PART I: It all starts with one wave

Abstract

You’ve only got one chance. Let that sink in for a second……… or, let me say it again :D. ONE CHANCE to get things right in this lifetime. Which, by all means, you have absolutely no clue how long will last anyway. So if you’ve only got one chance, that means there will not be a second. And whether you think about it deeply or just very lightly, that ought to be enough motivation to get your ass up and really start thinking how life is lived best.

That is at least what has been boiling beneath my skull for quite a while now, and also has been amplified by one of my favorite Podcasters, Sam Harris. Explicitly his episode about “the paradox of death”, which you will find here. So in this first series of blog posts I want to lay the groundwork for how and why I choose to leave Vienna behind, move into a 10m2 Mercedes Sprinter Van and dedicate my time to finding the best waves on the old continent, while expanding and exploring my creative talents.

Foreword

In “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life” (Pulitzer Price Winner and a book I highly recommend) William Finnegan describes his multiple decade long relationship with surfing. What has especially resonated with me are the ebbs and flows of being drawn to the ocean in the search for the next good wave. Very intense periods of multi-year long travels are followed by extensive times when no foot is set on water. It resembles my own path that has been inspired for many years by finding an occupation which could be done anywhere, where there is decent swell around. But all roads come with exits, and having taken some detours from the quest of surfing over the past couple years, I am now aiming to get back “on track”.

Surfing Baptism

In 2008, at 20 years, I surfed my first every wave in the golden state of California, while doing a language exchange in Santa Barbara. Once hooked, there is very little you can do to escape the calls of Neptun, and I was fortunate enough to surf the perfect righthand pointbreaks of Santa Barbara until I finished my BA degree in 2011. Living through the distressing atmosphere of totally relaxed, small-town Santa Barbara, my younger self told me that I definitely needed a “well-deserved” break from that very stressful college student life of attending one beer pong tournament after another. Nonetheless, California is where my attachment to staying by the coast and excitement for surfing really took on its own dynamic.

Portugal the first

The left one is me :D. - Monte Clerigo con mi papa.

So what a better place and chance to continue the “rock-star” lifestyle than signing onto working as a surf instructor in southern part of Portugal known as the Algarve. (#correction: In all honesty, I was more of a nerd and rock stars I only saw on TV, but bear with me for the sake of glorifying the past; thank you sir and madam). Anyhow, Portugal treated me well, mostly I’d say. The surf was fierce, the sun was shining and surf students were getting on my nerves aaaaaaaaall day long. #lovemyjob #not. Some were nice though :D.

Ericeira with the gang. #goodmemories #4sho

One full season and 7 months of surf instructing not only left me with some amazing new experiences and friends, barbie blond hair and the best body shape I had ever been to, to this date (#sorrypalomi) but also with quite some real exhaustion and emptiness. Being exposed to 35 desgree of Portuguese sun without proper shade and playing tingle tangle bob for the mob, made me stray away from the beach and develop a real apathy for strong sun, which haunts me still. If the beach becomes the least place you want to go to, you realize that something is off. I was simply over saturated, and I precisely remember exiting Vienna airport into a cold November evening and being totally relieved that this part was over. But that is another story.

Portugal the second

We did go surfing before #promise #peniche #surftrip

The excitement about Vienna didn’t last all too long and after floating around for a couple of months, I did what all students with an undergraduate degree do, if they don’t know what to do. Right, I went for more day-filling hours at a learning facility and decided for a Masters Degree in Marketing. And guess what: Yes, I settled on a destination where there was amazing surf and that wasn’t half across the world. So in 2013 I again moved to Portugal, Lisbon, which is where another really exciting period of my life started but which also marks the beginning of winter in terms of my intense drive for staying close to the ocean.

We will take a break here and see how I transitioned from living close to the ocean for almost 8 years to basically staying in a landlocked country for another 7 years in the next blog post. For now, thank you so much for bearing with me and let me know what you think about these words. Hate it, love it, don’t care or have suggestions for improvement, I appreciate it all.

Sending you much love and sun from southern Spain: #questmode #on.
Yours,

Constantin Wave