MovieChat Forums > Chasing Mavericks (2012) Discussion > What is with surfers?

What is with surfers?

posted 12 years ago by Vashramana
31 replies | jump to latest

Why do they always seem to get so spiritual about surfing? It always seems to be a way of life with these guys...What is it about riding a wave that gets these guys to act like that?

[–] GeoDude 11 years ago

This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Surfer. The mysticism of surfing, to “borrow the wave's spirit for a short while and use his body and equipment to translate the essence of the wave's spirit into Art.”

--

[–] JC39 10 years ago

Ok 2 things to say here.

1. Surfing is pretty much the hardest sport/hobby out there. I always use the idea of 'imagine if the hardest thing about snowboarding was putting your boots on and standing up', how quickly would you progress. Couple that with the fact that if you go surfing for an hour at max your only actually surfing for what 5 mins.

2. Is sadly the days of the spiritual surfer are sadly over, it seems the norm (well especially here in Portugal) is competitive dickheads with no respect for other surfers or the ocean who don't even seem to be enjoying themselves. I know there are people out there like myself (although terrible) who see it as a soul calming pastime but they are definitely in the minority.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dcram76 8 years ago

I'm not sure if this makes any sense what I'm about to tell you, but here it goes.
With surfing you've got two things: sports and nature. Catching a wave is a major accomplishment like scoring a goal in soccer or hockey, making a basket in basketball, scoring a home run in baseball, or scoring a touchdown in football. Not only that, you are in touch with mother nature. Imagine being out in an open undeveloped piece of land enjoying your surroundings. Put those two together and you've got surfing.

[–] Lady_Elaine_Fairchild 8 years ago

It is spiritual... its just you and nature.

For me, there have been so many times that I was sure this was my last wave. The water/waves are to be respected-mother nature is to be respected- or she will send you to meet your maker.

Waves like they have on Pillar Point are monsters and even kill spectators watching from the wall/rocks.

I love this movie.

I can't hear you over the volume of my hair.

[–] activista 8 years ago

As someone who's never surfed, but always been pretty fascinated by the sport, I'm thinking it's because when you really look at it, surfing can be a damn dangerous sport---there's literally nothing between you and the wave you're surfing on, and it seems like if you don't really know what the hell you're doing, you can get pulled underwater quicker then you think. Just seems like you have to have a lot of guts just to take on a wave that's twice or three times your size, and ride it all the way on top to the end without getting swallowed up by it. The spiritual aspect, I would think, comes from realizing that you don't tame nature, it tames you, and you have to learn to respect that, or else. Interestingly enough, I saw a surfer get swallowed up by a huge wave on TV last week, but he survived---pretty cool to watch,though.