and get out into the water each day before starting my work. This dream came true for me during the COVID pandemic. By a stroke of luck we were 'stuck' in Byron Bay in Australia and there were very few people in the town. I had many waves practically to myself, and was out at Tallows Beach and Wategos often all on my own, probably lucky to not have been devoured by a shark. Four people died from shark attacks within a few hundred kilometers the year I was there.
With extraordinary fortune I got to live out my surfing dream that is still my dream. Follow your bliss.