I’ll keep this brief. I’m sitting in my home-for-now in Chile (I’ll be sharing more about that soon) watching a handful of surfers paddle out in the morning mist. They proceed to get hammered by the powerful waves, paddling furiously against the strong currents, and then paddling more furiously to catch a wave, which they occasionally do, only to be knocked off their feet instantly, or in the best case, enjoy a three-second ride. I don’t get it.
I know surfing is popular and I‘m learning myself, for those windless days, but the reward-to-effort ratio is so low. Maybe that’s because I can compare it to windsurfing, where you get to power out with the wind and catch the waves before they break. In a typical surfing session you catch 10 waves. Windsurfing, I can catch 20 or 30 before tiring. It’s difficult to learn, takes commitment, but no more than surfing. If you’re looking for maximum enjoyment in the waves, I would choose windsurfing any day of the week.
It’s late afternoon now and I’m watching a handful of windsurfers effortlessly sail back and forth over the waves the surfers were struggling with earlier. Case closed.
F4 Plus 