Like most things we do, I find surfing to be a terrific mirror for how one leads their life. You can either ride on the shoulder of the wave, cruising along at a safe distance, at an easy pace, always staying ahead of the danger. You could ride behind the peak, in the wash, always watching the magic from behind but never being able to reach it. Or you can ride in the critical zone, the barrel, living on the edge of life and death, where everything is moving a hundred miles an hour but it all seems to stand still.

In surfing, and in life, while I wait for the next “ride”, am I calm and patient, or restless and irritated? When that wave does come, am I focused, centered and present, or am I scattered and living in another moment? Do I take the first wave that comes my way, or do I take my chances that the next one will give me a superior ride? When I do decide which wave I’m going to take, that first drop or step is crucial, it will determine how the rest of the wave will go. It requires confidence, commitment, and above all, the will to make it.

Sometimes the ocean gives you the most amazing rush, and other times it serves you up a beating that makes you think you might not live to see the next breath. And no wave lasts forever, whether it’s a fun ride or not, like everything else, it too will come to an end.

If you think about what a wave is, energy that has been traveling for thousands of miles, and that journey across the ocean ends when it hits land and forms a wave. If your in the center of that wave, in the barrel, in a cylinder of energy that has been building up until that moment, it’s a mind-blowing experience!

So let’s got for a surf, and see where our head is at for the day, week, month, year, life…