Fear
You make a commitment to surf and set about doing it. You pick up a board, grab a wetsuit, pick the spot, and just go. Details minimized. You’re looking for an instinctual, visceral experience. You are going to shed the world and hopefully yourself. And, the stoke, the connection, and the moment will follow.
Your mindset has you moving down the tracks pretty smoothly with only the usual problems that could occur. You know what to do about a broken-down vehicle. You call a buddy to pick you up. Or, the waves aren’t coming as the forecast had predicted, so you pop up the beach to a different spot. Other challenges come and go but you know how to deal with them. The flow is not lost; it is attainable, even if on a different day.
then, IT happens.
You really don’t see it or you fail to fully acknowledge it. It starts with a brief moment of doubt, it is a simmering feeling that can grow and cause the yips, the shakes, the gastric turnover, and the possum like paralysis that causes you to be like a piece of driftwood and not a surfer. It is fear– the unwanted passenger and it can completely prevent you from getting what you set out to get, the flow, and the moment.
no Psychobabble here
These are just some of the fears that a surfer may experience. These are challenges that need to be recognized and overcome.
Of course, a reasonable person, who is in this position as a surfer, knows it doesn’t really matter and will not normally be remembered, however, your feelings will be there; and you can call this what you want, stage fright, performance anxiety, or whatever. It will make you tight and if not controlled it will permeate and persist and suck you into its morass; you know what YOUR result will be.
Don’t think you have this fear, then think again or remember a time when you had to perform and everyone was watching, like the time in high school English class when you had to stand up in front of class and read an essay you wrote.
You’re standing there in the spotlight, your friends and classmates are sitting in front of you waiting to see what you do. You know the words, you wrote them, but do they make sense. Is the analysis of the material correct? Is the voice clear and strong? Why are the hands shaking? Why is sweat dripping down the forehead? Is it hot in here? Wow, am I really dizzy? Are people going to laugh at the work?
When you stand up on a board, you are giving a presentation, just like that high school speech you gave and the same feelings will be there. Will I paddle at the right speed to catch the wave? Will I stand up at the right time? Will my feet be in the right place on the board? Will the board be the best board for the conditions? Can I do this?
You’re not thinking about surfing; you are experiencing your own fears; how can you perform when you mind is not on the task and is instead spewing out fear.
Specific performance-based fears. These are a type of fear based on experience level; what you can’t do on a surfboard. For a Grom you say to yourself, “I can’t ever stand up on a board,” forgone conclusion; you focus on your fear, that you will fall, and you fall. Next, at a higher level of skill, you say to yourself, “I can’t make good bottom turns and always wipe out.” You fear not being able to make the cut; It’s a foregone conclusion, you move to make you first cut, your fear has determined the result, and you perform a side-over-side summersault. As your skill grows, you move to bigger challenges, such as surfing over chop; you are booking down the wave, chop appears on your path, fear clouds your thoughts because you have never successfully surfed through it. Foregone conclusion, your board submarines and you go flying off the board like the Hydroflask you left on the roof of your vehicle when you made a sudden stop—Hydro-Missile. Fear can prevent you from trying to do what you have previously not been able to do.
Getting out to the lineup. This is a thing that any surfer should fear because it can sometimes present very large challenges. Just read William Finnegan’s description in his book, Barbarian Days, about some of the challenges he faced when trying to paddle out at Ocean Beach. Start on page 289 in the SF section and finish it out. Consider these challenges:
Fear the paddle out. How would you feel about a 10 to 15 minute paddle out through large breaking waves? To do it you have to have endurance and strength. Can you even run for 15 minutes. What about keeping your cardio up while exerting your muscles to paddle you out. If you don’t have the endurance, you can get creamed by waves. Surfers will fear the paddle out because they don’t think they can make it and will end up getting hurt in the impact zone.
Fear the distance. Are you up to paddle out the length of a football field, 300 feet? Does it scare you that you may be too tired to surf or even swim to safety after paddling that much distance? By the way, it’s an accordion like 100 yards.
