“Only a surfer knows the feeling” – A Billabong Ad campaign that first surfaced in the 1990’s.
When you try to describe the act or sequence of events that happens when you go surfing and catch (then ride) a wave, it borders on ridiculous.
When you’re learning, we can break it down into a couple of stages, but really, we need to find the right day and get into the water.
At some point we cross the ditch from having watched to having experienced, then to having felt.
This “Getting the feel” of something is a huge breakthrough in the learning curve, and often doesn’t come straight away*
This is where the act, habit or movement shifts from looking foreign: an orchestra of impossibly small or intricate acts strung together seamlessly – to still difficult or perhaps a long way off, but somehow feasible.
The feel is then what really catalyses our effort. It can fuel us.
*in surfing, it can’t come straight away, as the first few waves are always too full of excitement, laughter or disbelief!
