If you’re any kind of experienced surfer, you’ve got a highly specialized set of skills. You can paddle a thin piece of foam through the ocean on the most extreme days, lock into that kinetic energy and navigate yourself, while standing upright, parallel to the shore. There are few other instances in life where those skills are valuable. Perhaps a surf instructor or pro surf coach. But despite your best efforts on Instagram, you are not a pro surfer.
So what else can you apply those skills to in the real world? Pretty much nothing.
Surfing is a pretty self-centered pursuit. All the late takeoffs, paddle training, amateur meteorology, wave etiquette, travel, and studying surfcraft is all useless to everyone but our own Instagram feeds. There’s really only one way we can translate all those years of waveriding experience that can benefit others … you’re just probably not doing it yet.
Every year, there are countless opportunities for surfers to give back through the dozens of surf-based volunteer groups that help get people who are facing some sort of obstacle into waves. From people recovering from addiction to cystic fibrosis, wounded veterans, autistic children, spinal cord injury victims, inner city kids or paraplegic athletes, there are non-profits that see the value in sharing that simple joy of surging toward the beach on a wave – something many spoiled surfers may have forgotten about as soon as we learned to wiggle our butts down the line.
Read more here.
