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What makes a surf session unexpectedly special?

Dream surf sessions: sometimes, all you need is a three-foot wave under sunny skies | Photo: Largeron/Creative Commons

In a time when reality blends with fiction, natural with artificial, it's the unexpected that brings true joy to our lives. And with surfing, that is exponentially more vivid.

I love the word "verve." It's one of those examples of a term whose combination of letters and sound matches the meaning behind it.

The verve of surfing is what makes it an experience for life.

But after a while, you start to refine the adventure, wanting and seeking different angles and edges to the whole moment.

The collection of different surfing experiences includes adding travels, lone sessions, heavenly, sunny days, dark, rainy afternoons, party waves, tube rides that no one saw you ride, wave pools, river waves, episodes of artificial surfing in a Finnish forest, and naming never-before-ridden surf breaks.

The list goes on and will grow as much as your time - and financial resources - allow it.

For each new experience, the verve of surfing grows in you and, sometimes, it could change something in your terra firma life.

If you think about it like a game, it's like adding up experience bonuses and unlocking hidden treasures to your profile.

The more we surf, the more the chances of embracing a new, unique, thrilling episode that may be very unrepeatable in our life journey.

Dark days: the joy of the unexpected is being replaced by screen time | Photo: Schmid/Creative Commons

Surfing Against the Synthetic Living

We are surely living in weird times. We are replacing the miracle of being alive with synthetic experiences.

We are allowing the magical, valuable asset that is our lifetime to be filled with artificial creativity and thought, and we are already planning and dreaming about having robots in our household doing things we have deemed boring.

In fact, the number of things that are tagged boring is growing fast.

The consumption of wine is declining; the interest in developing human relationships and affections toward another human is decreasing among youngsters.

The experiences we could explore in Nature are being replaced by more interaction with technology and 2D images generated by prompts, projected on screens.

The enchantment for the wave of technology and unnatural reality seems unstoppable and could soon make the reflection revealed in the "Black Mirror" series obsolete and naive.

So, how can you restore a bit of that old school joy you get, for instance, when you just... surf?

I believe the secret is chasing and believing in the power of the unexpected.

It's what makes you paddle out on a cold winter morning or a choppy, onshore wind-affected evening.

The hope of the unexpected is brutal. It's larger than your average love of surfing. It's the belief that there should be something out there that we cannot immediately fathom.

And then, once or twice every ten attempts, magic takes place.

You ride the longest left-hander, you land an incredibly long floater, you get your first barrel, you meet someone that will be in your life forever, or you heal your heart while contemplating the sunset and waiting for the next set.

Surfing with friends: one of the most joyful ways of building long-lasting memories | Photo: Claverie/Creative Commons

The Search for the Unexpected Surf

The beauty of the unexpected is particularly powerful in surfing. It clears your head for a week. It helps you put everything in perspective.

I will never forget the 2020/2021 days when surfing became a mirage.

When I finished my first wave after months of lockdowns and social isolation, I just literally poured saltwater from my eyes.

I couldn't stop crying. They were mixed tears of joy and freedom, but also sadness and bitterness.

Surfing had become impossible, and suddenly, unexpectedly, I was experiencing that indescribable feeling again.

I felt the verve of life and the rush of what makes us surfers until we die.

Each one of us has their own collection of unexpected surfing moments; the ones we live, and the ones that are still waiting for us today and tomorrow.

And they are not and never will be on a screen.


Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com



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