When I would go down to the local pier and watch, it was indeed an awesome thing, especially during the bigger surf. I notice many college age, to middle (even senior) aged people in my community that had given themselves over to this lifestyle… it was like surfing was life for them, all the rest, details!

But the thing was, I was committed to my passion, motocross. Yet as the years went by, and the injuries came, I found myself considering  a kinder gentler sport. So I went over to vertical skateboarding in dry swimming pools, halfpipes and skateparks. Problem with that was when you make a mistake at fifteen feet up, you are coming back down on concrete. So the injuries followed that sport as well. I’d had it. I decided if I was going to make mistakes (which is inevitable), I wanted to at least dive into to water, instead of concrete.

I grabbed a seven foot “starter” board and off I went. I began studying the tides, swell size, direction and how that affects the different surfing spots around my area. In the early days of practice I would paddle straight out into these huge walls of “white water”, then quickly turn back toward the shore, and paddle for all I was worth. Once these mountainous walls of white water would catch up with me, they would engulf me and shoot me toward the beach like a cork from a champagne bottle. Moments after that initial “push”, I would push-up off of my board, jump to my feet and enjoy a few seconds of “surfing”, only to have the wall of whitewater catch me a second time, and as it did, it would be so turbulent that it would knock me off my board. Then the faithful moment came.

It was a big day, and the walls of whitewater were easily double overhead. I was doing all the same things as I did in the other practice sessions. Yet on this one wave, I shot out in front, was enjoying my few seconds of “surfing.” Waiting to get engulfed in whitewater and knocked down, something different happen.

My board started to tilt downward on this beautiful bluegreen wall of water. Steeper and steeper the angle got, until I was racing down my first “open faced” wave! As I turned my board from heading straight toward the beach, to moving sideways along it’s face, the experience soon became “unreal”!! Rollercoasting from the top to the bottom on this beautiful head high wave was so powerful, so expressive, so fluid!   That was it, I too had become “stoked”

Now that I have lived a bit longer, and experienced many more things in life, I have found there is a different kind of “stoke” out there, even more powerful than the surfing stoke. Even more expressive and exhilarating! Here is what I have found.  Our lives come to us with a purpose we must discover, and invade! As we discover “who we are” and what we were made to do, the stoke gets stronger! The stoke attracts to us the things we dream of, the life we dream of! And they build on each other, the stoke and the attraction.

Maybe you are stoked right now, maybe you are on the other end of this thing… Maybe in-between and you just “aren’t good with that” Love to hear from you…

I was tired of the lack of continuity in my career, and the military offered a stable financial base, so I signed up. Here is where the story begins. 

The first year in the military is a time where your peers are made up of a diverse range of personalities: Special Forces wannabes, arrogant, critical… Some of the guys had outstanding positive attitudes as well.

There were times I felt like a gold fish in a piranha tank.  If the guys saw you had flaws i.e. looks, age, mannerisms, spiritual beliefs, race… they would make cutting remarks in an attempt to get a response. If their remarks did cause a response, they would zero in, run with futher, to see if a breaking point could be found. Very few of us held the secret to not letting their comments draw a response.

At the end of some days, I found myself searching hard for an answer on how to not let them to get to me. First I tried to ignore it, which only turned out to be a “response” in their minds, leading to a further onslaught. Then I tried joining them at their own game; won some, lost some, and when I lost I found myself coming away emotionally and mentally beat down. I still didn’t know the secret to being free.

Then the faithful day arrived. I discovered the truth, and the truth did indeed set me free! The truth I learned is this, that my self-worth is not based in anything other than, I was created uniquely, for a purpose and a destiny!  That I was created with just the right amount of personality, charisma, gifts, abilities, talents, and passions… that there was something truly unique I was made to do. From that time forward, I was genuinely free.

Have you had a similar situation? Possible in that kind of a situation right now? Maybe you don’t need others to tear down your self-worth; you handle that task all you’re your own quite nicely.

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