Disaster, Lust, and Obsession - The Crave for the Wave

Disaster, Lust, and Obsession;

The Crave for the Wave

Publication Date: September 1998

This summer, in the state of Florida, all hell had seemed to broken loose. While forest fires burned all across the state, destroying thousands of acres and hundreds of homes, an even more terrifying natural disaster occurred on the coastline. It came when least expected, bringing havoc and horror to anyone who set their eyes upon it. For some, it had caused irreversible damage, bringing them to a point of depression where there is simply no turning back. The worse part about it was that there was nothing anyone could do. No amount of firetrucks, policemen, or relief from the National Guard could bring this natural disaster to rest. It would simply have to come to and end with time, and prayer. This summer, the coastline of Florida remained flat and lifeless, void of any waves whatsoever. From one surfer's point of view, this is the sheer definition of hell.

It seemed to go on forever. Day by day I would make that long walk to the beach, hoping and praying that there be something, anything out there to ride. Each time would be the same, nothing but a flat and level beach that seemed to go on forever. Tears would come to my eyes as smoke filled the horizon behind me, and the smell of burning leaves would overcome the salty air.

"It's O.K.," a passerby said trying to console me. He assumed that my pain ran along side everyone else's, that the destruction of the fires was the cause for my misery as well as my tears. "These forest fires can't go on forever. Two more have started farther south but they say that they have them under control now. It will all end soon enough."

His concern for my state of depression was genuine and touching, however I couldn't help revealing to him the absolute brutal truth to what I was thinking.

"Well hopefully we'll get a few hurricanes to come and wipe them out," I said. "I'm praying for some really big ones, the kind that we haven't seen for years."

The passerby gave me a look of absolute disgust.

"That's the last thing we need," he said, his voice struck in a state of shock and surprise. "There has already been millions of dollars in damages because of these forest fires and having a hurricane hit Florida now would be absolutely devastating. It could cause even more people to lose there homes and lives."

Obviously, he didn't understand a surfer's mentality.

"Well sir, is that really that big of a price to pay for the chance of tucking inside a perfect barrel or get just one good smack off the lip of an overhead wave. It sounds like a pretty fair exchange to me."

The man looked at me a moment longer with another look of disgusted and then trotted of in his own path of righteousness. It may have been a terrible thing to say, but I couldn't help the way I felt. Of course the man was right, the destruction caused by a hurricane is something terrible to hope for. However, he failed to recognize the beauty of it...most people do.

The mindset of a surfer is a terrible thing to grasp unless you have ever felt the incredible feeling or riding a wave. Once you have your mental process changes, redirecting the way it looks at life entirely. Perhaps a better way to illustrate this mental process is to think of a surfer's obsession with waves as that of the same obsession that men have with women.

First, we think about them constantly. We find ourselves caught up in one fantasy after another. The more the unrealistic the idea, the more exciting the fantasy becomes. Then there are those late nights that we spend by ourselves flipping through magazines as we stare at the pictures, amazed at such possibilities. The waves that are displayed in these magazines are almost erotic, a perfect shaped wave that looks too good to be true. Something like that should only exist in a magazine, because you know if you ever had an opportunity to get a hold of one of them, you'd take advantage of it as much as you could. However, after enduring week after week of waveless days, you eventually find yourself unable to find relief from even this aquatic pornography.

Yes, the parallels between a surfer's desire for waves and men's desire for women seem just about perfect. You have your dry-spells. Days upon days, weeks upon weeks, eventually a few months go by where there is no relief to the craving. When the time comes for waves, when the wind and the ocean coordinate with one another just right, it all seems too good to be true. So many come at you at once that you're scared to death that you'll blow it all. However, you know that the time has finally come for satisfaction and you don't want to take one second for granite.

Taking advantage of a good swell in Florida is even similar to the act of picking up a female at any social occasion. It can be very tricky at first. Often, the waves appear to be waiting there just for you, but you soon realize that they're not always as easy as they seem. Depending on the tide, many waves can play hard to get. Sure they'll seem perfect at first, rolling up to you as casual and tantalizing as they can be. Just when you start to get confident and go for one, they will flatten out and disappear. It's a vicious and manipulative game they play, becoming nothing more but a manipulative tease.

When things start to turn out right and the waves become as honest and as real as you could hope for, there's one other that will always ruin it- your friends. Just like the single's social scene, the only rule that applies to waves is that whoever gets to them first and fastest gets to keep them. It is an old code - a no holds barred situation. You can be out at the line-up waiting patiently for just one good wave to come to you. Just when the time comes - when you've put in the time, flirted with all your options, and you finally decide to commit to the one you want, a good and trusted friend drops in out of nowhere and cuts you off. You scream and flail about in a rage, cursing their name as you hear them laughing off into the distance. It is a truly vicious game.

So why do we do it? Why do we crave and lust for such a thing throughout our entire lives? The only answer is pleasure. Surfing is the ultimate pleasure, once you have done it for the first time you will spend the rest of your life wanting more. It doesn't matter who you are - old or young, male or female - once the addiction sets in, there will always be the need for that fix. Until you find it you will walk around in aimless daze, caught up in your own seductive fantasy. So why do we do it? Simply because there is nothing, absolutely nothing, like sliding down that wave and making all your fantasies come true.