Humbled.
Let me paint the picture. Around this time (January) of 2023, I embarked on the second most humbling experience of my life.
The winters in California are harsher than one might expect because of wind and rain storms. Fortunately for us surfers, this is what we live for. On this occasion we were getting reports of a giant storm brewing off the coast which was generating a long period swell. These long period swells mean that the waves, when they hit the coast line, can be extremely large. The longer the period (20 seconds vs 5 seconds) typically means the bigger and more power behind the waves. In this instance, the swell was so large, that most of the beaches around where I live were going to be maxed out (30-45 foot faces or in other terms, the size of a 3-4 story building). Swells can come in many directions, but this one was coming in directly from the west, meaning, most of the coast from Alaska to Baja Mexico were going to be hammered with swell.
One of my best friends, Charles, moved down to Santa Barbara a couple years back. The way Santa Barbara is situated and because of the Channel Islands (an archipelago about 30 miles off the coast) it hardly picks up any swell. The beaches in Santa Barbara are all west facing, meaning that they will only pick up swell that comes from, you guessed it, 260 to 290 degrees west. Making Santa Barbara one of the best point break locations along the coast of California. Since the beaches are west facing the waves don’t crash all at once, they break along the sand, and leave wide open faces that make for an exhilarating time surfing. Here is a photo for reference. (https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/rincon-point-surfing-the-queen-of-the-coast)
My friend is really good at spotting these swells and gives me a ring every time he thinks one is going to hit the Santa Barbara coast. On this occasion we underestimated how big the swell was…. Taking me back to my second most humbling experience.
Charles, my friend, likes to charge and has the skill to back it up. I like to think I charge, but end up getting ragdolled uncontrollably. On this day in January (2023) we went out and surfed, and I got humbled in more ways than one. I have surfed in some pretty big waves, but these waves crumpled me. Mother ocean showed us who was boss, and it wasn’t pretty. Waves were crashing down on my head, resulting in my board getting ripped out of my hands, forcing me into the turbulent zone (the white section where the waves are breaking). When the period reaches a certain length you’ll have sets of waves that are traveling at different speeds, typically the slower moving waves pick up the faster ones and conglomerate into one. Resulting in giant waves that are much larger and much less predictable. In fact I know these waves quite well considering I took most of them to the face.
Yes, the waves were large (probably 15 foot faces maximum) and were humbling, but what shook me to my core was the fact that the people around me were surfing as good as I’ve ever seen anyone surfing. I could not fathom how I was getting absolutely obliterated and these guys were pulling off maneuvers I could only dream of. The reason it’s humbling is because I had been surfing for six years, and went through an incredibly gruesome journey to get to a point in my surfing where I’d actually consider myself a surfer. I knew how to read the ocean, I knew how to catch the waves I wanted, I could perform basic maneuvers, I was extremely fit and felt extremely comfortable in the ocean. In short I had inflated my ego to the point it was asking for an ass whooping.
It was a fantastic lesson, one that I’ll learn from for the rest of my life. Putting yourself in those uncomfortable situations only make you more comfortable, even if they are more humbling than rewarding. I love the saying “When you get to the top of one mountain, there’s always a bigger one behind it” (Modern Wisdom Podcast). It reiterates the point that even though I worked incredibly hard to get to that point in my surfing journey, I needed that experience to elevate myself to the next level. And, that’s exactly what happened.
That humbling experience showed me surfing through a different lens. Those surfers taught me I needed to work on some things if I wanted to hang with the best of them. So I redefined my surfing and started working on all my weaknesses. The worst part about growing pains is that they are extremely painful. My progress was very slow, for every ten waves I caught, one might have been half decent. Eventually, I started to get my groove back and made leaps and bounds of improvement.
That is, until December 2024, when I had my most humbling experience ever. Again, some large west swell was brewing off the coast, this time the period was even longer and the waves were projected to be even bigger (My boss says it’s the largest swell he’s ever seen and he’s in his 40’s). Charles called me up and said this is the swell we’ve been waiting for. I drove down there only to get even more humbled than the last time. The wave faces again were big about (15 feet faces) but the level of surfing was so good it made me want to quit altogether. Guys were making the most incredible maneuvers I have ever seen. I sat out in the water for about two hours, trying to get a wave, but ended up just getting a spectacle of surfing's finest. After my ego cried for a bit, I went in and just watched these guys from the beach. A day I’ll never forget, but one that I can look forward to again.
Here’s the thing about getting humbled. It’s essential for growth. It happens to me all the time and every time I have become a better individual because of it. Every major event that has happened in my life is a byproduct of a humbling experience. Whether that be art, business, surfing, or relationships, I’ve learned to set my ego aside and climb each mountain as they come.
Thanks for reading
With love,
Kai
Weekly Poem:
The ocean cries
The wind wisps
The sand trickles
The salt water dances
And all the surfer can do is giggle
