Surfing and Generosity

We finally got a swell. Moderate size from Hurricane Dorian. It was windy out of the west. Chest-to-head high, fun and fast.I surfed my usual haunt, along with a fresh batch of Flagler College students.

The college kids were 30 years younger than me. They were jostling for position in the water, taking waves from each other, cutting people off, not abiding by the time-honored etiquette of surfing, which I fear has gone by the wayside.

Nevertheless, I was feeling generous, giving some of my waves away. Generosity in the water—sharing waves—is a fairly rare practice. Surfers, as a rule, can be very possessive and greedy —myself included.

You see, to us surfers, waves are precious things. They are a highly valued commodity. When a wave comes to the surfer, the surfer immediately thinks, “This wave belongs to me—it was destined for me.” The surfer thinks this way because waves are seen, to some extent, as mystical entities that pick which surfer will ride them. An obvious problem arises when more than one surfer shares the same feeling over the same wave. I have seen fist-fights over wave possession.

Entitlement to a wave is especially pronounced among local surfers—those who live where they surf—like me. The mindset goes like this: “Because I live here, I am entitled to more waves than the people who travel from Gainesville.”

In other words, local surfers often develop a perspective that lacks generosity. And, just for the record, those who travel from inland are not any better about sharing waves. You might think the converse would be true: The one who travels the farthest for the waves is the most deserving of the waves. But this isn’t how it works. This is not the surfing ethos.

It is a rare thing to see a surfer actively giving away waves. I don’t do it very often, except with friends—and even then it’s not common practice. As a rule, surfers are jealous beings. It’s hard to give away that which you highly prize. We protect what we love. It is especially hard to give away a commodity that was destined for you.

The day that I gave away waves to the younger guys, I was feeling less than possessive—if not less entitled to the waves. What I felt after giving away waves shouldn’t have surprised me but it did: I felt joy.

Here is an important lesson: Generosity is a key to joy. Jesus said something about this very thing: It’s better to give than to receive. Whether in the water or on the land, what would your life look like if you gave more of your precious resources away? What would our city and nation look like if we focused more on what we could give rather than what we could take, save or spend?