A few years ago in the Maldives I had probably my most
memorable wave. I didn’t get barrelled; I didn’t bust an air, I didn’t ping a
huge roundhouse off the whitewater. I couldn’t have done any of those things
because I couldn’t see it.
It was lunchtime and the sun was directly overhead, it was
Pasta point and I was the only one out. As I said, it was lunchtime. It wasn’t
big but it wasn’t tiny either, shoulder high would be the least controversial
way to describe it. The wind was barely blowing, offshore. As I paddled into
one the wind died, literally went to nothing and the surface turned as smooth
as glass. The wave disappeared. I knew it was still there because I was moving
along it but for all intents and purposes it had vanished. I could see the
seabed as clear as looking into a fish tank and I could see them too but the
lack of any definition on the seas surface meant the wave was invisible. All I
could do was glide.
By the time the wave had petered out and I started paddling
back out the wind returned. It was then
that I had a revelatory thought. Surfers ride energy. From very basic physics I
remembered that particles in waves do not move forward (at least until the wave
‘throws’) but up and down or in a circular motion therefore it is solely energy
that is propelling us forward. Not gravity like skiers or skydivers, not wind
like sailors, we don’t capture and convert this energy we just ride it!
Blew me away anyway.
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