I read Steven Kotler’s book, West of Jesus, recently (in two sittings - it was that good). No, it’s not really about Jesus or religion, but it does chronicle a spiritual journey. Although the stories of actual surfing experience are mainly a vehicle to share many other ideas, thoughts, obsessions and fears, I left the book thinking and dreaming about, yes, surfing.

Granted, I understand the allure of water sports - I was hooked on windsurfing when I lived in Seattle and Minneapolis, though never took on the big ocean waves. From what I’ve heard, surfers only know BIG and I learned a lot more about the surfer personality from this book. As often happens, when I started thinking about surfers, I started to stumble upon more surfers. And, I found that they all have a couple things in common: a certain kind of calmly energized determination - a kind of joyful willpower that sends them out, again and again, to do the “work”.

In last Sunday’s NY Times article, I read about the community of surfers spread over the West Coast who refuse to retire. It also happens to be where Surfrider Foundation, the national environmental surf group, has it’s largest chapter. With 55,000 members nationwide, they use this same ‘don’t stop’ attitude when it comes to cleaning up the oceans they love. The favorite bumpersticker of this new/old generation of surfers? “I Surf. And I Vote.”

And I can’t help but wonder, where is our surfer spirit when it comes to changing how we live and eat and play? Where is the joyful willpower? After all, we have reached the stage where we are in a win-win situation. By changing our daily wasteful habits, we help the environment. By helping the environment, we become healthier, by becoming healthier, we become happier and all in all, rediscover our connection to nature and all it has to offer to us. Like surfing.

(photo by Nathan Smith, Surfermag.com)

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