Hainan Surf Blog

It's 3:00 am and I can't sleep.The Hainan surf buoys are predicted at 13 feet tomorrow on the East coast up the coast from Sanya, and the wind that was tossing palm fronds to the pavement earlier this afternoon has subsided.  With impending surf approaching, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas day, eagerly anticipating tomorrow's offerings; though I must admit there's a bit of Halloween fear added to the portent of the approaching swell from Typhoon Hagupit.Tomorrow will certainly warrant a trip up Hainan’s East coast, and there should be no question of finding swell, but rather; tomorrow's surf challenge will be finding the most rideable conditions amongst chaotic wind patterns, temperamental tides, and of course, the sheer limits of my fortitude.  Sometimes the question is not whether there will be waves or not, but whether I have the courage to face the size and power that is ultimately delivered.  Given the dearth of surf we've seen in Hainan recently, I'm perhaps a bit on the reckless side of reason, and hope that by the time the swell has passed I've come as close as possible to exhausting myself past my physical and mental limits without extinguishing myself.

I've always loved the anticipation of these days; I've always loved looking back at the triumph accomplished on days like these, but the fear... the fear is something that I've had to learn to love, or at least I struggle learn to live with.  Over time, I've come to recognize that the degree of intensity I experience these triumphant emotions with depends implicitly on the degree of fear that I endure in achieving them, and so therefore I anticipate this fear with a knowing pseudo-confidence that tomorrow I may face my limits, but to do so is such a rare opportunity in life that I can only sit awake and stir over the restlessness of my ambition to fast forward to facing the source of these fears; tomorrow's surf.

Considering how this season's gone, tomorrow may just be a blow-out junky unrideable day, but anticipation, perseverance, and the willingness to face the unknown are part of what give life one of its most powerful driving forces: and it happens to be one of the most acutely descriptive words to encompass any surfer's dedication to this sport: passion.