I hope you are laughing, I know I did underneath the water!
Why
Because it can stop our progress in learning and in life itself.
When we start something new or want to, the feeling of being stuck is based
on wanting to be successful now, then committing to the process.
If you knew how many times as an instructor, I heard people say these sentences, you would be surprised:
I am not good at paddling
What if I can't catch the wave?
What if I am not doing it fast enough?
Which one of us did not feel that other surfers in the water, criticizing our surf or laughing at our falls,
being spilled out onshore because the waves were too strong.
I did when I started to surf, especially when I became a surf instructor.
It is quite natural to feel that way, because we want to succeed!
But why do we say or think that way
Easy. It is because of our society. We live in a world where society needs you to be
more accomplished and successful, than being committed to your own happy process.
Social media does not make it easier with all the posts of how people look on surfboards,
showing us that to be a surfer is actually being able to complete a 360 or cross-stepping.
So why are we so afraid
Because a million years ago, fear was a mechanism to warn us from danger and it
was necessary for survival!
Today, our mechanism of fear became a necessity of not being socially accepted.
Do not get me wrong, we all want to be accepted by our peers, family, spouse, and especially society.
We want to feel proud of our achievements, work, or even thoughts. It is a natural thing!
But as we see this beautiful blond surfer on the media, cross stepping to the front of the board and we say
I want to be just like her, we forget something basic.
She had to start from the beginning, so as for us. She practiced a lot of hours till she managed
to do a hang ten while cross-stepping.
She was not born with it! Unless she was 2 years old and on a longboard,
but that is another story because it is not our case.
We started later in life!
Even Carissa Moore, my favorite surfer, started when she 4 year old,
yes.
Yes, she is a pro athlete, but in the first contest of the year 2022 the
women surfing league decided to open pipeline to women.
It is the heaviest wave in Hawaii, and some say around the world.
She was scared, but she did not let her fear stop her.
The exact opposite, she was proud that she had the chance to be in a
contest in pipe!!
That was a big achievement for us women in the world surf league.
So why should we be shay to try in small waves?
We cannot accelerate learning progress
We need to understand that when we want to learn something so
complex as surfing, we have to understand, it takes many high skills
to perform at once.
We can't do everything together! Yet.
More than that, we have a life and priorities like family (surf mama),
jobs, bills, and whatnot.
So time, practice, and commitment are the keys to progress, and if
we can't win it all we should, even more, pay attention to our state of
mind. It should be FUN!!
Surfing at a high level ( level 3+ ) takes 2 to 3 years to get there.
Again, unless you do just this every day!
What I am trying to convince you to understand. Progress takes time,
you need to be committed to falling, getting up, getting spotted out
in high conditions, and paddle so much that your arms will fall.
In the meantime HAVE FUN! Don't be shy. Laugh at yourself
because you fell!
Be proud of your progress every time you hit the water!
I always say, if we are not having fun we are doing something wrong.
Till the next post,
Coconat
CoconatSurf 