One might wonder why this site has been awakened from its slumbering stupor after being silent for years. Unsurprisingly, it was none other than a surf trip to the original source of this blog’s inspiration, the land of the lefts, razor sharp reefs and raw ocean power that triggered an impulse to write my thoughts into words. I speak of course, of none other than the surfing world’s favourite archipelago, Indonesia.
Surfing for two weeks alongside rippers and actual pros in the lineups has abruptly awakened me to the fact that my surf progression has slowed to a glacial pace, leaving me stranded in the dreaded intermediate’s plateau. Frustrated and inspired by my current state of affairs, my mind is bursting at it’s seams with deep thoughts, minute details and delicate intricacies of surfing that I have yet to master, but desperately want to achieve. Naturally, such a swirling mix of intense emotional desire and a complex web of ideas is the perfect motivation to put words to (digital) paper.
But before I dive into the deep end of details, this blog (and its readers, if you actually exist) deserve an account of events that have transpired since my last post till the present day. After my last months long surf trip to Indo in 2019, I arrived back to landlocked, wave-barren Switzerland to write up my Master’s Thesis, coincidentally just in time for Covid to bless Indonesia with once in a century empty line-ups. Obviously, I couldn’t continue my surf progression in the land of steep mountains and pungent cheese, but upon graduation, I landed a job in sunny, surf-cultured San Diego.
Obviously crumbly, weak SoCal waves can’t be compared to the power and perfection of Indonesian waves, but what SoCal lacked in nature’s blessings, was made up for in surf culture. It was the first time I lived in close proximity to a multitude of surf events with shaper demo days, surf film screenings and live show interviews with the actual GOAT himself along with the rest of the Momentum Generation.
I surfed a steady 2-4x a week, learnt how to pace myself to surf for performance instead of endurance (limiting myself to a 45-60min session), picked up surf oriented functional training exercises and stretching and reluctantly accept the self torture of putting on a wet wetsuit every other day. In my mind, I was progressing steadily, but not dramatically, and I felt that I was hamstrung by a lack of quality waves and crowded lineups. This was mostly true, but I had not recognized that these were extrinsic reasons, and the true source of elevating my game lay in my internal head state.
This all changed when I took a risk and quit my job after 2 years of working in San Diego. After fulfilling a lifelong dream of backpacking in Colombia and Ecuador for 2-3 months, I rested a month at home in Malaysia then hopped over to Lakey Peak in Sumbawa for my first real surf trip in more than a year. And just how Indonesia was key to igniting my life long love affair with surfing, it again became the catalyst to elevate my surfing game.
My first surf day at Lakey, I paid a visit to Periscopes, one of Indonesia’s few world class rights. And on this magical day, I found myself either alone or the only other person in the line-up. For two hours, 6 ft glassy peeling rights rifled down the reef in immaculate perfection.
I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, but my skill level was definitely not up to level with Periscopes’ rifling peelers. Rusty after months of not surfing fast and powerful waves, it took awhile for me to get back in the groove (aka kooked up multiple waves.) I took off too late on a couple, and didn’t generate speed fast enough on a couple, but still, it was a great session. I made one or two waves down the line, and got knocked off the lip by one, which felt great to feel the ocean power.
After that day, the swell died down and I was left hungering for more large waves. If I could control the ocean, I would have preferred the smaller days first, leading up to a nice medium sized swell, just when I felt ready enough to take on Periscopes. This is one of the biggest challenges of surfing, one needs to match the ocean at its strength, power and frequency at the right time. And sometimes, our lives, schedules and health just doesn’t sync up with the ocean.
Unfortunately, for the rest of the majority of the stay, the swell got pretty small, and I ended up surfing Cobblestone Rights for a couple of days. Its a chest high, fast-ish right hander, which works better on high to mid tide. On several of the days, a local pro and a bunch of Aussie rippers showed up and put on an absolute clinic. They had great style, surfed the wave from top to bottom and threw airs. But more importantly, they were nice guys, waited their turn and gave me a few waves.
What I learnt from this session was that I consistently mentally put myself into a box that ceded the best positions for the wave to surfers more advanced than me, although I was totally capable of surfing alongside them. This was a self-imposed mental block that still lingered on from my beginner days when I wasn’t familiar with waves and line-ups, and wasn’t confident with reading and taking waves. But I realised now, it was time to shed off this attitude and trust in myself to go toe to toe with more advanced surfers at intermediate breaks.
