To understand why, we must go back in history. Surfing was originally a spiritual activity rooted in the religion and culture of different islands in the Pacific Ocean, especially Hawaii. It represented the celebration of Lonos, the god of fertility. At the time, only the tribe\u2019s high-ranking figures could undertake it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Today, some surfers still follow this original mindset of communion with nature. \u201cWe call them soul surfers,\u201d writes Lodewijk Allaert in his ode to surfing<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n They explore the imperceptible side of the discipline, dreaming of the precious balance between man and the elements, which pushed the Hawaiian pioneer of surfing, Duke Kahanamoku, to throw himself into colossal walls of water equipped with an antique acacia board. For them, surfing wasn\u2019t a way to show off or a series of spectacular moves, but a lifestyle, a philosophy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n These few utopian surfers base their entire lives around surfing, going against the flow of our society where capitalism is relentlessly expanding toward new areas, the alienation caused by technology always intensifying and freedom increasingly compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The feeling of being fully present in what we are actually doing has become rare \u2013 except perhaps in the case of those who practice extreme sports (it\u2019s difficult to think about work when you have to focus on not being crushed by a two-metre wave).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surfing is an escape; an act of freedom. This is why it can be linked to the ideal of the American counterculture of the 1960s<\/a> based on the \u201cfreewheeling spirit of the hippies\u201d and modern forms of Bohemianism, largely inspired by the Beat Generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like many other countercultures<\/a>, from skateboarding and yoga to meditation and hip-hop, surf has to an extent been absorbed by capitalism. Look at the proliferation of surf schools, magazines, competitions, films, music, and surf wear, each representing an attempt by businesses to make money out of the sport. Like a prey splashing in the water, surfing has attracted the attention of capitalist sharks, and became a victim of its own success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, with surfing, unlike some of these other countercultures, something still resists. Capitalism cannot seem to capture the unique and solitary moment when the surfer must put aside everything he or she knows to avoid getting swept away, to ride the wave and feel a sense of communion with the powerful and untameable elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surfing is the ultimate in unpredictability. Even the best weather apps cannot predict whether or not it will be possible to surf a particular swell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ocean puts human beings in their rightful place \u2013 not above nature but inside of it. I dare even Ren\u00e9 Descartes to try to become a \u201cmaster and possessor of nature\u201d in the building-sized waves<\/a> of Nazar\u00e9 in Portugal, the largest in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a world where transhumanists seek to use technology to save humanity, and even to even to defeat death<\/a>, surfing reminds humans of our staggering insignificance before the irresistible force of the ocean \u2013 and nature in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the context of an increasingly tech-based and dehumanized approach to medicine<\/a>, surfing can appear as a particularly efficient cure for the soul. While some hospitals have introduced secular meditation programmes to alleviate the pain of patients suffering from chronic illnesses or depression, others have used surfing for therapeutic purposes to help cure people like veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSoul surfers vs capitalist sharks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The ocean as the last frontier<\/h2>\n\n\n\n