What is surfing but an outlet for anxiety and stress, an inlet for nature and satisfaction, a connection between you and the ocean with your board acting like some semi-conductor of magnetic and gravitational forces pulsing from the center the sprawling expanse of nature itself? Sounds a bit fluffy, huh? But stay with me on this.
What is surfing but a connection to something beyond our understanding? It’s this connection that is at the very core of the surfing experience. This connection is addictive, all-encompassing, and sometimes all-powerful. This connection enthralls many to forsake relationships, careers, and even their own health only to emerge ten years down the line, weather-beaten and alone with only memories of great waves and great times.
Sailing began many thousands of years ago, when some innovative primitive held up a skin to catch the wind and found that he could escape in this way the labour of paddling whenever the wind was fair. When the wind was not fair he accepted that he still had to paddle.
As the centuries rolled by, sail-powered ships were developed for fishing, for trade, and for military might. The skin held up to catch the wind was replaced by woven sails. These ships were reasonably efficient for downwind and crosswind sailing but dreadfully slow when they had to sail against the wind.
Because they had to sail in narrow waterways where they had no option but to sail against the wind for much of the time, smaller boats of different kinds appeared : the Arab dhows of the Red Sea and the Bristol Channel cutters in England were the first boats to display good windward sailing ability.
The sport of swimming under water with flippers and a face mask and usually with a snorkel rather than a portable air supply.
Freediving is any of various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-hold underwater diving. Examples include breathhold spear fishing, freedive photography, apnea competitions and, to a degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the most public attention is competitive apnea, an extreme sport, in which competitors attempt to attain great depths, times or distances on a single breath without direct assistance of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba).
Sailing began many thousands of years ago, when some innovative primitive held up a skin to catch the wind and found that he could escape in this way the labour of paddling whenever the wind was fair. When the wind was not fair he accepted that he still had to paddle.