…it was time to shed off this attitude and trust in myself to go toe to toe with more advanced surfers at intermediate breaks
After a couple of days of small swell, a mega 8-10ft swell arrived. A group of Indonesian pros including Bronson Mehdi and Rizal Tanjung flew over from Bali for the first eventful swell of the season. I was looking out at Lakey Peak the day before the swell, talking to Bronson’s videographer when I turned out and saw Rizal Tanjung right next to me. It was an abruptly pleasant surprise.
On the day of the mega swell itself, I decided to give Nungas (A long left) a try, knowing that I would be absolutely destroyed at any of the other more advanced breaks. The incoming sets were consistently overhead to double overhead and I paddled out my Pyzel Ghost for the first time.
And failed to surf a single wave for 3 hours.
The conditions were pretty windy and the takeoff spot itself pretty shifty. I found myself in peak position several times, but was always too outside or too inside of the wave to catch it properly. In other words, I wasn’t able to read the wave as well as others in the lineup. I tried to pop up on a couple but just kooked it up and feel cause it was either to steep or too fast.
But man, others in the line-up were killing it. Once you got onto a wave at Nungas, you never needed to pump or race down the line. You could just surf it top to bottom and carve its massive face at a leisurely pace without fear of it outrunning you. After 3 hours of attempts, I paddled in, humbled and exhausted.
Thankfully the swell dropped to a more approachable 4-6ft and the winds and swells cleaned up the following day. This was my last day in Lakey and I was hoping to score some nice lines at Periscopes. I arrived an hour before the tide had risen to cover up the reef, so I watched and waited for the wave to start working at its prime.
I noticed that as the tide rose, the two sections of Periscopes became more and more of one together. And the larger the swell, the easier it was to beat the first section and make it down to the second. But until the conditions were right, I sat at the inside section of Periscopes, picking off the waves the broke on the inside, while the more advanced surfers sat at the top of the peak. I took off on a couple of head high/overhead ones, did a deep bottom turn but didn’t initiate my top turns early enough and unintentionally exited out the back. This has been a consistently repeated problem in my surfing: On more powerful or fast waves, I don’t realise how much speed I gain on the bottom turn, then fail to react in time to top turn back down the wave and end up flying out the back too early. Just one of the many items to work on in my surf plateau.
As the tide rose, and the two sections linked up, I found myself being unable to catch any waves as the advanced surfers rarely ever fell off the waves. A nice guy in the line-up offered to give me some tips and pointed out at that my legs were trashing about while I was paddling into the wave.
This whole time for the past couple of years, I hadn’t realized that I was super tensed up while paddling into the wave. Probably fatigue was contributing to it, but I still wasn’t consciously paying attention to my body during such a critical phase of surfing.
Even after I straightened out my feet, the nice guy (whose name I embarrassingly cannot remember, maybe it was Juan, dude was Latino lol) pointed out that my back and legs were too tense. Again, this was something I hadn’t realised before. I relaxed my lower back and legs and found it was slightly more difficult to balance initially, but I gained speed faster as I paddled.
He then told me, “Surfing is a mental game.”
“Surfing is a Mental Game”
And these words stuck with me.
For far too long, I’ve been sloppy with my mental state, not actively controlling and monitoring my state of mind in the critical stages leading up to catching a wave. Now that I’ve moved past my fear and uncertainty of the ocean, and improved my wave reading skills, it freed up mental capacity to pay attention to my internal ocean.
Was I calm, collected and resolute before catching a wave? What muscles do I need to relax or power to paddle at maximum speed?
“Surfing is a mental game” triggered an epiphany in me that the secret to overcoming my surf plateau was no longer purely physical limitations, it was leveling up my mental game, by activating my mind to paying attention to both the ocean outside and within me, and attempting to match my internal rhythm to the ocean outside while controlling the ocean within.
…triggered an epiphany in me that the secret to overcoming my surf plateau was no longer purely physical limitations, it was leveling up my mental game, by activating my mind to paying attention to both the ocean outside and within me, and attempting to match my internal rhythm to the ocean outside while controlling the ocean within.
Whoever you are, dear stranger in the Periscopes line up, thank you for your precious words of wisdom. It has awoken the next stage of my surfing progression.
