Vanity is depicted as one of humanity's original sins in the Garden of Eden because of pride and self-importance.

And there is a reason why. It's because it's deeply rooted in our nature.

Interestingly, surfing exposes all the elements of vanity very well. In other words, there's a lot to explore in order to show off.

Every surfer has their own style, wave-reading skills, power, commitment, aerial and barrel-riding talent, consistency, creativity, and aura.

You can build all of this over time, with the help of modern tools like social media and video content.

You cannot be immune to the waves of a core lord who knows what they're doing; it's too much in-your-face to ignore.

The concept of a core lord is not new, even though it has been in the mouth of (too) many surf fans lately.

However, it's interesting to get deeper into why these nearly untouchable maestros of the waves seem to attract so many people.

What are the many faces of a core lord?

The first thing we need to dissect is the essence of surfing's lords of the core.

What are they exactly? How did they reach that status? Who decided they happen to be the masters of the wave-riding universe?

At its most basic, a core lord is an extremely committed, hardcore surfer who embodies what a particular surf community considers "core" surf culture.

The word "core" refers to being deeply embedded in surfing rather than treating it as a casual lifestyle activity.

"Lord" adds an exaggerated sense of status or authority. So the literal idea is essentially "the lord of being core."

I believe you may follow this assumption. Fair enough, right?

But we can go into deeper layers of this analysis. Stick with me, dear reader.

Here's a relevant detail: being technically good isn't necessarily enough.

For instance, a surfer can be an excellent competitive surfer and still not be perceived as particularly "core."

And the other way around is also valid: a relatively anonymous surfer who surfs twice a day, travels for a living, rides unusual boards, charges impossible and unusual waves, and is deeply immersed in surf culture may be considered extremely core.

The older usage appears to be closely connected to the idea of the hardcore surfer.

The term is usually associated with surfing obsessively rather than recreationally, taking on super hard or consequential waves, having strong surf forecasting knowledge, commitment to a local break or community, free surfing their brains out with distinctive style and alternative equipment, and resisting commercialization.

For this type of surfer, the important word here is commitment.

More than the idea that "He's a really good surfer," it's closer to the acknowledgment that "surfing is central to this person's life."

Also, a core lord does not necessarily mean famous. Underground surfers who never received much mainstream exposure can actually fit very well in this category.

The 1990s and 2000s connection

There seems to be a strong contemporary association between "core lord" culture and 1990s/early-2000s surfing.

Remember those raw VHS videos featuring people like Sunny Garcia, Johnny "Boy" Gomez, Christian Fletcher, Brad Gerlach, and Matt Archbold?

They owned it.

They gravitated around an idea of alternative surf magazines, beat-up surfboards, obscure surf brands, heavy rail surfing, deep barrels, local surf shops, alternative music, punk, skate culture, and an anti-corporate attitude.

So aesthetics mattered and still matter.

Then, with all this, there's the territorialist component.

Localism matters

The core lord is strongly associated with localism.

The stereotype is the local surfer who believes that his knowledge of a particular break gives him authority over everyone else.

It can involve deciding who deserves waves, policing outsiders, yelling at beginners, enforcing unwritten rules, demanding respect, establishing hierarchy in the lineup, protecting a local break from crowds.

A disclaimer here, before it's too late: this doesn't mean that all localism is automatically associated with being a core lord.

There is a legitimate distinction between surf etiquette and local knowledge and aggressive territorial behavior.

Core lords and surf elitism

There is obviously an inherent tension here.

Surfing has historically celebrated the idea of being outside the mainstream, and that creates a strange paradox:

The more someone tries to prove that they are outside the mainstream, the more they can become part of another mainstream within surf culture.

And this brings us to the satirical side that surrounds the concept of core lord: the person who complains about "kooks" can become just as stereotypical as the person they're criticizing.

A plausible definition

So, if we had to define the term that is relatively new to surfing, here's an essay of what it could be:

A core lord is a deeply committed, highly "core," subtly self-entitled surfer who embodies the underground, hardcore, and often anti-mainstream side of surf culture.

The term can be admiring when referring to a surfer's commitment, ability, style, and authenticity, or sarcastic when referring to a territorial, elitist, or gatekeeping surfer who believes he represents the "real" culture of and within surfing.

A core lord could be seen claiming or no-claiming a perfect ride. Both scenarios are expected. And it could be something that simply doesn't exist.

One thing we know: never call yourself a core lord. It will not end well.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

The pop culture industry has thoroughly explored the semiotics of surfing. And in comics, we can easily find these appropriations in more or less literal ways.

Waverider is one of those comic book characters whose name tells you almost everything you need to know.

But it can also be misleading. In other words, he is a surfer, but there is no ocean beneath his feet.

How could that be?

Created by writer Archie Goodwin and artist Dan Jurgens, Waverider first appeared in DC Comics' "Armageddon 2001," issue #1, in May 1991.

His real name is Matthew Ryder, a scientist who lives in a possible future where Earth has fallen under the rule of a powerful figure known as Monarch.

Ryder wants to stop that future before it happens.

His solution is suitably (comic-book) strange: he volunteers for an experiment involving time travel and enters the timestream.

He doesn't come back the same man, though. Shall we see how this unexpectedly different surfer comes to life?

Riding the timestream

So, the experiment gives Ryder powerful temporal abilities. He emerges as Waverider, a being who can move through time and investigate possible futures.

And this is where the name starts to make sense.

To be clear, Waverider does not ride an ocean wave - he rides the waves of time. The timestream is treated almost like a vast moving medium.

Waverider can enter it, move through it, and observe events at different points in history. His powers also allow him to examine possible futures, which becomes central to his first story.

In "Armageddon 2001," Waverider travels through the lives of DC superheroes to discover who will eventually become Monarch.

His mission is to identify the threat before the future he knows can take place.

Our character plays an unusual role.

He is not simply a time traveler who visits famous moments in history. He is trying to understand how one possible future can grow out of the present.

A superpower built around time

Waverider's abilities are closely tied to the timestream.

One of his most distinctive powers is the ability to see a person's probable future by touching them.

During "Armageddon 2001," he uses this ability to examine various DC heroes while searching for the future Monarch.

He can also travel through time and observe different possible outcomes, making him an unusual kind of superhero.

His greatest tool is information. He can look ahead and see where events may be heading, then use what he discovers to try to change history.

There is an obvious problem with that idea, and the story plays with it.

Waverider eventually discovers that his own attempt to prevent Monarch's rise has been manipulated. His journey through time is part of the chain of events he is trying to break.

Therefore, as a time traveler, our character gets himself involved in a particularly awkward situation.

Where does the wave come from?

The surfing imagery becomes more interesting when Waverider is drawn in action.

He is often shown moving on a flowing, wave-shaped energy form associated with his travel through the timestream.

It can look surprisingly similar to a surfboard beneath his feet, especially in artwork that emphasizes his movement through temporal energy.

A parenthesis is needed here, though.

Waverider does not traditionally carry a physical board like a surfer heading into the lineup.

The wave is part of the visual representation of his powers. It gives his movement through time a shape that readers can immediately understand.

Like an endless longboard - or carpet or blanket - that extends its core through time. Hard to picture, right?

The character therefore turns an abstract idea into something visual. Why? Because time is difficult to draw; a wave is much easier.

So, in a way, it's a rather clever and philosophical fit for a character called Waverider.

Instead of showing Matthew Ryder simply disappearing into a glowing portal whenever he travels through time, artists can show him riding a wave through the timestream.

A simple parallelism could be drawn here with surfing.

In truth, surfers don't control the ocean themselves. The skill we possess comes from moving with something much larger and more powerful - Nature, the ocean, water, etc.

Waverider's comic book version applies a similar visual idea to time.

Then there is the Silver Surfer

Now, here's a connection with another well-known superhero from another dimension.

Waverider appeared in 1991. Marvel's Silver Surfer had been around since 1966, when he first appeared in "The Fantastic Four," issue #48.

The Silver Surfer is Norrin Radd, an alien from Zenn-La who becomes the herald of Galactus. His defining visual feature is impossible to miss: he travels through space standing on a silver surfboard.

