Shelter and Sea

Pura Vida Adventure Surf Camp March 3-9 2007
Daily schedule: Sleep, yoga, eat, surf, eat, surf, eat, sleep.

Literally translated, “pura vida” means pure life. This phrase is the common response when one is asked how they are doing. To further expand on the meaning, I found the best description within the Costa Rica section of Wikipedia. It states that this motto, “…encapsulates the pervading ideology of living in peace in a calm, unclustered manner, appreciating a life surrounded by nature and family and friends.” It is a way of life that is not dictated by a clock. You go with the flow of each day. I was not as quick to adopt this lifestyle as I thought I would be. You have to let go of the things that are weighing you down in order to float, so you can flow.

Floating, physically and mentally, is important in surfing. During the sessions when I was distracted with my own thoughts or emotions, I surfed like crap and sank. I struggled more physically in the water, and made things harder than they had to be. But, when I was clear-headed, and was without hesitation, I floated. I paddled strong and felt more in-tune with the waves. I read them better. I could see more clearly which ones to paddle for, and I could feel when I was supposed to stop paddling and stand up on my board. (Whether I acutally stood up was another story).

One of my favorite DVDs is “Lines from a Poem.” It is a film, which artistically expresses the art of longboard surfing in Australia. Everyday at camp, I thought of the different scenes, music, or quotes from this film. It depicts all the different elements of the act of surfing and contends that eventually “all the parts fit together like the lines from a poem.”

I did not truly understand what that quote meant until I was in the water. Wasn’t surfing just one full swooping action? No. There were so many parts to learn and to execute at the same time. Paddle like this, watch out for that, remember the rip current, move your feet here, place your hands there, keep your head up, press your hips down, go for this wave, turtleroll under that wave. As my fellow camper, Helen, remarked on the beach, “I’m very busy out there.”

After each day, I collected all the parts I learned and needed to work on for the following day as I sat bruised, burnt, scraped, and sore. Everything remained scattered and jumbled in my head until a sunset surf session on March 7th. I stood up on my 9’0” board in the whitewater. I remember thinking, “holy crap…I’m actually standing on this board!” That thought was soon followed by a feeling of pure joy. The emotion was magnified with the sounds of celebration from my fellow campers. I steadied myself and threw my arms in the air in triumph against the backdrop of the setting sun. All the parts did fit together.

In the words of the great Hawaiin Pipeline surfer, Gerry Lopez:
“I think one of the big lessons you learn about surfing is…how to…operate in the present. That’s really what the foundation of the entire surfing experience is.”
(as quoted in the film “A Broke Down Melody”)

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