Is Surfing Good for the Soul?

[Guruvani 0]

Is Surfing Good for the Soul?

 

[Guruvani 0]

[Murali_Mohan_das 0]

We're keeping the moderators busy today, aren't we Guruvani-ji!!

 

Surfing in the ocean (with a mood of humility and sincerity) is, no doubt, very beneficial.

 

Surfing the television, however, is almost never beneficial (from my own experience and the experience of my depressed father).

 

My Dad's been channel-surfing for 20+ hours per day for the last year, and he's been suicidal (coincidence?).

 

When I was down in L.A. helping him to get packed up, I noticed that there is a picture of Shyamasundar above his television--he's been meditating on the form of the Lord (albeit unconsciously) for 20+ hours per day for the past year! Surely he's derived some benefit from that!

[Guruvani 0]

best surfing in Sri Lanka....

 

[Murali_Mohan_das 0]

Interestingly, those spots are on the opposite side of the island from the areas hardest hit by the tsunami in '04. Guess the reefs and sand banks didn't get so mucked up.

 

 

best surfing in Sri Lanka....

 

[Guruvani 0]

I have to confess, beaches are one of my big weaknesses.

But, it is not the bevy of beauties in bikinis that attract me.

 

I like quiet and secluded beaches.

I don't need the girls in bikinis.(but, I am not a fanatic. I can tolerate;))

 

I hope I don't ever have to live anywhere there is not a nice beach nearby.

I like to ride a body board and surf some of the small waves.

I am not a "surfer".

I don't really go to the beach that much, but I would like to.

 

I wish I could sell my house here and move to the coast and be closer to the beach. The ocean air, the salt water, the surf........ truly an invigorating experience.

 

Florida has hundreds of miles of beaches and the water is nice and warm.

I don't have any use for California and the cold Alaskan current that flows down the west coast.

 

I know Prabhupada criticized surfers, but I really love a good beach.

 

For me, a day at the beach is a day to cherish.

 

Mahaprabhu loved to sport in the waves at Puri.

I can't imagine a more wonderful pastime than sporting in the waves with Mahaprabhu at Puri in ecstacy of Krishna prema.

[stonehearted 0]

 

Nice left! Is that Florida?

[Guruvani 0]

 

Nice left! Is that Florida?

unfortunately no.

 

that one is Costa Rica

[stonehearted 0]

 

I like to ride a body board and surf some of the small waves.

I am not a "surfer".

I don't really go to the beach that much, but I would like to.

 

I wish I could sell my house here and move to the coast and be closer to the beach. The ocean air, the salt water, the surf........ truly an invigorating experience.

 

Florida has hundreds of miles of beaches and the water is nice and warm.

I don't have any use for California and the cold Alaskan current that flows down the west coast.

 

I know Prabhupada criticized surfers, but I really love a good beach.

 

Mahaprabhu loved to sport in the waves at Puri.

I can't imagine a more wonderful pastime than sporting in the waves with Mahaprabhu at Puri in ecstacy of Krishna prema.

I was in the room during the famous "criticism" of surfers. There's more to it than most folks realize. He had one of those mischievous little smiles when he said it. When he was with devotees at Puri in '77 (?), he saw them bodysurfing the shorebreak. He told them that he used to do the same thing when he was young.

 

Surfing can be good for the body and mind, if used sparingly. Addiction is not necessarily helpful. I am a surfer and tend toward addiction to the ocean. I remember that, after not having been in the ocean for a few years (ditto on that cold California water, KB!), my daughters begged me to take them bodysurfing in San Diego one July afternoon. (The water was about 70 degrees, as it usually is for a couple of months out of the year.) As I dove through the first wave, every cell in my body relaxed and said something like "oh, yeahhhh!" As I came out of the water, I actually said aloud, "I am an addict." I guess I imagined it was something like a junkie getting a spike that was long overdue. (Don't really know because, although I came from the '60s counterculture, I still--to this day--have never even seen cocaine or heroin.)

[stonehearted 0]

This is Big Rock, which is about my favorite spot in the San Diego area (and that could well be me on that bodyboard, except that I was gone by the time that pic was taken. But I've had many rides just like the one you see here.)

[Guruvani 0]

I once saw some shastric injunction that comes from some Vedic text that recommends that if one cannot bathe in the Ganges that one should bath in the Ocean.

The Ganges spills into the Ocean.

So, as powerful as the Ganges is that makes the whole Ocean something of a spiritually purifiying experience.

 

A couple of years ago I took a bottle of some pure Ganga jal from near Gomukh and made an offering to my favorite beach.

I went out into the surf and offered the Ganga jal to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

So, if you are ever in Florida then you can make a pilgrimage to Crescent Beach that has been made a tirtha with the pure Ganga jal.

[Murali_Mohan_das 0]

One of my fondest memories is bodysurfing at Black's Beach near San Diego with some childhood friends.

 

They insist I was dropping in on surfers with boards though I was oblivious to that at the time!

 

 

This is Big Rock, which is about my favorite spot in the San Diego area (and that could well be me on that bodyboard, except that I was gone by the time that pic was taken. But I've had many rides just like the one you see here.)

[Guruvani 0]

If the Ganga spills into the Ocean, then do all the fish get liberation?