The board was part of Jack Kirby's original design.

Accounts of the character's creation describe Kirby drawing a figure on a flying surfboard as the herald of Galactus. Stan Lee later developed the character and gave him the name Silver Surfer.

So the two characters occupy remarkably similar visual territory.

One is a cosmic traveler riding through space; the other is a temporal traveler riding through time.

It seems like we've got all grounds covered, surf-speaking.

Surfing the universe

Therefore, the difference is what each character is surfing.

Silver Surfer uses an actual board - or at least something closer to that.

He can travel through outer space on it, making the surfboard a permanent part of his identity and one of the most recognizable images in Marvel Comics.

Waverider has no equivalent piece of equipment in the same sense. His wave-shaped energy form is connected to his powers and his movement through the timestream.

The Silver Surfer is essentially surfing the universe; Waverider is surfing time, like someone riding the "green room."

Again, neither character needs an ocean to justify the name. In both cases, surfing becomes a visual language for extraordinary movement.

Why call him Waverider?

The name works on several levels. At the most basic level, Waverider describes what he appears to do.

He rides a wave. The deeper meaning comes from the nature of his powers.

The wave represents the timestream, allowing the character to "ride" through different moments and possible futures.

It also separates him from the usual comic book time traveler.

A machine, portal, or glowing doorway can transport a character through history, but Waverider gives time travel a physical motion.

He moves through it, and he rides it.

The name is therefore less about "surfing water" than it first appears, but a description of his relationship with time.

Two surfers, two universes

There is no need to treat Waverider as a direct copy of the Silver Surfer.

Their stories, powers, and origins are different, and there is no solid evidence that Waverider was officially created as a Silver Surfer counterpart.

However, in essence, there is a resemblance.

Both characters take the familiar image of a person standing on a board or wave and place it in an impossible environment.

Silver Surfer turns outer space into his surfing ground. Waverider turns the timestream into his with something much bigger to ride.

If you wish to explore more about the Silver Surfer, we definitely encourage you to get Taschen's tribute book "Marvel Comics Library. Silver Surfer. 1968-1970" with all 18 stories from the original series.

Ben Gravy had already seen what a ferry could do. What he had not seen was a ferry wake that looked like a wave pool barrel.

The New Jersey surfer and YouTuber has spent years searching for waves that most surfers would never think to surf.

River waves, tidal bores, boat wakes, and other unusual forms of moving water have become part of his surfing world.

We could very well say he is the master and guru of all weird and unexpected waves.

But the wave he found in Nova Scotia pushed the idea of ferry surfing into a different category. The field of tube-riding boat-generated wakes.

It was not simply another wave created by a passing boat.

At its best, it was a long, fast, and hollow wave that produced barrels Gravy described as reaching six feet.

And getting one was far from easy. The story began with a ferry. Yes, as it usually starts every Ben Gravy story.

A wave hiding behind The CAT

Gravy and his crew traveled from the northeastern United States to Nova Scotia to chase a wave generated by The CAT, the high-speed ferry that connects Bar Harbor, Maine, with Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The ferry crosses the Gulf of Maine in about three and a half hours.

Most passengers would see an enormous wake from the deck; something to put their eyes on to kill time.

But Gravy rarely takes the ferry. He just thinks about it as something that can generate highly appealing waves.

The talented content creator had already surfed one behind his local ferry in New Jersey.

"I just saw a bomb off the back of my local ferry in New Jersey. And I surfed one wave, and I got addicted," Gravy explains in his YouTube video.

That one ride eventually led him to start looking for bigger and better versions of the same phenomenon.

The Nova Scotia wave had already caught his attention earlier in the summer. Gravy and his crew had actually made an initial attempt but had not quite figured it out.

So they came back.

"We're back for round two," Gravy says at the beginning of the September mission.

The goal was no longer simply to find a ferry wake. They already knew the wave existed. Now they wanted to understand it.

The first look was the giveaway

Once The CAT was underway, Gravy and the crew began watching the wake from the ferry.

The scale of the vessel immediately became apparent.

The crew learned that the ship is powered by four large engines, each producing roughly 12,000 horsepower, with jet drives rather than conventional propellers.

From the water, all of that machinery translates into an enormous amount of moving water.

Gravy quickly realized that they were looking at something much more interesting than a typical boat wake.

"What's pretty amazing about being up here is if you look off the back, you can see future bombs," he said. "These will be waves one day."

Then the shape of the wake began to reveal itself.

The crew watched as sections that initially appeared too shallow or disorganized changed shape farther along the line.

"Look, that's too shallow," Gravy says. "But now watch. Watch as this dips out. Look, it's going to be really good."

A few moments later, they had their first major breakthrough.

"So we basically just found a left and a right out of a channel wave at the same exact time," he says.

The crew compared one section to a miniature Teahupoo.

"It was like four-foot Chopes," Gravy says. "Just kept going."

The important discovery was that the ferry was not simply creating a moving lump of water.

Its wake was interacting with the local underwater contours and producing something that behaved much more like a conventional surfer wave.

The problem was figuring out how to ride it.

A wave faster than they thought

The first attempts quickly showed that seeing the wave and riding the wave were two very different things.

After one session, Gravy summed up what they had learned.

"We made the most progress that we've made on this wave yet," he says.

But the biggest discovery was not its size.

"It is as fast as we thought. It's faster, actually."

That meant the jet-ski driver was just as important as the surfer.

Gravy specifically praised Travis Beckmann, who had joined the mission and was responsible for positioning the ski.

"Backman's a hell of a jet ski driver," Gravy says. "He's making it happen."

The crew had to learn where the surfer needed to be, when to accelerate, how close the ski could get to the breaking wave, and how the constantly moving ferry wake interacted with the bottom.

The timing was particularly difficult because the wave was not a normal swell arriving at a beach.

The source of the energy was moving, and the wave itself continued to change as it traveled.

The crew therefore had only a limited opportunity every time the ferry passed.

As Gravy later describes it, they would wake up, prepare for the next run, surf one wave, and then wait for hours before getting another opportunity.

"It feels like Groundhog Day," he says.

"You wake up every day with a 7 a.m. alarm, and all you have to do is get ready and go surf one wave and then wait eight, 10 hours for the next wave."

But each attempt was teaching them something.

From riding the wave to making the barrel

The breakthrough came when the crew realized that the problem was not necessarily getting onto the wave.

It was getting through it.

By this point, Gravy had already managed longer rides. His goal had changed.

"Yesterday, I got the long one, the one we've been looking for on the glider," he explained. "And now we're going for the critical one. We're going for the barrel."

He described the next stage of their understanding in unusually precise terms.

"Now we're back at the ground floor, and we're like, dude, we can actually one, ride it, two, potentially make it."

But even that came with a catch.

The wave was so long and unusual that making the barrel did not necessarily mean simply disappearing behind the curtain and emerging on the shoulder.

"You're riding, you get pulled back into the barrel, then the barrel lets you come out, and you can make it," Gravy explains.

"You would probably go back into the barrel, but it's essentially unmakeable because the wave doesn't end."

That was the problem they had to solve.

And by the final day of the trip, they believed they were close.

Conditions finally lined up

The crew had learned that the wave was extremely sensitive to conditions.

They needed the right tide. They needed light winds. They needed the ferry to produce the wake at the right speed and position.

They also needed to be in the correct place when the wave reached the section they wanted to surf.

Gravy compared the final day's conditions with an earlier session that had produced an unusually good left.

"We have light winds and the closest conditions that we've had to that wave today," he says.

The confidence level had changed dramatically.

"As of last week, I would have paid $1,000 cash if you told me that I was going to get the wave that I got," Gravy says. "But now it's like we're at a different level."

Then the ferry arrived. And the crew went to work.

The ride

Gravy's successful wave begins with a mistake. He jumps off the ski and nose-dives. That could have ended the attempt.

Instead, Beckmann reacts immediately.

"I jumped off the ski and nose-dived, and he picked me back up and put me on in the perfect spot," Gravy later explains.

The positioning was finally right.

