The First Year of a Journey: A Look Back

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Srinivas Rao

It’s been a while since I wrote a post here on Stoked for Life because I’ve been really busy with all my other projects and finally have landed in a real job. After almost 5 straight days in the water I figured it was time for a quick look back at the first year of a journey that will last a lifetime.

The First Wave

The first wave is a moment I’ll never forget, and part of my plan along this journey is to return to the site of the first wave. Maybe it’s just the idea of paying respect to the place that has had such a powerful influence on my life. I also wonder about the old Brazilian, his wife, and their surf shack where I ate Brazilian BBQ and benefited from their hospitality. I’d hope that he will still be there upon my return so I can tell him how that day forever changed my life.

Early Days at the Venice Pier

Sometime in early January 2009 I got my hands on my Costco Wavestorm surfboard, which I used for almost 8 months. Without an ounce of knowledge of the ocean, weather patterns, surf conditions or other factors I’ve realized become an almost obsessive study for most surfers,  I would take my board out and attempt to ride the white water.  I don’t really remember much other than the fact that I always felt good when I was done, and I was eager to return.

In my last semester of business school I would sit in group meetings agitated that the meetings were taking so long. I would try to to cut every meeting short so I could get back to the beach as quickly as possible. I still didn’t really understand what was happening to me or what it meant to be stoked. It was just something I did to kill time.

Graduation and Riding the Waves of Unemployment

By April of 2009 I was done with school and needed something to fill the endless hours in the day. In that first month I didn’t realize how valuable the time I had was. I’d head out for a 2 hour session sometime in the afternoon without a clue about glassy conditions that come with rising early. After a while it was the only thing that was keeping me from going nuts.

The job search seemed like a futile effort and it’s possible that mentally I had given up even though I was going through the motions of submitting resumes and attending interviews. By the end of June my funds were depleted and I was forced to return home to Riverside. It was one hour from the coast and surfing every day was no longer an option.

My parents agreed to give me 50 dollars every other week. At age 31, I was like a kid in high school with an allowance. The allowance was for gas, parking at the beach, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which I lived on for the whole summer.  Fortunately I still had a crash pad in Culver City.  Sometime in the first week of July I surfed for 6 hours a day from Wednesday to Sunday. That was pretty much the end of it. There’s no way I was going to get out after that. The bug had not just bitten me, it sunk it’s fucking teeth into me so deep that it was never going to let go.

Shifting Priorities

This is where the real change started to happen. I realized that the waves sucked in the afternoons and that in the summer the wind would blow them out by noon. So, I eventually started scheduling all my job interviews around surf conditions. If any potential employer requested a morning interview, I emailed back saying I had a prior engagement. Once I even conducted a phone interview from the beach because it was at 10am and was only a 30 min interview. What had once been nothing more than a way to kill time had started to consume me.

The Darkness

Indians for the most part are obsessed with being really fair skinned. My time at the beach for 6 hours a day was really not helping me in that department. Every time i went out I got darker. Any time I saw friends or family they would tell me how dark I was. I thought about taking off my shirt and showing them how much weight I’d lost.  But, I resisted the temptation. But, all this darkness and I was still smiling.

The Endless Summer

It’s odd but I still feel like my summer never ended. The water is a bit cooler, the waves a bit better, but I find myself more immersed, perhaps even obsessed with the sport than I ever was before. Somewhere in the midst of all this I got a job which I quit after two weeks. I surfed almost every day in that two weeks, but I had to get up at 5am to do it. When I returned to the beach the day after I quit my job, the line up at my local surf spot already knew that I had quit my job. Some had even expected it.

The notion of a normal job became less and less likely. It was November and I was still surfing about 4-6 hours a day. This summer really was starting to seem endless.  On the one hand, I needed a job and that would mark the end of summer. On the other hand, I was starting to fall in love with my endless summer.

Conclusions about the first year

At the end of a year I’ve discovered an entire other side of myself that seems to have made me happier, healthier and wiser. I have made tons of new friends. I also have realized that it’s probable that every vacation  I take for the rest of my life will be a surfing trip. The ultimate goal in my quest to stay Stoked for Life is to disappear from society for a year, travel the world, surf, and write about it.