Chasing the dragon

[bobjs]

Do any of you feel like you are metaphorically ‘chasing the dragon’ with surfing? i.e. an addiction.

Never quite satisfied, a surf only brings you back to normal or brings a slight lift - the rest of the time is spent waiting, planning and chasing down the next session/surf trip. A session providing that absolute pure pleasure is very rare?

“…this wheel which relentlessly revolves around a core of nothingness.” The Outsider: Teahapou Billabong Pro Epilogue 2011.

NC described it as an obsession and I agree but it got me thinking - is there also an element of addiction?

I would be interested to hear about very good surfers who have surfed world class waves full time for lengthy periods. Where are you at when the dream has been fulfilled countless times over? Is there a sense of fulfilment, a let-down as the goal has been reached, just a need for more?

[andy2476]

surfing not so much.

golf on the other hand . ooh baby

[carpetman]

I feel like this song sums it up pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQIQRLqzJY8

Plenty of people I know sacrifice much looking for the chamber. It does feel pretty good though.

[Natho]

I think for certain people it is a type of addiction. Particularly if it is a relief/ distraction from some of the darker things in one's life back on land so to speak.

[alakaboo]

I've lost my addiction to surfing over the last year or so.
It's very relaxing.

[crabmeat thompson]

I wish I could lose the obsession I have with the ocean. I really honestly wish I could.

I also wish I could belt a white ball 239 metres off the tee and fade it around a dog-leg par 4 fairway for an easy chip onto the green.

Golf!

[steve shearer]

Fine line between and addiction and an obsession or even a passionate embrace.

You don't get good unless you hover between those three gradations on the spectrum, for large periods of otherwise productive time.

I've been there for thirty years and have probably transferred some of that devotion over to fishing, which I suspect will be a more or less fluid and reversible development.

They are very similar pursuits in terms of the relationship between effort/skill/experience and reward. The experiential gulf say, between what a skilled dedicated surfer luxuriates in at 8-10ft Lennox or Pipeline or Sunset or any other black diamond run, and what the weekend warrior experiences is profound. They are barely in the same ballpark. One is an active participant, the other a moreorless passive observer.

Same with fishing. 10% of the fishermen catch 90% percent of the fish, which means the vast majority are fcuking clueless. They enjoy a relaxing dabble but as far as enjoying the complex, primal and deeply compatible feeling-sensations of successful fishing goes- it's an alien universe to them. Which doesn't even address the rapid development of neural/memory/learning circuitry in the brain as vast amounts of imformation are being processed on a successful fishing mission.
To ask a good question you must needs know some of the answer. That knowledge base is completely inaccessible to the vast majority.

I guess the big diff between surfing and fishing and maybe other recreational pursuits with Golf winning the gold medal for pointlessness is that success is rewarded, not just at the personal level of the ego, but shared with the family or community. Catching a fish, butchering it and watching your kids grow healthy and strong on it is deeply satisfying.

Thus it feels a little more grown-up and slightly less selfish obsession/addiction. But that's just self-justification too.

[alakaboo]

Didn't say I'd lost my addiction to water.
I am just able now to function as a relatively normal human when I know I'm unavoidably missing surf

[bombora]

Fine line between and addiction and an obsession or even a passionate embrace.

You don't get good unless you hover between those three gradations on the spectrum, for large periods of otherwise productive time.

I've been there for thirty years and have probably transferred some of that devotion over to fishing, which I suspect will be a more or less fluid and reversible development.

They are very similar pursuits in terms of the relationship between effort/skill/experience and reward. The experiential gulf say, between what a skilled dedicated surfer luxuriates in at 8-10ft Lennox or Pipeline or Sunset or any other black diamond run, and what the weekend warrior experiences is profound. They are barely in the same ballpark. One is an active participant, the other a moreorless passive observer.

Same with fishing. 10% of the fishermen catch 90% percent of the fish, which means the vast majority are fcuking clueless. They enjoy a relaxing dabble but as far as enjoying the complex, primal and deeply compatible feeling-sensations of successful fishing goes- it's an alien universe to them. Which doesn't even address the rapid development of neural/memory/learning circuitry in the brain as vast amounts of imformation are being processed on a successful fishing mission.
To ask a good question you must needs know some of the answer. That knowledge base is completely inaccessible to the vast majority.