Gravy gets into the wave, accelerates down the line, and disappears into the barrel. Then he comes out.

His reaction says almost everything about what had just happened.

"Dude, Travis just got me the best ferry wave of my life."

Then the realization hits him.

"I just got a barrel and made it out."

The crew erupts.

"What the f*** are we talking about?"

"What the f*** just happened?"

"Not real."

"100% not reality."

The wave keeps running.

"It kept going," someone says.

For a crew that had spent days trying to work out whether the barrel was even makeable, the sight was difficult to comprehend.

Gravy could barely put the experience into words.

"I literally don't know what to say except for the fact that the universe is good to me."

A $10,000 wave

The successful ride also put a price on the discovery.

Gravy says he had spent about $10,000 on the research and development required to figure out the wave.

After finally getting the barrel, he decided it had been money well spent.

"Feels like the $10,000 that I spent on research and development for this wave was worth it," he says.

Then he gives the wave its unofficial price tag.

"That was a $10,000 wave."

He also compared what he had just surfed with one of the world's most famous artificial waves.

"Did it not look like Lemoore?" Gravy asks. "It looked like the Kelly Slater wave pool."

The comparison is telling.

The remarkable part of the Canadian ferry wave was not simply that it was big. It was that the wake, combined with the right underwater contours and conditions, could briefly produce a remarkably organized and hollow wave.

The "only" problem for the crew was that they had to learn how to find it.

The successful ride was also about the people who made the mission possible.

He singles out Beckmann, whom he has known for more than 25 years.

"I'm so happy that he was the guy that came on the trip that put me into that wave," Gravy says.

Ferry-wave surfing is a team sport. The surfer cannot simply paddle into the wave and wait for the right section.

The ferry creates the energy, the underwater contours shape it, the timing determines where it breaks, and the jet-ski driver has to put the surfer in position.

One small mistake can end the attempt, and Gravy knows that better than anyone after the trip.

"One minuscule human mistake is what ruined it for me," he says after one of the earlier attempts.

Gravy's final reflection on the mission was characteristically bigger than the wave itself.

"The things that you can imagine inside your head, you can make them up. They can be ridiculous, unreasonable, completely out of control, and you can turn them into reality."

For a surfer who became obsessed with ferry wakes after seeing one bomb behind his local New Jersey ferry, the six-foot barrel in Nova Scotia was the result of taking that idea to its logical extreme.

The wave was there. The hard part was figuring out how to ride it.

Several studies have shown that surfing can heal and greatly improve mental health. That we already knew. But there's a new update: we might not necessarily need beaches to get similar results.

A study led by Tim Trythall, impact and research manager at The Wave Project, found that surf therapy doesn't necessarily need an ocean beach to produce positive results.

The evaluation followed 360 young people through six-week surf therapy programs. A total of 302 took part at beaches, while 58 surfed at inland wave pools near Bristol and Edinburgh.

Both groups improved on every measure recorded before and after the program across all five outcomes, with remarkably similar improvements.

The ocean produced the bigger wellbeing increase

The biggest difference appeared in the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, a measure that scores emotional wellbeing from 0 to 100.

The average beach score rose from 56.4 to 76.5, an increase of 20.1 points.

The wave pool group started higher, at 62.5, and finished at 73.1, an increase of 10.6 points.

That means the increase among beach participants was 9.5 points larger than the increase among wave pool participants. The difference was statistically significant, with p = .003.

The effect sizes tell the same story. The beach program produced an effect size of 1.08, compared with 0.57 for the wave pool program.

But there is an important detail behind those numbers. The wave pool group started the program with wellbeing scores 6.1 points higher than the beach group.

By the end, the gap had fallen to just 3.4 points, with average scores of 76.5 at the beach and 73.1 in the wave pool.

So while the beach group improved more, both groups ended the six weeks at broadly similar levels.

The study does not explain why the beach group recorded the larger increase. It also cannot show that the ocean itself caused the difference.

Surfing helped build confidence in both settings

When it came to self-belief, the difference between the beach and wave pool was much smaller.

Beach participants increased their self-belief score by 0.59 points, compared with 0.43 points for the wave pool group.

The ability to keep going through difficulties increased by 0.67 points at the beach and 0.59 points in the wave pool.

Pride in achievements increased by 0.54 points among beach participants and 0.48 points among wave pool participants.

All three measures improved significantly in both groups.

But despite the slightly larger numbers for the beach group, none of the differences in improvement were statistically significant.

The p-values were .30 for self-belief, .62 for perseverance, and .71 for pride.

In other words, the data do not show that surfing at the beach produced greater gains in these areas than surfing at an inland wave pool.

Connection to other people was almost identical

The numbers become even closer when looking at social connection.

Participants rated their sense of connection to other people on a seven-point scale.

The beach group went from 3.6 to 4.4, an improvement of 0.80 points; the wave pool group went from 4.1 to 5.0, an improvement of 0.83 points.

That is a difference of just 0.03 points between the two improvements.

The statistical test produced p = .932, meaning there was no significant difference between the settings.

The effect sizes were also almost identical, at 0.49 for the beach group and 0.53 for the wave pool group.

Interestingly, the wave pool participants had higher connection scores both before and after the program. But they did not improve more. Both groups increased by almost exactly the same amount.

The beach had an edge when it came to making friends

There was one other statistically significant difference.

When asked whether they had made new friends during the program, 81.5 percent of beach participants said yes.

Among wave pool participants, the figure was 69.0 percent.

That is a difference of 12.5 percentage points, and it was statistically significant at p = .049.

This was the only significant difference among seven questions about the participants' experience of the program, apart from the separate wellbeing analysis.

The study does not explain why the friendship numbers differed. 

However, one practitioner suggested that beach sessions may give young people more informal time to talk between waves or during slower conditions, whereas wave pool sessions tend to run on a more predictable schedule.

That explanation was not tested by the evaluation, though.

The other numbers were high in both settings.

Almost everyone had fun: 99.3 percent at the beach and 98.3 percent in wave pools.

Almost everyone said they learned something new: 98.0 percent versus 96.6 percent.

The figures for feeling valued were 97.0 percent versus 98.3 percent, while 98.0 percent of beach participants and 94.8 percent of wave pool participants said they were able to be themselves.

Feeling more confident was reported by 94.4 percent of beach participants and 91.4 percent of wave pool participants.

None of those differences were statistically significant.

The surfing environment was not the only difference

There is a reason to be cautious about turning these numbers into a simple ocean-versus-wave-pool argument.

The two groups were not randomly assigned to their locations. The people taking part in the beach programs may have differed from those attending the inland programs before they even got in the water.

The sample sizes were also very different. There were 302 beach participants but only 58 wave pool participants.

That smaller inland sample means there is more uncertainty around its estimates.

The researchers also combined the two inland locations into a single wave pool group, so the results do not show whether the Bristol and Edinburgh programs produced different results.

And there was no control group of young people who did not take part in surf therapy.

That means the study can show that the young people improved during the six-week program, but it cannot prove that surf therapy itself caused those improvements.

It also cannot establish that the larger wellbeing increase at the beach was caused by the natural ocean environment.

What the numbers say about surfing and wave pools

The most interesting part of the study is that the difference between the ocean and the wave pool was smaller than might be expected.

Both groups improved significantly across every measure.

For self-belief, perseverance, pride, and connection to other people, the amount of improvement was statistically similar.

The two clear differences were wellbeing and friendship.

Beach participants gained 20.1 WHO-5 points, compared with 10.6 points in the wave pool. And 81.5 percent of beach participants said they had made new friends, compared with 69.0 percent of those in the wave pool.

Those figures do not prove that natural waves are better therapy than artificial ones.

They do show that substantial positive changes were recorded in both environments, while leaving some interesting questions about what happens when surf therapy moves from the coastline to an inland wave pool.

More data, particularly from larger inland groups and repeated years of programs, will be needed to see whether these differences remain.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

If you're not a regular cold water surfer, you'd agree there is usually nothing pleasant about the first few seconds.

