Last week during one of my lessons, I was out on the water with my student Jonny (shout out to Jonny). The waves were decent, and we had been surfing for about an hour or so. I had just suggested that some more intense paddling might lead to more waves caught, when Jonny spotted a wave that looked particularly good. He started paddling frantically, and as it came he began to move with it towards the shoreline. However, at the moment when the wave should have began to push Jonny and his board, it passed right under him and turned into white water. Dejected, Jonny looked back at me floating on his board.
“Man,” he said. “It’s just the worst when you put so much effort into paddling and you just don’t catch the wave.”
“Don’t get down on yourself, it happens,” I told him. “Just do your best on the next one to lean forward and start paddling a bit earlier. Everything else you did was good.”
And it was. What Jonny learned on the water last week was something that surfing has taught me over and over again. Life, unfortunately is not fair. Paddling as hard as you can and coming up short of catching a wave is one of the most important lessons that a person can learn. Just like anything else, sometimes even the greatest amount of effort just can’t get you to the outcome that you want. Yes, surfing is fun and it’s a great, active pastime – but even more importantly it offers some of the greatest teachings that life has. Even after Jonny didn’t get the wave he wanted, he persevered, and the next one he was able to stand up on and ride all the way in.
“I hope you learned your lesson,” I told him.
“I actually like surfing more than I thought I would,” he told me. “I’ll tell you what – I’m definitely going to be back out.”