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To me surfing feels like running - you spend most of your time in that meditative state you reach when running, sitting on your board going up and down on the waves, watching the ocean and waiting for a good one.

The difference of course from running is that there's no feeling like when you see a good wave coming and you start prepping, lay on your board, start paddling, and then catch the wave. It's almost more like hunting.

I used to live in Ventura and surfed almost every day but now I live in a landlocked country - Switzerland. I run almost every day and get that meditative feeling, but I only get that excitement here of catching a wave that I had in Ventura during the winter when I ski off-piste.

i met a few people who've river surfed in Switzerland and Germany. Every time i asked them which river and where, the answer was "Can't say".

Kind of like Palos Verdes or Mendocino, but there's some good footage e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdEcIYwl_H8

Oh, thanks for this. I will read any thing by William Finnegan, especially if it has surf anywhere in the title.

Playing Doc's Games (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1992/08/24/playing-docs-ga...) is an amazing article.

My youth in rural Texas was punctuated by a two year stint in Florida during middle school. This article really resonates with the memories of my time spent there in the 00s learning to surf and skate with my buds. Great read.
this just makes me want to surf, and regret staying in Chicago for work