You have pulled on your wetsuit, walked across the sand, and reached the shoreline. The first wave runs over your feet, and your body reacts before your mind has had time to negotiate.

Your breathing changes, your heart beats faster, and, for a moment, walking into the ocean can feel like a bad decision.

"What am I doing here? My hands, my feet, and my forehead are freezing," one might say to themselves.

A few minutes later, the experience can be completely different. You are paddling, catching waves, and paying attention to the ocean's rhythm.

The cold is still there, but it no longer feels like the main event.

Congrats - the change is (partly) physiological.

Cold water produces an immediate stress response, while repeated exposure can help the body become better adapted to the stimulus.

Exercise, concentration, and the anticipation of catching waves then add another layer to the experience.

So, could the unpleasant part of surfing in cold water help explain why many people feel so good afterward?

Because you remember you did, right? The science does not provide a simple answer, but it offers some clues.

Here's what's really interesting about this cold water paradox. And it involves a concept you probably haven't heard of yet.

We hadn't, too, until penning this story for you.

Your body reacts before you do

Let's dissect the cold water experience.

The first thing we need to know is that water removes heat from the body much faster than air. Probably nothing new here for you, dear reader, correct?

When the skin suddenly meets cold water, blood vessels near the surface constrict, heart rate and blood pressure can rise, and breathing can become rapid and difficult to control.

It's a mechanism known as the cold shock response.

It is particularly important in water below about 59 °F (15 °C) and can cause an involuntary gasp followed by rapid breathing. Unexpected immersion can therefore be dangerous, even for experienced swimmers.

A surfer wearing a neoprene wetsuit and deliberately entering familiar conditions is in a different situation from someone falling unexpectedly into cold water.

Nevertheless, the underlying physiological response still occurs.

Research has found increases in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and metabolism during cold exposure, together with increased release of catecholamines such as adrenaline and noradrenaline.

With repeated exposure, some of these reactions become less pronounced.

That process is known as cold habituation. And this is where it gets really curious.

A 2024 study (Barwood et al., 2024) found that repeated cold water immersion reduced several components of the cold shock response, including heart rate and breathing responses.

Measurable habituation could occur after roughly four immersions, although the studies varied considerably.

There is even some research involving surfers.

A small 1978 study (Rochelle & Horvath, 1978) found that surfers immersed in 66 °F (19 °C) water maintained warmer toes than non-surfers and showed a later and less intense shivering response.

Their heart rate also rose initially before falling towards resting levels.

The study is old and small, so it cannot explain how every surfer adapts to cold water. It does, however, provide an early example of the kind of adaptation that scientists have observed.

The cold may be a hormetic stress

Now, this is where hormesis enters the story. Hormesis describes a situation in which a small or moderate stressor produces an adaptive response.

Exercise is a familiar example: physical activity places stress on the body, followed by recovery and adaptation.

Cold exposure can produce a similar pattern.

The body detects a thermal challenge, activates its stress response, and attempts to protect its core temperature. With repeated exposure, some of those responses can become more efficient.

For a surfer, the cold is also combined with exercise.

Paddling produces heat, while balance, wave selection, and positioning require constant attention.

That makes a winter surf very different from sitting motionless in an ice bath or cold water shower. The thermal stress is constantly changing as the surfer paddles, waits, catches waves, and moves through the water.

Caution, though. Hormesis should not be interpreted as "more stress is better."

Cold exposure becomes dangerous when the body's ability to maintain temperature and physical performance is overwhelmed, and you eventually enter a stage of hypothermia.

Why do you feel so awake?

Many surfers know the sensation, especially in winter. You leave home early for a dawn patrol, still half asleep, and enter cold water.

A few minutes later, you are wide awake.

Cold exposure stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and increases the release of catecholamines, which are involved in the body's stress response and can increase alertness.

There is also evidence that some psychological effects of cold exposure can appear after the exposure rather than immediately.

In a 2023 study (Reed et al., 2023), 16 healthy adults spent 15 minutes in 50 °F (10 °C) water.

Positive affect did not increase immediately afterward, but negative affect was lower three hours later, while cortisol was also lower.

The study was small and does not prove that cold water improves mood in everyone.

Then, a 2025 systematic review (Cain et al., 2025) of 11 studies involving 3,177 participants found that cold water immersion was associated with lower stress 12 hours after exposure.

It did not find a significant overall improvement in mood, although some studies reported improvements in sleep and quality of life.

The researchers stressed that the evidence remains limited by differences between studies and relatively small samples.

So the familiar post-surf feeling does not need a dramatic explanation.

The body has responded to cold, the nervous system has become highly activated, and the surfer has then spent time exercising and concentrating on the ocean.

The experience has changed.

Cold water is not simply an anti-inflammatory

Cold water is often described as a natural anti-inflammatory treatment. But the reality is more complex.

Cooling tissue can reduce blood flow and alter metabolic activity, and cold water immersion has been studied as a recovery method after strenuous exercise.

A meta-analysis of 52 randomized controlled studies (Batista et al., 2023) found reductions in muscle soreness and improvements in perceived recovery after some forms of high-intensity exercise.

But cold exposure does not simply switch inflammation off.

Another 2025 thorough review found that inflammatory markers actually increased immediately and one hour after cold water immersion in the studies it examined.

Some other effects, including changes in stress, appeared later.

So, inflammation isn't necessarily harmful. It is part of the body's normal response to stress and tissue repair. All good.

Framing it within surfing, it's accurate to describe cold water as a physiological stressor that can produce adaptation rather than as a natural anti-inflammatory drug.

Surfing adds something a cold plunge cannot

Here's a subtle difference we need to address.

A cold plunge gives the body cold water; surfing adds movement, concentration, anticipation, and reward.

Research on surfing has found associations with positive psychological outcomes, although the evidence does not establish that surfing is superior to other forms of exercise.

A 2025 study (González-Devesa et al., 2025) involving military personnel found generally beneficial effects on anxiety, depression, and positive affect, while also noting important limitations in the available studies.

Surf has become a form of therapy prescribed by doctors. Yes, you've read it well.

Also, research on outdoor swimming ("It's in the water," 2025) provides another useful comparison.

In a 2025 qualitative study of ten regular outdoor swimmers, participants described exercise, contact with nature, emotional regulation, and cold exposure as important parts of their experience.

These were reported experiences, not proof of medical effects.

Surfing adds the constant demand to read the ocean and respond to the incoming waves a surfer is given or blessed with.

What we've got here actually has a curious sequence.

The cold initially demands a strong physiological response, exercise generates heat, concentration takes over, and the human graced with surfing skill gradually stops thinking about the temperature and starts thinking about the next wave.

Surfers are a different breed.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

Nicolas Lamoureux is an active 31-year-old surfer and skier like anyone else. The only difference is that he has lived with a slow heartbeat his entire life, and he has relied on a pacemaker to keep his heart going since the age of 4.

However, during a competitive hike up Aspen's Highlands Bowl, he was so short of breath that he knew something was wrong.

A wire from his previous pacemaker had mangled a heart valve, which caused a severe leakage and required urgent open-heart surgery, as well as a pacemaker replacement.

Refusing to settle for a traditional - or "old school," as he calls it pacemaker that could cause additional complications and hinder his passions, his research led him to a dual-chamber leadless pacemaker that is placed inside the heart and has no wires.

Since receiving the minimally invasive implant procedure in July 2025, Nicolas' recovery was remarkable: he was discharged the same day and attended a wedding that evening.

Although there may not be many surfers with a pacemaker, Nicolas' story could set a standard for people with similar conditions who want to stay active in sports.

SurferToday.com sat down with Nicolas to learn how he manages his life-threatening heart condition with his passion for surfing.

You've had a pacemaker since you were four years old. What was your relationship with the ocean and surfing like growing up?

I've had different pacemakers throughout my life, but one constant was my love for the water.

Growing up in Rhode Island, I spent my entire childhood at the beach and in the ocean every day of summer.

I started surfing when I was 11 or 12, but before that I was skimboarding and boogie boarding basically every single day from 10 am to 5 pm, June to September.