Fear the reef. The one at Ewa Beach is a good example. Walking over the reef with its jagged surface can easily cut up or puncture your feet. Will my bloody feet get infected later, will the pain of lacerations and punctures prevent me from standing up on the board? How do I get through a wave to the lineup if I can’t duck dive in the two foot deep water on the reef? Do you fear getting picked up by a wave and slammed, at 30mph, onto it? How do you feel about getting dragged along the surface of the reef at that same speed? A beach break, third coast person will have no experience with this. Its presence will be on his mind as he tries to get to the line up or as he is surfing toward it; it does affect what you do. Fearing the reef is an obstacle that gets in the way of focus.
Fear the wave size coming down in the impact zone. How about the size and power of the wave you have to paddle through to get to the lineup. They can move fast. Big waves do extend deep. Will duck diving work. Will turtling work…. Am I strong enough to prevent getting the board ripped out of my hands and will I be thrown back on the reef? Here is some perspective, a cubic foot of water weighs about 62.4 pounds and it is a lot of cubic feet coming at you depending on the size of the wave; what if that is coming at you at 15 miles per hour. What’s that going to do to you?
Fear of running out of breath while being underwater. This is obvious. You have to hold your breath to duck dive, turtle, to swim under an incoming set, or to swim back to the surface after a hold-down or wipe out. Aren’t you a little afraid you will get spent, black out, and just fade away? Right? If you don’t fear this you are not prepared. Watch any number of clips of big wave events and see how long a surfer stays down after a wipe out. Can you hold your breath that long underwater in your pool…..how about doing this while you are under stress? I’ve been flipped off a board while paddling out. Yes, I thought I was in the lineup but one wave decided to break prematurely. It flipped my nine-footer, head to foot, backwards; landing on my back, deep enough, churning fast enough that I couldn’t see up or down. I came up fifteen or so seconds later about 100 yards down the beach. The potential of a long hold down will put fear into every surfer and gives them pause before stepping into the water.
Fear of the tides. It’s pretty simple and it’s pretty well known. Tides can grab a person and in a very short time push/pull them along the surface to a position a long way from where they want to be. Or, a rip tide can grab a person, suck them under water, and deposit them, alive or dead, at a place in the ocean far away. Have you ever seen a rip tide grab a kids floaty and suck it under water….. it happens. How can it not enter your mind and affect your surfing, if you know that when you fall off the board you could end up far from your initial location.
Fear the duck dive. Watch any WSL CT event and see how the surfers get back out to the lineup. You will see them duck dive one or more times to get through the impact zone. Anyone can do it once. What happens though if the wave frequency is quick or the impact zone is wide/deep? You may have to duck dive two, three, or more times. Do you know you can get through this? It’s something to probably fear as a misstep could have you getting caught in the wave’s churn leading to you getting pounded by the wave you were going under or maybe hurt from your ballistic missile surfboard impacting your head or its fin slicing you open. Duck dive right; no problems. If you miscalculate, then it is something to fear.
Fear of speaking to surfers in a lineup. There are really three ways to work yourself into a lineup. Be there first, 2. Force your way in, and 3. Talk your way in. The first is easy; there is nobody there except you and your friends and you just work out the order as you always have. The second way, forcing your way in, is probably the one you see a lot on youtube videos, where people end up fighting it out, verbally or with fist.
Most likely though you will find yourself holding a conversation, spoken/unspoken, about entering the lineup, especially when it is crowded, as most good spots are these days. At this usual point you could experience a kind of fear, a social interaction fear.
Don’t believe this, then take stock of yourself: Are you good at talking with strangers when they have something you want, Ie. getting recognized as being welcome in the lineup?
