Surfer's Code: 12 Simple Lessons for Riding Through Life by Shaun Tomson

So I surfed this summer. Yup, when I signed the kids up for a week of surf camp I decided to try it myself, 5 straight days of getting up and falling down... I don't think I have a bucket list but if i did this one would be on it. Very fun and in another writing forum I plan on putting together my own 'lessons i learned while surfing' piece. In the meantime I picked this book up in a surf shop in Newport.

The author was a world champion surfer in the late 70s when the sport struggled to fix its image, to legitimize what most folks thought of as something airheads did while between drugs and sleeping around. He and a group of fellow surfers formed a world tour, traveling around the world competing against each other and turning surfing into a worldwide sensation.

His writing won't win any awards and if I hadn't tried surfing myself and found it to be a pretty spiritual experience, none of this would have kept my interest. But he has some lines that hit home for this 'cool mom' surfer:

'Part of the appeal of surfing is that you never really know what you are going to get... surfing is all about uncertainty. That feeling of taking a risk, that leap of faith every time I jump into the ocean, that paddle among things unseen - all of these things make surfing special.'

'There is something very special about riding on a board while surrounded by moving water...'

'Surfing builds confidence. It builds confidence in the beginning stages, when young surfers paddle through those lines of white water and make it out to the lineup on their own; when they have the control to sit on their surfboards without falling off; when they learn how to judge approaching swells; and when they finally catch a wave and stand up for the very first time.'

'I learned to trust in all the steps that have gotten me where I am. The result is that I feel better about myself, and I have a lot of fun pushing myself into more challenging situations."

If nothing else, the experience taught me that old dogs can learn new tricks!