Rhode Island is called the Ocean State for a reason - pretty much every part of our summers revolves around being in or on the water.

Did doctors, coaches, or even family members ever tell you to slow down or avoid certain sports?

I was told to avoid certain heavier-contact sports like football and wrestling to help prevent issues with my pacemaker.

At what point did surfing become more than just recreation for you?

Surfing is my favorite thing to do. Most of my travels revolve around either surfing or skiing.

It is just a hobby for me; I have never competed in it or done it professionally.

Were there moments in the water where you became especially aware of your heart condition, or did surfing actually make you feel free from it?

For most of my life, I never felt hindered by my heart condition.

I basically ran full throttle up until a couple of years ago when my old pacemaker lead - which is a wire that carries the electrical signal from the pacemaker battery to the heart - created a leak in my tricuspid valve.

The leak slowly worsened over several years until I started feeling uncomfortable while surfing because I'd get short of breath when duck-diving bigger sets.

This prompted me to get my heart looked at.

Once we saw how bad the leak had gotten, we knew I needed a new pacemaker along with a valve repair.

Fortunately, at the time, Abbott had just released the Aveir DR Dual Chamber Leadless Pacemaker System.

The device was much smaller - about the size of an AAA battery - than I previously had implanted and didn't require leads in my heart.

It was a major upgrade in my mind because it meant I wouldn't have to deal with device-related issues, like the leak the wire had caused that brought me back to the cardiologist!

How do you think living with a pacemaker shaped your mentality as a surfer?

Until the recent valve leak, it really hadn't affected me mentally or physically.

Surfing can be physically brutal - paddling, hold-downs, long sessions, heavy currents. What aspects were hardest on your body before the surgery?

Breathing.

Prior to the valve repair and upgrade to the new leadless system, my ability to breathe had gotten extremely compromised.

I'm pumped to have my breathing back on track, which makes me feel comfortable in the water again.

Looking back now, were there warning signs in the water that your old pacemaker setup was failing?

Yes. My breathing had deteriorated so badly due to the leak caused by the wired pacemaker that it became obvious something was not right.

It started to really affect my comfort in the water and hindered my ability to enjoy surfing.

You mentioned becoming severely short of breath during a hike in Aspen. Had you experienced similar limitations while surfing before that moment?

Yes. I had noticed it during the prior hurricane season while I was surfing in Rhode Island.

I kept telling my buddy that when surfing, "I couldn't clear a full breath between sets."

This was a sign that the situation was getting worse.

The hike at Aspen Highlands Bowl was what really made it 100 percent obvious to me that it was time to do something ASAP.

Did your endurance or confidence in bigger surf change as your condition worsened?

Absolutely, my stamina was depleted, and not being able to breathe normally during bigger surf sessions was pretty spooky.

Were there waves or conditions you avoided because of concerns about your health?

I wish I could say that I avoided surfing during certain conditions because of how bad my breathing had gotten from the heart issue, but the reality is I went in the water anyway.

It's pretty hard to sit on the beach and not surf when the waves are good. The sessions were just not as enjoyable when I wasn't functioning at 100 percent.

You called traditional pacemakers "old school." What specifically frustrated you about the limitations of older technology?

The biggest frustration for me was the wire aspect, mostly given that the valve leak was related to the wire crossing my tricuspid valve.

But I had also broken a lead when I was younger and had to have emergency pacemaker surgery, so the wire risk was always something in my mind.

Old pacemakers also require that you have a battery placed under the skin in your chest, which was something I thought never really bothered me after so many years of having a pacemaker.

However, since the Aveir leadless pacemaker fits inside my heart, I no longer have a device creating a bump on my chest, and I no longer have leads.

Now, I realize how nice it is to have nothing sticking out of my body!

How deep did you go into researching alternatives before deciding on a leadless pacemaker?

My parents and I are meticulous researchers and ask harder questions than 99 percent of people probably would.

I evaluated the potential benefits and risks of each type of system and made the decision that was best for my situation.

The main thought about the Aveir leadless pacemaker was just that it was new and unfamiliar, but it was still the way I wanted to go.

The Abbott team helped answer all my questions, and they continue to follow up and have a personal interest in my device's success, which is really awesome to see as a patient.

Was surfing part of the conversation when discussing treatment options with doctors?

Definitely.

One of the options for pacemaker systems was a traditional battery device with leads to my heart, but instead of placing the battery under the skin in my chest like other old pacemakers, it would have been placed in my abdomen.

I was immediately not a fan of this option because all I could think of was how unnatural and uncomfortable it would be to have a lump in my abdomen when lying on a surfboard and paddling.

The leadless pacemaker I went with is incredible in the sense that if I woke up tomorrow with no memory, I wouldn't even know I had it.

I don't feel the leadless system in any way, unlike the old device.

Did you feel understood by the medical world when you explained that getting back in the water was non-negotiable?

Yes.

I was clear that a pacemaker with leads and a battery in my abdomen was absolutely not what I wanted and that it should be an absolute last resort if, for some unforeseen reason, the leadless system wouldn't work.

Fortunately, leadless was a viable option in my case.

What made the dual-chamber leadless pacemaker feel like the right fit for your lifestyle?

I have always been a believer that the fewer systems you have, the less likely something will break.

So the idea of going from a pacemaker with leads to a pacemaker with no leads immediately resonated with me.

If we could eliminate the leads and the potential problems they have, then it was like getting rid of half the risk in my mind. Less is more.

You had the new pacemaker implanted and then attended a wedding the same day you were discharged. Did that quick recovery surprise you?

Because the leadless pacemaker was implanted through a minimally invasive procedure, I was able to drive to NY the next day and attend a wedding of some good friends.

It was very surprising.

I had originally RSVP'd to my friend saying that I couldn't make it because I was getting a new pacemaker. Based on the pain and recovery of old-school devices, I thought I definitely couldn't make it.

But the leadless implementation was so much less invasive and painful that I felt totally fine going to the wedding.

I never would have gone if it was a traditional pacemaker surgery.

How soon after the procedure were you thinking about surfing again?

As soon as I could!

My heart surgeon had said I could probably start surfing and skiing in 8-10 weeks after the procedure.

Since it was winter, I had an itch to ski, and as soon as I felt solid enough and got my doctor's blessing, I went to Colorado.

I think I was supposed to ease back into it, but I got a little excited and ended up going heli-skiing for my first days back on the mountain.

What was your first surf session like after surgery?

Great!

I snuck down to a friend's house in Costa Rica and spent six days surfing with two sessions a day.

My breathing was better, and I kept saying to my buddy that I forgot how much more fun surfing is when you can breathe right. 

Were you nervous paddling out for the first time post-operation?

I was only nervous that the place where they inserted the catheter was going to feel weird, but was happily surprised that it felt great.

Did the experience change the way you approach risk in the ocean?

Not really. I feel 110 percent again and look forward to more time in the water.

Physically, what feels different now when you surf?

I would say it's enjoyable again and not stressful because I no longer struggle for breath when paddling.

For a lot of surfers, surfing is tied directly to identity and mental health. Did the possibility of losing that part of your life affect you emotionally?

Luckily, I never thought I was going to lose the ability.

I was always confident that the team of doctors at Boston Children's Hospital could address my issues, and I had faith in them.

They are rockstars and the best option in my opinion.

Once I met the team and we had a plan, I was just pumped to get through it and on the other side to move forward!

Was there ever a point where you genuinely feared you might not surf again?

No, but I did kind of grow numb to how bad the breathing was.

I was a little bummed at the thought of that being normal. Luckily, it isn't anymore.

What did fighting to stay active teach you about resilience?

One of my favorite poems is called Invictus, meaning "unconquerable" in Latin. It's about always pushing forward no matter what. It's how I approached the whole situation.

The final two lines of the poem are my favorite: "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

You have to keep fighting; the only one holding you back is you.

Has your relationship with the ocean changed since the surgery?

Not really. I'm at the beach, in the water, or on the water pretty much any free day I have.

Do you surf with more gratitude now, or are you still chasing waves exactly the same way as before?

I'm more thankful that I have the ability to keep doing the things I love, like surfing and skiing, and don't worry as much about that ability being hindered.