Sure, it is easy to talk with people when there is no competition for something, such as catching a wave. But, given the great number of surfers and the relative scarceness of rideable waves, the conversation may be a little touchy if you don’t know the other surfers. What you can expect is that they will seek to protect their slot in the rotation and they may even encourage you to surf elsewhere. How do you handle this? “Friendly” confrontation can be a little scary. So, you will have nervousness, if not outright fear of this social interaction. What do you say and what do you do to get your shot in the lineup? Are you so afraid of the interaction that you move to a different spot? Do you become angry and react in anti-social way? Will this be on your mind as you try to surf.
Shark attack/Shark-imagination. Shark attacks are something that might cross your mind before, during, or after surfing. You know how it goes; a shark swims silently toward you aiming for your leg, you hear a ruffling of water as it lurches up mouth open revealing a hundred glimmering, razor sharp teeth. You are frozen, not sure what you see and the beast bights down. Ripping and pulling; you are being flung around and pulled away from your board; and then blackness.
For a little perspective on the power that a Great White wields, consider its bite strength. An eight-foot Great White can generate about 0.3 tonnes of force (approximately 650 pounds) per National Geographic. By comparison, a Rottweiler has a bite force of about 300 pounds of pressure. Yeah, Rotties aren’t scary, are they.
By the numbers, though, it is really an imagined fear of sharks lurking beyond the break waiting for surfers to appear that affects you. They are probably not there. Shark attacks are not that frequent. According to Florida Museum (www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu) there were 33 in the United States last year, 2020, with three being fatal. Interestingly, 61% of shark attacks were on people surfing or engaged in board sports (Florida Museum). So, 61% of 33 involved people engaged in board sports. In our most populated state, California, there were four shark attacks. But wow, it is hard to get that image and fear out of your brain and if that fear is in your head, doesn’t it affect your surfing? How can it not if you are looking around for the fins and not looking for the next set.
Here is a comparison of different animals and the Bite Force:
Curtesy of YouTube; DataWatch.
Here is a closeup clip of a shark attacking a bait:
Curtesy of YouTube: White Shark Video
Here is a clip of a shark attacking a surfer:
Curtesy of YouTube; WSL.
The hold-down should scare everyone. You may not know it but when you fall off your board while surfing, you can/will end up on the receiving end of your wave crashing down on you. You get pushed down and rolled underwater. This may last just a few seconds or longer depending on wave size or depth of water. When you come up it is not uncommon to see a second wave beginning to crash down on you; and then, maybe a third wave. Can you hold your breath long enough to let the wave pass and resurface yourself? Can you keep your cool long enough to swim up to the surface? Can you see where “up” is and swim that direction? Does fear of large wave hold-downs scare you….do you steer your surfing to spots where the waves are more gentle? Yes, then fearing the hold-down does affect your surfing.
Here is a clip of a Hold Down:
Curtesy of YouTube; Clifton Martinson
Here is a more extreme Hold Down:
Curtesy of YouTube JacuzziSurfer
Fear of injury is something that can pop into your mind when you get ready to surf. The image of becoming injured easily pops into one’s imagination when approaching the beach and the explosions of crashing waves are sending shock waves across the beach. Did I feel the ground move? Or, maybe it is seeing an exiting surfer who has blood gushing down his forehead, having face-planted on the rocky bottom. Your own imagination will paint the way for your mind to find a potential injury area in your own body. Has my acl completely healed; will the knee hold up? Will the reef cut my feet on the way to the lineup? Fear does impact how you choose to surf and it holds you back from growing.
Here is a clip from the Wedge:
Curtesy of YouTube; SoCal Surfer put up this video. It’s about 12 minutes long.
Here is a clip from Teahupoo:
Curtesy of YouTube; SuRf,GaMe & Action
Death of Fear
The usual response from people is to just keep trying and you’ll get it, eventually. What
I am saying is that fear gets in the way of success, or delays success, and it makes the learning curve much longer.
How about instead, you recognize this fear, study different techniques for overcoming it, implement different techniques until one works, and finally, enjoy the results of your work.