Knowing Which Waves To Ride

In 1999, I was backpacking through Peru and stopped for a couple of weeks in a little surfing town in the north called Huanchaco.

There, I made friends with a local surfer named Lucho, who had grown up in the water. He was a descendant of the Chimú people, whose ancestors had navigated, fished, and ridden these waters on traditional reed boats called caballitos de totora, or little reed horses.

I had never met anybody who knew ocean waters like Lucho.

We’d sit on our surfboards together for hours, watching the waves roll in. I was in awe of how attuned he was to the water. He seemed to intuitively know when to sit still, when to paddle, when to go for it, and when to let a wave pass.

And he let most of them pass.

He’d smile as another wave rolled by, sometimes cracking jokes about how she (the ocean) needed to turn on the machine and get the waves going again.

Lucho taught me way more than how to surf.

He was helping me learn how to read the water, and the waves of life. How to discern rather than jump on everything that came my way. How to tap into my inner knowing about which moments, people, and opportunities to go for, and which ones to let pass.

And perhaps most importantly, how to recognize the difference between hesitating out of fear and wisely choosing to wait.

Yesterday morning, as I bodysurfed in the Atlantic, with some powerful currents pushing toward shore, I found myself thinking about Lucho again.

About how pacing myself in the water, conserving my energy for just a few worthy waves, made the whole morning easier, softer, and so much more fun.

And how much of life is like that.

How often do we exhaust ourselves paddling toward something that isn’t quite right for us? Or chase waves because everyone else seems to be catching one? Or stay out of the water altogether because the last big wave knocked us down so hard we’re afraid of what might happen again?

And then there are those waves that call to us.

The ones we can feel in our bodies are worth paddling for. The ones that ask us to be brave, to trust ourselves, and to put some energy behind what we want, even though we can’t know exactly how the ride will unfold.

Sometimes we catch them and have the ride of our lives. Sometimes we tumble around and come up sputtering, wondering what on earth just happened.

And sometimes, the wisest thing we can do is simply sit on our boards, take in the beauty around us, and wait.

I’ve been thinking, too, about how much it matters who we have alongside us in the water.

People who can help us see something we might be missing. Who remind us of what we’ve learned. Who can sit with us while we wait, encourage us when we’re ready, and help us find our footing when we’ve been knocked around.

Anyway, I hope this gets you thinking about the waters you’re in, the waves calling to you, and which ones might be worth your precious energy.

And perhaps, just as importantly, which ones you can let pass.