Are there any practical considerations surfers might not think about when it comes to having a pacemaker?

Having the old-school pacemaker that is outside of your heart and placed under the skin in your chest can be uncomfortable. I would highly recommend the leadless device because this isn't an issue.

Do airport security, surf travel, remote destinations, or long surf trips become more complicated?

No.

Have wipeouts or heavy impacts ever raised concerns about damaging a traditional pacemaker device?

Yes, with the old pacemaker, falling weird or dislodging a wire was always something that was in the back of my mind, especially because I broke a lead when I was a young kid fooling around.

Did the leadless design remove some of those worries?

One hundred percent.

How do you manage recovery, training, and overall health while maintaining an active surf lifestyle?

Within two days of my procedure to insert the Aveir leadless pacemaker, I made it a goal to walk one mile and/or 10,000 steps each day.

I'm not sure if the doctor would be thrilled about it, but I just had to do it.

I feared becoming inactive and tried to keep doing little exercises, so I could work my way up as recovery progressed.

What would you say to young surfers or athletes living with heart conditions who think their active life might be over?

Stay positive! There's always a way.

Do you think medical technology is finally catching up with the lifestyles people actually want to live?

Absolutely. It's incredible what medical technology has accomplished. I'm thankful for the leadless technology.

What does "living fully" mean to you now?

Take every opportunity you can because you never know when you might not be able to.

If you could describe your first clean wave after valve surgery and the implantation of the new pacemaker in one sentence, what would it be?

Reinvigorating.

What's next on your surf bucket list now that you're back?

A two-week boat trip in the Indonesian islands booked with eight friends in December. I am stoked for that one.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

Oceanographers, scientists, wave pool developers, and surfers at large, rejoice. A mathematical breakthrough involving the Navier-Stokes equations could eventually have a great surf-related impact.

It could help scientists understand fluid motion at a deeper level, improve the way complex flows are modeled, and perhaps influence technologies that deliberately create waves.

That includes wave pools. Interesting, right?

OpenAI announced on September 8 that an internal AI system had produced a proof addressing the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems.

According to OpenAI, the proof shows that a three-dimensional incompressible fluid can develop a singularity in finite time.

The company has released a mathematical write-up and a formalization of the proof in Lean.

There was controversy around the milestone, however.

Mathematicians Tristan Buckmaster and Levent Alpöge were developing related AI-assisted work and had shared some of their progress with OpenAI before the announcement.

They have raised questions about whether their work may have influenced the result and whether they deserve some credit, while OpenAI denies improper access or conduct.

The proposed solution still needs to be examined by independent mathematicians.

If the proof is correct, however, it would settle a question that has remained open for roughly 90 years.

The implications for surfing are not immediate, but the mathematics behind the result could eventually become relevant to how we understand moving water.

Why Navier-Stokes matters to waves

The Navier-Stokes equations describe how fluids move, relating quantities such as velocity, pressure, and viscosity as they change through space and time.

They are already fundamental to engineering and science, including the study of aircraft, pumps, turbines, weather, and ocean currents.

Researchers also use versions of the equations to model breaking waves and turbulent flow.

The difficulty is that fluid motion can become extremely complicated.

A smooth flow can develop smaller and faster structures as vortices stretch and rotate and energy moves between different scales; viscosity tends to smooth the flow, while other terms can amplify and concentrate motion.

The unresolved mathematical question was whether this process could become so extreme that the equations themselves produce a singularity in finite time.

OpenAI says it has constructed exactly such a case.

Its proposed solution involves a vortex that spirals inward and becomes increasingly elongated.

The central region shrinks while velocity increases without bound, even though total energy remains finite.

OpenAI says acceleration, pressure gradients, momentum transfer, and viscosity all become large but balance each other precisely.

We're not talking about a model of an ocean wave. It is a mathematical result about the equations used to describe fluid motion.

Its potential importance to wave science comes from what a deeper understanding of those equations might eventually allow researchers to do.

The possible connection to swell

A swell is a large-scale fluid phenomenon governed by many interacting processes.

A wave generated by a distant storm travels across the ocean while its energy moves through the water, and the wave can encounter currents, changing depths, and other waves.

Near the coast, the seabed influences its speed and direction. The wave shoals, becomes steeper, and eventually breaks.

Scientists already have sophisticated models for these processes.

The challenge is not simply calculating the height of a wave at different locations, but representing how energy and momentum are redistributed within a moving fluid system, particularly as the flow develops increasingly complex structures.

That is where better mathematics could eventually matter.

A deeper understanding of Navier-Stokes could help researchers understand the limits of the approximations used in complex flow models and develop better mathematical tools for studying structures that numerical models cannot resolve directly.

Now, this becomes particularly important as a wave approaches breaking. The large-scale shape of the wave is relatively easy to see, but the fluid motion inside and beneath it is much harder to calculate.

As the wave becomes steeper, the flow becomes increasingly nonlinear. Once the crest collapses, turbulence develops, and energy is transferred into smaller structures.

A computer model has to represent this enormous range of motion without calculating every detail of the water, which is one reason wave modeling remains difficult.

Better models could mean better wave predictions

It would be wrong to say that the proposed proof will automatically produce better surf forecasts.

It will not.

Wave prediction already relies on specialized numerical models that account for atmospheric forcing, wave interactions, currents, water depth, refraction, and dissipation.

The potential benefit is more fundamental.

If mathematicians gain a better understanding of what the Navier-Stokes equations can and cannot do, researchers may develop improved ways of representing fluid behavior in numerical simulations.

That could eventually influence models of ocean waves, but there is a substantial difference between understanding the mathematical limits of an equation and having the computational power and measurements needed to reproduce every detail of the ocean.

Wave breaking is where things become particularly interesting

Consider a wave approaching a shallow reef. As the depth decreases, the wave slows, its wavelength changes, and its height can increase.

Its shape becomes increasingly asymmetric until the crest becomes unstable and breaks.

The flow then changes dramatically. Water plunges forward, air is pulled into the water, foam develops, and vortices appear as large turbulent structures interact with smaller ones.

The clean wave visible to a surfer becomes a complicated three-dimensional flow.

Researchers already use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Navier-Stokes-based approaches to study this process.

The proposed mathematical result could eventually help scientists understand such flows differently, particularly the way intense structures develop within them.

It would not mean that a breaking wave contains the same singularity found in OpenAI's mathematical construction.

There is no evidence for that. The potential value lies in understanding the underlying equations more deeply.

And this is where wave pools could become outstanding

Wave pools are an obvious example of technology built around controlled fluid dynamics.

Engineers can design the basin, control the wave generation mechanism, and vary factors such as water depth, timing, and direction.

The objective is to create a predictable moving wave or several different types of waves.

A wave generator does not simply push water forward.

It creates a disturbance that propagates through a carefully designed body of water, where the resulting wave interacts with the pool floor, walls, and other parts of the system.

Small changes in geometry can therefore affect the resulting wave, making computational fluid dynamics an important design tool.

Engineers can simulate proposed designs before building them and investigate how changes in geometry affect the resulting flow.

A better understanding of fluid equations could eventually become part of that process, making wave generation systems easier to design and optimize.

There are already wave pool technologies capable of producing highly refined surf waves, so the next challenge is not simply creating a better-looking wave.

Engineers could potentially seek much greater control over the shape of the face, the speed of the breaking section, the location where the lip pitches, and the amount of energy reaching a particular part of the basin.

All these variables are connected.

Change the underwater geometry, and the flow changes. Change the wave generator, and the incoming energy changes. Change the timing, and different waves can interact in new ways.

The closer a system gets to producing a realistic surf wave, the more complicated the fluid dynamics become.

Better modeling could therefore allow engineers to run more accurate simulations of a proposed basin and wave generator, explore designs that would be expensive or time-consuming to test physically, and potentially optimize energy use.

A wave pool has to put energy into the water to create waves, and some of that energy becomes the wave surfers ride while some is lost through turbulence, friction, and other processes.

Understanding where that energy goes is an engineering problem in which better fluid models could eventually help.

