I have been surfing a total of one time in my life. Wait, maybe you could call it surfing or you could call it practicing drowning with a large piece of fiberglass tied to my ankle and sticky goop stuck to my sparse chest hair. (if you aren’t familiar with board wax, don’t worry about the goop)

The odd part of my partial drowning was that I enjoyed it. I spent hours trying to stand on a board in the midst of waves and never succeeded beyond kneeling, but I ‘got it’ from a psychological standpoint. I could feel the ‘one-ness’ with the ocean and I could see that given time (and possibly a couple lessons) I could grow addicted to it.

But what would it gain me? Possibly some Zen-like moments. Definitely a feeling of mastery over something. Quite likely some core exercise for my body and stuff. Alone time, which I like sometimes. I’m not sure what else.

What would it cost? Well, easily a great deal of time and some money. Waves are free, but driving back and forth to them and buying a board, etc. Time I don’t really have abundance of. I have lots of temptations, but all things – new things – have me deciding what I am replacing. If I spend four hours a week on X, Y has to go. What can I eliminate?

You might wonder what this is really about. I’ve heard a lot about the ‘newest thing’ from Google, Google wave, and I’m not sure whether I should ride this one or not. I am weighing the pros and cons and asking everyone I know who uses it; what is the cost/benefit of this.

Life is like that. Best bet, if you want to get the most out of anything, get a tutor/coach/mentor/instructor to teach you. Learn the basics, at least, from an expert, and then go from there.

Now, back to surfing the waves on the ocean, maybe I made a mistake trying to learn on my own. Maybe I made a mistake thinking I don’t need any help (definite) and maybe the waves hitting the Texas shore aren’t the best introduction to the sport.