I started surfing about four months ago, and I’ve been out 87 times so far. 

I didn’t learn to swim until I was 30. Being kind of a sensitive person, more of a feeling person, I was maybe too sensitive to get over my fear of the water until I was older. I was maybe shy about getting in over my head, literally and figuratively, so because I couldn't grasp it quickly it scared me. 

I used to do a lot of cycling, mountain bike, road bike, gravel bike, a lot of running, swimming, and, boy, I've stopped doing all that stuff now and pretty much devoted all my free time to surfing.

I read this book by David Brooks called Strength to Strength. He mentioned that in some cultures in East Asia that when a man reaches that age where he's no longer able to keep up with the younger warriors in town, he moves to the woods and learns to live with nature. And I followed that same kind of path when I started easing back on my work life, started spending more time in the mountains, snowboarding, mountain biking, trying to learn the mountain road. 

And I think he said that East Asians have a name for this that basically means the mountain way. I was like, okay, I can learn a lot from the mountains. I can learn stillness. I can learn how to be with other people, like trees are in a forest, but also be an individual, despite how close people are, how far they are, and just move with the wind, but have my own solid base.

And I feel like I've kind of taken that to the ocean now – it’s the other side of that yin yang, right? It's the fluid power of everything changing, you know, being able to move and flow, instead of maintaining that stillness and that unwaveringness. Maybe it's more feminine energy versus masculine. I feel like I need both of my life.  

I’ve got grandkids now, ages two and three. I got divorced about 20 years ago, and went through about 15 years of dating before deciding that I was happy being single. So that's kind of a game changer too, because when I was married and even when I was dating, a big chunk of my life had to be available to that other person, right? To nurture that relationship. Now I can nurture my relationship with whatever activity I'm pursuing. I kind of feel like I'm in a relationship with mother nature, you know, with surfing. 

I've got a friend who is about five years older than me. He retired, moved to Santa Cruz, and I just talked to him last week, and he says he can't pop up anymore. He's too stiff. He's not good enough. That’s a shame. I hope that never happens to me.

At 62 I’m thinking, ‘Why didn’t I find this sooner? Why did it take me so long to find surfing and how long can I enjoy it?’

Even though my progress has been really slow, I can see that I have made some gains, and that just keeps me coming back. It’s difficult, but I'm clawing my way up.