You know when everything gets a bit much?
Work deadlines encourage the constant doomscroll, too much coffee in the morning makes you feel sick and one or two in the evening to wind down wakes you up at 3am with the impending sense of doom.
Burnout baby. You’re running on autopilot and that’s where surfing comes in.
No Notifications
Unless you’re that addicted to the algorithm and are wearing an apple watch whilst surfing, when you’re out the back, sitting on your board, there are no notifications. Which means there’s no boss. No “urgent” emails. Just you and the ocean. You literally can’t think about work stress when a wave too big for your comfort level breaks a few feet in front of you and you’re deciding whether to bail the board and risk losing your leash or give a huge duck dive a go. Same goes for when you’re actually riding the wave. These things reset your nervous system in a way no mindfulness app can compare to.
Nature Therapy
Spending time in nature is proven to lower cortisol whilst boosting dopamine, and moving water, especially crashing waves, releases abundant negatively charged ions into the air which when inhaled trigger biochemical reactions that increase levels of serotonin (happy hormone). Add in a few other factors such as the general feeling that you’re reconnecting with something bigger than yourself, then surfing is nature immersion on crack.
Physical Therapy (for the soul, duuuuude)
Obviously surfing is a full-body workout, but it’s also an emotional one. You fall, get back up, miss waves, nail a few, feel shit, feel amazing. It’s a cycle of humility teaching you patience whilst reminding you of how capable you really are. After 2 hours surfing a perfect right hand point break completely alone in Sri Lanka, the idea of tackling your overflowing inbox doesn’t seem quite so daunting (actual thing that happened this morning).
Community
The thing is with surfers, as cliches as it sounds they all kind of of get it. Yes it’s a selfish pursuit of pleasure, but it’s also humbling and whether you’re a billionaire or flat broke, you’re sharing the same magic. I’ve run countless Ticket to Ride trips over the years and we obviously get a lot of guests pretty wound up from work, but after a day sharing waves every crew cheers the wins and laughs off the losses and everyone goes home lighter, connected and with a bunch of new surf mates.
Reset
Burnout loves routine. Surfing breaks it. It shakes you up, tunes you back in, gives you the space to breathe and helps you, basically, reset. If you feel you could do with some of this in your life, join me and Nikita in the Maldives and find your reset. Boom, ABC, that’s my work done for the day. Now to go and reset myself (again)…