There is also a limit to what Navier-Stokes can tell us

The proposed result should not be oversold.

The Navier-Stokes equations treat a fluid as a continuous medium, while real water is made of molecules.

At sufficiently small scales, the continuum description has limits.

The mathematical singularity in the proposed proof should therefore not be interpreted as a real column of water accelerating to infinite speed.

It is a statement about the mathematical behavior of the equations, which is also why the result does not automatically revolutionize engineering.

There is a large gap between proving that a flow can develop a singularity and calculating the exact shape of a wave breaking over a reef on the North Shore of Oahu.

That gap will remain.

A mathematical proof can establish something profound about a set of equations without providing a practical engineering formula.

But the mathematics could open new doors

The significance of the proposed result may ultimately be that scientists have a clearer answer about the mathematical limits of one of the most important systems of equations in physics.

OpenAI says its result establishes finite-time blow-up for the forced Navier-Stokes problem and that its system also found a related finite-time blow-up result for the unforced Euler equations, which remove the viscosity term.

That does not solve every problem involving fluids, but it tells researchers that extreme concentration of fluid motion can arise within the mathematical equations themselves under the conditions of the proposed construction.

The next step is understanding what that knowledge can teach us.

For ocean science, that could mean better ways of representing turbulence and wave breaking.

For coastal engineering, it could mean improved simulations of how waves interact with reefs, beaches, and structures.

For wave pool designers, it could eventually mean more accurate control over how a generated wave forms, travels, and breaks.

For surfers, the long-term payoff could be surprisingly simple: a better understanding of the mathematics of moving water could eventually lead to a better understanding of why a wave becomes the wave it becomes.

And that would be extremely useful.

The swash and backwash are two dangerous forces that people tend to downplay while enjoying a day at the beach.

Sometimes, you've got to experience it in person to understand and witness the power of the ocean (and Nature) in the smallest of things.

It was just another gorgeous, windless September afternoon at the beach.

Everything seemed perfect, except for the extremely high tide, which was preventing me from paddling out, courtesy of the new moon.

The glorious 14-second groundswell was beautiful to watch.

Trains of waves were arriving, full of energy, and unleashing their power on the inclined and steep shorebreak.

We're talking about glassy, six-to-ten-foot faces detonating on the sloped sands and raising the breaking wave another five feet of whitewater up in the air.

Nature was putting on a show for me, as I stood just on my beach towel a couple of meters up the high tide line.

When I arrived, you were allowed to dip in the water, but soon the lifeguard made the right call and raised the red flag.

There was no doubt you shouldn't enter that stretch of Atlantic Ocean water in these conditions.

Even the most experienced waterperson could easily get in trouble.

It was heavy out here, and most people recognized that and stayed in the safe zone.

However, there are always those who think they have special powers to dodge tragedy and Darwinism's natural selection. We'll get to them soon.

Dipping my feet

Meanwhile, it was getting hot. My watch showed 4:30 pm.

I knew I couldn't dip. I've been writing about surf rescue and lifeguards, and water safety, and beach warnings for my whole life, and I respected those who risk their lives to save struggling, ignorant beachgoers.

I would never defy the lifeguard's red flag.

But I thought about just getting to the high tide line and feeling the freshness of the late summer Atlantic on my feet.

And so I did.

I was there for 30 minutes. At some point, I would get down on my knees and throw myself some water using my hands as a large cup.

I got more sand onto my body than actual water, but that's fine - I was in my element.

Simultaneously, I meant to show the lifeguard just 50 yards from me that I was staying far from the surf and the shorebreak.

Then, my instinctive attraction to waves got me to halfway between the high tide line and the roaring, exploding surf.

Caught off-guard: it only takes a couple of seconds

The first thing I noticed was that the backwash was brutally strong.

To avoid getting knocked down by the incoming whitewater, I would jump when the backwash was about to hit my feet.

That technique allowed me to avoid the initial impact of the fast-moving water. However, I soon realized the remaining water could easily sweep me off my feet, causing me to lose balance.

Luckily, I did not strike the sand hard, as many do in YouTube videos. But the first lesson was learned. I just barely stood up on my feet.

The problem arrived seconds later.

I had survived the forward momentum of a breaking wave, but I was not prepared for the second part of this natural phenomenon.

After the swash, there's usually the backwash.

In other words, what comes up must come down, and the water that surged up and onto the beach was suddenly pulling down and out toward the sea.

I knew the phenomenon, but I wasn't prepared for its force.

As gravity pulled heavy water down the slope, I struggled to stay balanced, and for a second and a half, it swept me off my feet. 

I fought the downward current with everything I had, and it was incredibly and surprisingly hard, even for someone fit and comfortable in high surf like me.

I put into practice a technique I learned when I was a kid - to walk against the flow while lifting your legs alternately out of the water.

So, rather than trying to push through the backwash with both feet planted, take short, deliberate steps and keep one foot firmly on the sand at a time.

The goal is to reduce the drag from the moving water and give you a more stable base as you move toward the beach.

It worked well until I realized it was too strong and it was taking me down.

After the swash comes the backwash

And for the first time, I felt helpless against Nature's will. The good news is that I was able to recover and quickly run up the beach.

Otherwise, I would have been dragged.

Interestingly, just half an hour later, a couple in their 60s fell to the hands of the backwash and required help from a... pregnant lady to get back on their feet again.

Surreal, right? But this is not over.

The pregnant lady and her partner were later taking the same risks with their toddler by the shore break.

The situation was getting me anxious and stressed. If they weren't holding their daughter's hands tightly, the incoming swash could easily drag her down the slope.

Every year, people defy my country's Atlantic Ocean shores during high surf warnings and lose their lives.

We never learn. Until we cannot learn anymore.

Be safe at the beach. Respect the beach flags and warning signs. Talk to your local lifeguard. Take some time to read the ocean.

Even experienced waterpeople sometimes find themselves in potentially serious situations. No, it doesn't only happen to everyone else. We can also be part of the statistics.

And surfers are not immune to the ocean's raw and unpredictable forces.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com

Makana Pang has won the inaugural Capítulo Perfeito event at Desert Point, Lombok, Indonesia, going down in history as the winner of the first surf event ever held at that wave.

For the first time in 12 editions that the perfect-tube event has left Portugal, the Hawaiian beat Bruno Santos, Ícaro Ronchi and Usman Trioko in the final, claiming a wildcard straight into Capítulo Perfeito 2027, in Carcavelos.

Over six straight hours, the eight surfers on the roster rode flawless six-foot waves at a left that has been one of the world's benchmarks for tube riding for decades and had never hosted an event of this scale.

Pang closed the day with a 17.57 total, after posting the only Perfect 10 of the entire event.

The Hawaiian dialed in early, laying down one of the best waves of the opening heats, scored at 9.17.

In the final, he held off Bruno Santos and Ícaro Ronchi, two of the most consistent surfers in the event, who stacked up several excellent-range rides (above 8 points) and came close to the perfect score themselves.

But it was the Hawaiian who sealed it, with the longest and most technically demanding barrel of the day, a perfect wave, scored a 10.

"Being part of the first-ever surf event at Desert Point was an honor. And getting a Perfect 10 in the final was a dream come true," said Makana Pang.

"Being out there with only three other guys in the water is probably one of the craziest things I've ever experienced in surfing - maybe one of the craziest things anyone has ever experienced."

"This wave is unbeatable. I'm stoked and very grateful."

A top-class, tubes-only final

The final clearly validated the organization's selection calls.

Of the four surfers who contested it, three had entered the event on a wildcard - Makana Pang and Ícaro Ronchi on the two global wildcards, Usman Trioko on one of the local wildcards - and the fourth, Bruno Santos, had himself been on the surfers' list originally as a global wildcard, only securing a qualified slot through seeding after Nic von Rupp's withdrawal.

Ronchi, called in at the last minute for the place Bruninho vacated, answered with several rides above 8 points and a third-place finish.

"We knew that running an event of this scale in a place as remote as Lombok was always going to be a challenge and a risk, but Desert Point delivered," said Rui Costa, founder of Capítulo Perfeito.

