Second Leg And The Magic Of Surfing

The lounge in Taipei was divine. I took a hot shower while waiting for my next flight, and to my surprise, it had multiple jets that hit you from all angles. With a 20-minute time limit, I made sure to spend 10 of those minutes under the warm waterfall. They provided L’Occitane products for hair and body, and I took full advantage of them. I love how this brand makes my hair and skin feel, and the smell is delish.

Currently, I’m taking off on my second flight en route to Jakarta. The plane’s wheels just left the ground, and I have my laptop on my legs as the aircraft climbs to cruising altitude. It’s shaking a little as I write.

I only recently started flying business. Even though I've been able to afford it for a while now, I just couldn't justify the expense. Now though with age, my ancles swell and I can't sleep in coach so I've crossed over to spend more on the flight then on the actual trip.

I took my last edible just now and am looking forward to the relaxed haze I’ll be engulfed in within 45 minutes. Indonesia has a strict no-drug policy, so I know to finish my stash before entering their airspace. After years of traveling, I’ve become quite the expert.

I must be honest with my readers. If you don’t already know, I have no filter. I tell it as it is. I consider it a luxury to be honest and not have to be politically correct all the time. There's an ulterior motive I'm here, an incentive if we may call it that.

On my last day of the girls’ Mentawai trip, 20 days ago or so, I surfed a wave called Telescopes. I paddled out in the dark around 5:45 AM and stayed four hours in the water before heading back to our boat that would then begin its slow pilgrimage back to Padang, a good 14 hours away.

While enjoying the last glassy waves of my trip, I met a surfer. I’d seen this man the evening before when he barreled in front of me, and I couldn’t help but follow him with my eyes.

There’s something about surfers. Irresistible. I see them as gladiators, negotiating the wave, reading it perfectly, adjusting their bodies to ride this energy that’s traveled from the ocean’s surface to its depths, in repetitive cycles. Energy can’t be created or destroyed; it just transfers from molecule to molecule of H2O. This wave was generated in some faraway ocean by a storm, pushed and shoved in an ever-expanding ripple, traveling thousands of miles until it reached the shoreline, building up and creating a swell. As the ocean bottom gets shallower, the swell grows until it can't hold its shape anymore and collapses, breaking. Depending on its direction and the reef’s shape, this wave will break in a specific way.

Surfers' paradise is when it peels clean, breaking perfectly from one end of the reef to the other, creating a wall of water. At this point, there’s a lucky person floating on a surfboard, ready to harness its power. We see the swell coming, position ourselves just right, and with a few strong paddles, we're in. With one swift movement, we pull the board under our feet, popping up and staying low, making the drop from the wave’s crest to the bottom at an impossible angle. It’s as fast as free-falling or the speed of gravity, before setting up for the carve. We surf away from the breaking white water, trying to extract the most out of it, then back into it. The longer the wave holds, the more turns we can get in. Just before it collapses, we exit with a rush of adrenaline and endorphins like nothing else. It’s amazing, this sport—a portal to connect to the source. It’s life.

When I'm on the wave, I'm completely present. There’s no time to think, no time to dwell; it’s just me, the wave, and the oneness. In flow, in the zone—this is what I mean. When I say I'm in communion with nature.

Feeling the Mana, I think I was throwing a fit for missing the wave, but we wont tell anyone will we?

So, back to the guy. We followed each other on social media and never stopped talking. It turns out he’s a really good friend of a friend of mine, from the same little town in a remote part of Chile that has massive, dark, cold water waves, and that connection can’t be a coincidence. Small world, right? I stopped believing in coincidences six years ago when I had my first spiritual awakening, but that’s a story for another time.

Again, with the witchy stuff, but The Universe works in mysterious ways, and I listen. I’m always alert to follow its direction. Why struggle when you can accept everything as if it were your idea all along and go with it?

I had sublet my apartment in Hawaii for July and was planning to go to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Well, I rerouted. This new man and I have been flirting non-stop since we met on that wave, FaceTiming and chatting here and there. It’s been so fun, and the fact we haven’t even had a propper date yet makes it even more exhilarating. Imagine a one month foreplay session. Talk about intense energy, huh? Either way, chemistry or not, I'm just happy to be back where the waves are perfect and the water is warm. Having a friend to surf with this month is icing on the cake.

It wasn’t hard to convince me. In fact, I might have convinced myself—God talks, I listen. This sexy surfer man invited me to come back and surf with him this month, staying at bungalows right on the water on a tiny tropical island with transparent turquoise water and an overpopulation of coconut trees. Let me ask you this: if you were in my shoes, what would you have done?

Dreamy islands with turqoise water and an overpopulation of palmtrees.

Exactly!

Now, let’s see what happens next.

*When I use the words God, The Universe, The Oneness, or any other term that might come up, I’m talking about this amazing force by which we all abide. The Intelligence that makes the seasons happen, the moon do its thing, and injects the blueprint for every living organism inside a cell, so that as they multiply, they line up perfectly and create a human, a redwood tree, or a jellyfish. This is what I speak of. When we listen, amazing things happen. Quit blocking the flow.