 

Technically speaking, that Ganges water that spills in the Ocean should also get evaporated into clouds and come down as rain somewhere.

 

So, really, the whole planet is sacred because of the Ganges water spilling into the Ocean?

 

Or, is that spiritual ganges water actually different than the ordinary water we see in the Ganges?

 

If the Ganges is water from the causal ocean, then it must be something different than the material water we see in the Ganges?

 

I mean.... whats up with this Ganges water thing?

[Murali_Mohan_das 0]

In addition to revering the Ganga, I revere the mighty San Lorenzo River.

 

The Ganga has a special position and a special lila with the Lord, and the Lord is also manifesting everywhere in His own Sweet Way.

 

 

If the Ganga spills into the Ocean, then do all the fish get liberation?

 

Technically speaking, that Ganges water that spills in the Ocean should also get evaporated into clouds and come down as rain somewhere.

 

So, really, the whole planet is sacred because of the Ganges water spilling into the Ocean?

 

Or, is that spiritual ganges water actually different than the ordinary water we see in the Ganges?

 

If the Ganges is water from the causal ocean, then it must be something different than the material water we see in the Ganges?

 

I mean.... whats up with this Ganges water thing?

[theist 1]

What a pleasant thread. I was never very good at body surfing and never even tried a board. I used to get tossed into the white water and sand at makapu'u way more than ever riding a wave nicely. Nevertheless what fun and good clean excercise.

[Guruvani 0]

Florida doesn't have any big league waves. But, there are a lot of surfers who make the best out of what we have.

this is like a big wave at one of Florida best surfing spots at Sebastian Inlet.

 

 

But, Florida does have a nice Caribbean current of nice warm water.

California is like ice-water compared to Florida.

 

In the middle of the summer the water on the east coast of Florida is about 83 degrees.

 

In the summer, the ocean off Florida is warmer than the ocean off Hawaii.

 

Today the water temp. at Waikiki was about 81 to 82 degrees.

At Daytona today the water temp today was almost 84 degrees.

[Guruvani 0]

Ocean temps.

 

http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/dsdt/cwtg/

 

the water temp at Venice Beach Ca. was about 66 degree today.

[Guruvani 0]

In July and Aug. on the west coast of florida the water temp. is around 86 degrees.

That is actually warm.

At Siesta Key the water is actually blue and the sand is white and soft as silk.

Warmer than Hawaii ever gets.

 

I was at the beach in Hawaii one winter and the water was actually a little too cool for me.

Hawaii actually has a northern current that comes down from the North Pacific.

 

It is storms in the North Pacific that creates the big waves in Hawaii.

[Guruvani 0]

Siesta Key, Florida...... isn't this nice?

 

Almost like the Bahamas.....

 

 

[Guest guest]

When I was learning to surf, my instructor told me that surfing was the perfect complement to my yoga practice (he meant hatha). In hatha, each movement is done with control, whereas surfing teaches spontaneity. I loved that. They are the perfect pair for me.

 

Hare Krishna,

 

YS,

 

Bhakti Lorraine

[muralidhar_das 0]

 

I was born in the hospital on the hill in the background

 

Manly beach

 

I surfed here at this beach all through my childhood

 

it was all so long ago... now I only bodysurf

[stonehearted 0]

 

When I was learning to surf, my instructor told me that surfing was the perfect complement to my yoga practice (he meant hatha). In hatha, each movement is done with control, whereas surfing teaches spontaneity. I loved that. They are the perfect pair for me.

I like this, Lorraine. In fact, I think surfing is best (from several perspectives) when it becomes instinctive. A surfer needs to be able to respond to the wave with the kind of spontaneity your instructor had in mind. Calculation takes most of the real pleasure out of it. From surfing we can learn many things, including fluidity and flexibility (and not just physical, in either case). We can also learn self-confidence and boldness; I remember times when I'd paddle in to a really cool-looking wave, look down the face at the critical moment, balk and back off. Almost immediately, in every case, I realized I could have made that wave, or at least learned something for it. My lesson, size it up, then let go! I've tried to apply that to my spiritual life, and I've used it as an example in my sharing with others since I first joined at the beginning of 1970.

[mahak 0]

Saw a good "Cady Movie" last night, surfs up, an animated surf flick, very well done.

 

I like surf music, and somehow, Reggae fills that bill. Maybe its just that rastafarians seem to have the ol surf culture down. But in the long run, if, say, I was still in my youth, taking the drop at say, hookipa, on a windy morning where the 15 footers are holding up, and Im really deep with my ol survival stance (nothing to look at, not Surfer Magazine material, but adequate and very fun), the music Id like for that 1/2 mile ride would be the "highwayman", by loreena mcKennett.

 

Pleasant thread. Surfing is not just a mundane sport. The deep emotions are not so profound (though not entirely missing) in baseball or football. We would not be on the second page in less than two days. (Maybe boxing, eh, theist? There, we had a good one on VNN, matreya marciano and mahaksa ali).

 

Haribol, ys, mahaksadasa (mo pics)

[theist 1]

That's right. Old school style, 15 rounds.

MM

[mahak 0]

 

me surf mates, mahaksadasa