"Makana won this event the only way you can win here: by finding the best barrel of the day."

"A 10 in a final at Desert Point only validates our concept further: the same demands, the same respect for the conditions, at one of the most unforgiving and iconic stages on the planet."

"We leave here certain that Capítulo Perfeito belongs anywhere there are serious tubes."

The scoring system rewarded time and quality inside the barrel only, with no value given to maneuvers, the Capítulo Perfeito signature since the first edition, in 2012.

The event opened with a Special Local Heat bringing together local surfers from Desert Point, where Diki Wahyudi stood out.

Also on the surfers' list for the Indonesian edition of Capítulo Perfeito were Balaram Stack, Cam Richards, Pedro Calado and Sulaiman.

2026 Capítulo Perfeito at Desert Point | Final

1. Makana Pang, 17.57
2. Bruno Santos, 16.76
3. Ícaro Ronchi, 15.43
4. Usman Trioko, 10.60

The concept of flow state has been increasingly en vogue in the surfing world.

One of the reasons for that is probably because our lives are getting full of the opposite of what it means, with all the infernal machines and artificial dissonances that have taken over the planet, and draining the last resources of peace we had in stock.

Screens control most of our eyes and brains nowadays. The number of hours we spend in front of a computer or smartphone could be, by themselves, another well-lived life.

I've recently bought a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of the famous "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" print by Japanese artist Hokusai.

I thought I needed it not only to rest my soul in the evening, but also to help me forget life's setbacks. In other words, I wanted to chill and take my eyes off of pixels.

The jigsaw puzzle, it ain't easy. There are too many similar colors, tones, hues, and patterns across hundreds of pieces.

So, I had to think about a strategy. First, I started with the edges, then moved inside, trying pieces one by one in areas that matched those types of pieces.

I might have several weeks of work ahead of me. But that's actually great news. And there's a reason for that.

The concept of flow state

In the 1960s, Hungarian-American psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (1934-2021) became interested in why people sometimes become completely absorbed in an activity, seemingly forgetting time, fatigue, and everything around them.

While studying artists, he noticed that painters could become so immersed in their work that the process itself seemed to be the reward. He later found similar experiences among athletes, musicians, chess players, and other highly engaged people.

He initially called this the "autotelic experience," meaning an activity pursued for its own sake. People repeatedly described the sensation as being carried along, which led him to adopt the word "flow."

In 1975, he developed the concept in "Beyond Boredom and Anxiety."

His research identified several characteristics of flow, including intense concentration, a sense of control, altered perception of time, and a balance between challenge and skill.

One of the central discoveries was that flow tends to occur when the challenge presented by an activity is closely matched to the person's ability.

Too little challenge and you become bored; too much challenge and you become anxious.

Somewhere between those extremes is the territory in which intense engagement can occur.

The concept became widely known through his 1990 book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" and subsequently influenced research into sport, creativity, education, and work.

Interestingly, Csíkszentmihályi once revealed that as a young man, "I do think that I experienced flow before I understood what it was."

When? While rock climbing, playing chess, painting, and cooking.

Surfers and the flow state

Now, here's where I wanted to take you, dear reader.

We've heard a lot about the flow state in surfing without really digging into what it means for those blessed with the skill of riding waves.

Yes, there is a remarkably strong connection between flow and surfing.

In fact, surfing is almost a textbook environment for exploring Csíkszentmihályi's idea because it combines challenge, skill, immediate feedback, intense concentration, movement, uncertainty, and a very narrow window between control and chaos.

In other words, surfing checks all the flow state boxes. Shall we explore them a bit more?

The wave as a flow machine

Csíkszentmihályi described flow as a state of deep absorption in an activity, where attention becomes so focused that distractions and self-consciousness fade.

Surfing naturally creates those conditions.

Once you're up and riding, there is very little room for thinking about emails, money, tomorrow's schedule, or what someone thinks of you.

Your attention is occupied by the wave and what is about to happen next.

Why does a wave make it so easy to forget everything else?

I'll let you answer that because I don't have an explanation for it. I just know that the in-the-moment feeling is there.

The challenge-skill balance

Now, this is probably the most obvious connection to Csíkszentmihályi's model. Flow tends to occur when challenge and skill are closely matched.

If the challenge is too great, you become anxious; if your skills greatly exceed the challenge, you become bored.

So, it's really a super fine balance.

For instance, a beginner on a two-foot wave may experience flow, and the same surfer on a six-foot reef break may experience fear.

Also, a pro surfer may find the six-footer perfectly manageable, but put the same guy or gal at Nazaré and the challenge changes completely.

So the "perfect wave" isn't necessarily the biggest or best wave. It may be the wave that sits in the sweet spot between ability and difficulty.

Surfing is a "conversation" (or dance) with the wave

One of the most interesting aspects of flow is that it involves continuous feedback. And in surfing, the feedback is immediate.

Need examples?

You lean forward, the board accelerates; you lean back, it slows or changes direction.

You compress, you gain control; you misread the section, the wave closes out.

There is almost no delay between action and consequence, unlike many modern activities where feedback is delayed.

You can work on a project for months without knowing whether you're doing it well. A wave tells you within seconds.

The disappearance of the surfer

Csíkszentmihályi identified a reduced sense of self-consciousness as one characteristic of flow.

Surfers often describe something similar, although they may use very different language: "I wasn't thinking. I was just surfing."

The ultimate example is "the green room." When you're getting barreled, you're not thinking, "OK, now I need to put my front foot down."

The movement just happens. The body responds to the wave almost automatically.

You don't think about surfing. You simply surf.

Why experienced surfers seem to "read" waves

Flow also connects beautifully with implicit knowledge.

An experienced surfer will look at a wave and instantly recognize where it will break, where the shoulder will appear, whether there is enough speed to make the section, when to accelerate, etc.

Nevertheless, they may not consciously calculate any of this.

Instead, years of repetition have turned thousands of previous experiences into rapid pattern recognition.

The strange relationship between fear and flow

Here's a very interesting angle. Fear appears to be the enemy of flow, but surfing complicates that idea.

A surfer needs enough awareness of danger to stay up and riding, and eventually survive multiple wave hold-downs.

At the same time, excessive fear can destroy concentration.

We at SurferToday.com do have a very interesting article on fear and surfing that you might take a look at.

So, for instance, with big-wave surfing, the challenge is controlling fear sufficiently that it doesn't overwhelm the ability to act.

It's some sort of "functional fear," and we've heard big-wave surfers talk about that a lot.

It's like a fear that sharpens attention rather than paralyzes it.

Why surfing can make time disappear

One of Csíkszentmihályi's famous characteristics of flow is an altered sense of time.

Surfers know this phenomenon: "I'll surf for an hour." Suddenly three hours have passed.

Or the opposite happens on a single wave. A ride that lasts only a few seconds can feel remarkably long because the brain is processing an enormous amount of information.

There's also an incredible study on "Time Barrel: How Do Surfers Experience Time in the Barrel" by Cynthia M. Peterson. I read it, and I recommend it.

I feel that we can eventually have two different temporal experiences: either time disappears (in a session) or time expands (while riding a wave).

But I am sure each one of you will have a different perception of time while surfing.

There's some sort of meditative state in this dancing with the waves, which actually explains the bridge surfers like Gerry Lopez build with meditation and yoga.

Surfing and the "autotelic" personality

Csíkszentmihályi used the term autotelic for people who are inclined to engage in activities for their own sake rather than primarily for external rewards.

Surfing fits this idea almost perfectly.

There is no practical reason to paddle into freezing water at dawn, carry a heavy board down a cliff, and spend an hour waiting for waves. Is there?

The reward is the experience itself. And - this is very important - the reward isn't necessarily the best wave.

Sometimes the best session is the one where nobody saw you, or you just performed to a level that surprised you.

That opens an interesting exploration of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation in surfing, particularly in the age of Instagram, surf competitions, and wave-counting/tracking apps.

Could surfing be the defining flow-state outdoor activity? It sure looks like the strongest contender.

Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com