The yoga of surfing

There are two things in my life that I do relentlessly with full commitment and passion. One is mundane and the other spiritual. They both share a quality that is ineffable and beyond my ability to express through words. These are in a sense the yogas I utilize most in my life. These are Kirtana and Surfing. I want to talk about the yoga of surfing because its slightly more understandable then Kirtana which is complex and esoteric in nature. In my next post, I will talk about Kirtana and how it always hooked me, with its awesome and intense capacity to take me places only a surfer or Kirtaniya knows.

I had always wanted to learn to surf. When I was around 9, my brother bought a surfer magazine and showed me the cover.  It was this image of laird hamilton pulling into a massive tube at a Tahitian break called Teahupoo(Skull-breaker). I remember thinking to myself "I have got to learn THAT!" I looked through the entire magazine, every image, imagining what it would be like to fly along the face of an unbroken wave, getting tubed, and throwing down some of that crazy rail game the pros are so good at. They made it look effortless. I HAD to learn.

I didn't get a chance to surf until I was in my twenties. We always lived in landlocked surf less town. Living in India, I didn't realize there were actual surfable spots. Recently I found a few great videos of surfers in various spots on the coast of India, making surfing india one of my future goals.

I finally got a chance to surf when I moved to Christchurch, New Zealand.  despite the cold water, and infrequent good swells, I tried to surf at every thinkable opportunity. I failed miserably at it for nearly a year and a half. I probably spent less than 5 minutes during that entire period standing up on my board. I didn't have a clue and didn't want to take a lesson. Then one day, it just started clicking.
I went to an actual descent break called Mangamanu about two hours north of Christchurch and caught my first proper wave. That changed my life. I was hooked. That was it. I found something I really really enjoyed.

I also started to notice the therapeutic value of surfing, to get out of my head, and into my body. To be in nature, to be away from the sounds and drama of life on land. It became a place of solace and a temple of worship.

Every time I step into the ocean I reflect on what Krsna said in the Bhagavad-Gita "and of bodies of water I am the ocean." (Bhagavad-gita As It Is 10.24)

I now live in northern New South Wales, Australia, where the coastline produces some of the best breaks in the world. Perfect sandy beaches, epic point breaks, and jaw-dropping waves. I live in heaven on earth for a surfer. This gives me a lot of time to get into my temple and meditate on the supreme.

The tantrics always taught to take your trade, craft, or profession and make it a basis for your meditation. Potters understood the cycles of time and reality.  Weavers knew that reality was like a tapestry of individual threads all making up one great big quilt. A surfer knows that although the ocean produces so much intensity and chaos with its massive waves and dangerous creatures, all waves are just the sea and the sea is the one reality. There is bliss in properly riding its waves and danger for those who try to reach too high or lose awareness of what the ocean is doing.

All the surfers out there who understand what I am saying and share a spiritual connection to the ocean, I salute you, beautiful souls.

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Until next time

#Jainitai