I guess the big diff between surfing and fishing and maybe other recreational pursuits with Golf winning the gold medal for pointlessness is that success is rewarded, not just at the personal level of the ego, but shared with the family or community. Catching a fish, butchering it and watching your kids grow healthy and strong on it is deeply satisfying.

Thus it feels a little more grown-up and slightly less selfish obsession/addiction. But that's just self-justification too.

Indeed. To most the ocean, any water, is a mirror. To a good fisho, it's a window.

[Beanpole]

Going through a bit of a: sick of the pointless scrambling for junky waves faze myself at the moment. A quite trip down the coast could be in order as summer develops. Either that or I drag the lid out or just flippers and swim in the flags until the surf gets good. Next Autumn maybe.

[crabmeat thompson]

Yeah, that's why I label my condition more of an obsession, rather than an addiction.

I'm always checking maps, when I know swell's coming, I love the prep of getting my big boards ready etc...

I get hugely twitchy if I know I even missed a fun 2-foot surf.

Over the years my own mortality has weighed into the obsession. Torn Achilles, torn labrum, dislocated shoulder, cranked my neck out, torn meniscus in my right knee and compress fractured 3 vertebrae when I was 25 at kirra.

Now my shoulder is arthritic and there's heaps of days I can't get it moving, the pains too much. So I miss out.

Sometimes I get so resentful over all the injuries I wonder why I still even do it.

If I was putting all of this in front of the wife and kids ... Then I'd label it an addiction. Imo. Addictions are destructive and they hurt people. So far, I'm only hurting myself, it seems.

[offshore1]

^^^I hear those hysterectomies can be a bother. hang in there ringo.

[unclethirsty]

Its only been the last couple of years that when I hear "Lets go overseas for a holiday" from the dragon lady that I havn't broken out into a sweat, started taking anti depressants hitting the grog & all sorts if other crazy shit, because I know there will be no surf where she wants to go. I suppose it because I've gotten older, I'm 61yo, & the need to surf has diminished only fractionally.Even now she's looking at Europe next year & I'm like yeah, playing all excited, "lets do the coast of Spain & France" she gives me that look, I sweat, realise that's its going to be more fken churches & shit, crack another beer make an appointment at the doctors for whatever's new in the drug dept.
As one of uncle Doug Mulray's characters used to say "I'm 61 & still need it".

[spork]

I guess its an obsession. I don't check charts, tide or swell, I just drive down and have a look. If it is in any way surfable I will usually paddle out. For me it is part the surf obsession/addiction/condition and part fitness and health. The old adage 'use it or lose it' was never truer for me as I figure that if you stop at my age, then the long board and surfing benign conditions will be upon you soon enough. If it is unsurfable or I cant surf for an extended period, then my wife says I get grumpy even though I don't feel like I am. I cant think of another activity that is as much fun while keeping you interested to the degree that surfing does as a lifestyle option.

[icepick]

I thought with the topic of this thread, this discussion was about getting some of the old lady?

[andy2476]

^^^I hear those hysterectomies can be a bother. hang in there ringo.

Wouldn't know about a hysterectomy. Isn't that what you women have?

I was actually booked in for complications caused by a penis reduction.

im sure it'll reduce on it's own after icepick blows his wad

[spork]

^^^Didn't you only start surfing in your 50's

How did you feel on days it was offshore and pumping up until you were 49?

Fu.C.K. I hope I'm not going to be obsessing about lawn bowls or similar all of a sudden when I turn 50. Life is already complicated enough..........

Yeah, about 48. I was a windsurfer all through the 80's/90's and NEsters where the bomb. Lived on a headland in newy and watched em coming over the horizon. I'd make a beeline for Nobbys reef and be there when they hit, haha, great times. Now I frikken hate NEsters! Offshore days and pumping meant a trip up to Birubi point in port Stevens where a westerly is cross shore. It was a gnarly wave I remember and I have some photos of me and some mates with a whole pile of broken gear from one session.

[offshore1]

^^^I hear those hysterectomies can be a bother. hang in there ringo.

Wouldn't know about a hysterectomy. Isn't that what you women have?

I was actually booked in for complications caused by a penis reduction.

what were doing with a dick in your stomach? did it come in from the arse end or the mouth?