Better Together

Fellow surfer, Jack Johnson, sang it best:

I started surfing with my friends, Chris & Brace. So, from the start, that made the activity extremely fulfilling for me. We surfed together so consistently that I didn’t even realize how much surfing together meant to me until the days came when I had to go solo. Maybe Chris would be traveling and Brace would be have an early work call. No matter the reason, I was always bummed when I had to paddle out without my surfing companions.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the sport itself. Riding a wave is inherently a solo endeavor (except in the rare instances when we were lucky enough to execute a “party wave” together).  However, there’s nothing like carving up the perfect set, one-wave-after-another, then coming back to the lineup to celebrate each others’ successes.

It becomes a state of Sympathetic Joy: feeling stoked myself because one of my friends just caught the perfect wave for themselves.

This realization led me to want to surf with friends any chance I got. No matter their skill level, I realized that it became a chance to elevate my Beginner friends or push myself with my more Advanced compadres. No matter how many waves we all caught, it made the ones that we did so much more worth it.

It’s just fun.

Whooping it up when a friend’s cruising on a wave.

Clapping it up when someone just caught their first.

Smiling faces enjoying the shared experience.

And don’t even get me started on surf trips…

Whether it was a standard-issue Dock Day with Chris & Brace,

A San Diego send with the same gang + Connor & Tristian,

A Highway 1 adventure with Wellman,

A Huntington excursion with the fam,

A Topanga session with Tiff,

A Sunset sender with Koran,

An out-front, late-night, close-out with Justin,

A County Line trek with Joey,

A Lahina Harbor exploration with Erin,

A Kona reef break with Ella & Chris,

A dusty drive through the back roads of Mexico with Nick,

A La Jolla Shores morning with Thomas,

A flirtation with death at Breakwater with Riley (“let’s lock it in!”),

A paddle-out in the darkness at Porto with Noonan,

A SLO rendezvous with Nick & Gabi,

A Jersey Shore afternoon with the work team,

Or a drive through the Nicaraguan jungle followed by a boat-assisted drop-in with Sam, Nick, Connor, & our fearless guide, Martin

And I could keep going…

These experiences have created core memories for me. (And it’s crazy to think that I would’ve missed out on all of these opportunities, if Chris wouldn’t have had his dream.)

I love surfing. I do it solo when I have to. But dang it if it ain’t fun to “accomplish” some wave-catching amongst my community.

P.S. - when I would have to go solo, I’d challenge myself to try to make a new friend in the lineup. After all, we’re not really strangers. We’re more like neighbors.