Creativity and Surfing: Creative Flow and the Seduction of the Tube

The allure of a barreling wave is an undeniable force. It resonates deep within us like the drone of a bagpipe—strong and steady, raw and primordial—allowing all other notes a point of origin, a point of origin from which to soar.

But what can waves and surfing teach us about our own desires for creative insight, flow, and Self-expression? What secrets to creativity are found in barreling waves and the individuals that choose to put themselves there?

Waves, Waves, Wonderful Waves

People have been mesmerized by waves ever since human kind had the capacity to be mesmerized about anything. On the seaward side, water rises from the vast horizontal surface and forms an elegant curve—an enigmatic mountain emerging from the depths. Like the curves of an expectant mother, it is growth and creation, the life force rising from the life blood of the world.

On the shore side, the water explodes upon itself. Like the teeth of a rabid monster, it becomes a menacing wall of froth and turbulence; the forces of death and destruction doing hard grinding work.

Inside the wave, between these two irreconcilable forces, there is empty space, pure space, creative space, where neither birth nor death resides, but the potential for either one is always at hand. In this rare and powerful gap, one who is capable can place themselves inside and run one hand along the rising face while hearing the roar and feeling the spray of the visor collapsing on the other side.

What is it about the tube that so captivates our attention? What is it about the quality of space inside that causes those who have been there to describe it as a religious experience?

Creativity, Surfing, and the Religious Experience

Consider first that water –when left on its own– simply lies there and eventually evaporates. Thus, to create a spiraling hollow where a person can stand, innumerable forces must coalesce just so.   The sun’s energy, the spin of the earth, the gravitational pull of both the sun and moon; the direction of local winds and the fruits of far away storms; the surface of the earth below the water; the fluid nature of water itself, the vastness of the ocean—all depend upon one another for the emergence a barreling wave.

Then, in order to put themselves in that rarefied place and stand in the nexus, a surfer must call upon the accumulation of all their wave riding experiences: Thousands of hours of trial and error marked by triumphant drops and violent poundings, swells that never materialize and others that just won’t end, long waits between wave sets and being caught on the inside, and learning to relax and conserve oxygen when a wave holds them under.

Whereas other pursuits allow their participants to choose when they practice, surfing requires a different sort of patience and dedication. A skier can go to the mountain at anytime, but a surfer must await the mountain itself. If and when it arrives, surfers must anticipate its break point and learn how to catch it.   Like picking a peach, timing is everything. Too soon, and you can’t quite sink your teeth in.   Too late, and it explodes all over, choking you with more juice than your mouth and lungs can handle.

Creativity and Interdependence

The ocean and the waves that play along its edges are beautiful and powerful forces. There are many arduous prerequisites to becoming fluent in its poetic but unforgiving language. So it is with all creative pursuits: We must work at our craft to bring forth our most artful, creative expression.

When conditions are right to produce a barreling wave, and the surfer uses their accumulated ability to place themselves inside, what results is a strong sense of unity. Unity can be described as an intuitive, non conceptual sense of connection with something much larger than oneself. For the surfer poised inside, the sense of unity is profound. Time seems to slow. Colors become vivid. Senses heighten and discursive thoughts—the mumbo jumbo, stream of consciousness drivel that occupies our minds most of the time—fall away.   For those who are able, the experience of the tube is often regarded as something rare and precious; even venerable and sacred.  It may not seem like the obvious place to look for creativity and yet the experience of Self-expression is incredibly powerful there.

Whether or not we wax up a board, secure a leash, and head out into the breakers, we all desire to be there—to feel that sense of unity in all of our activities. But we are often confused because we think that this sense of unity that we so desperately want is “out there”; that it is outside ourselves, separate from who we are.

But it’s not that way at all.

Bring in the Age Old Wisdom

According to Buddhist philosophy, desire, along with aggression and ignorance, are known as the Three Poisons and are said to be the roots of human suffering. Desire compels us to look outside ourselves for a sense of fulfillment when, according to the teachings, we are already whole, complete, and always connected. Be it a bigger wave, a faster wave, a longer wave, or a more hollow wave, or for that matter, the perfect lover, the ultimate high, or beach front property, we continuously search for the next best thing to fulfill us.

Here lies the problem: In constantly seeking what we think we want or need to fulfill us, we continuously miss experiencing the vibrant, ever-changing world just as it is.   In missing this dynamic, miraculous world right in front of us, we feel more and more out of touch, which causes us to desire new experiences that we think will amend this sense of separation, which makes us feel even more out of touch.   On and on, so on and so forth, the cycle of human suffering is set in motion.

In truth, however, a barreling wave seduces not because of how it diverges from ordinary experiences, but in how it illustrates so magnificently what most of us fail to recognize:   At the heart of all experiences, unity is the natural state.   Whether we are surfing the years finest waves at a world class break, or wandering a quiet shore during a dry spell, this is true of all experiences– both extraordinary and mundane. And this experience of unity, of this palpable sense of unity, is also experienced during creative insight, the drive to bring those insights to live, and in the celebrated space of creative flow.

The sight of a barreling wave resonates within us because, in reality, we are always riding along in the sweet spot of our life—birth on one side, death on the other. Our present experience resides along a vertical axis running right through our body, mind, and spirit. Above, we connect with the sky—with inspiration and transcendence, with potential and possibility.   Below we connect with the ocean and the earth and that which is readily apparent and sensory. Here lies the world we all must negotiate as it presents us with challenges and opportunities alike.

As we ride along, moment after moment, in the tube ride that is our life, the past folds in on itself behind us, and the future, up ahead, opens up to an endless array of possibilities. Staying in the present—fully sensing the precariousness and miraculousness of our situation—we experience both wisdom and compassion directly. Wisdom is primordial knowing prior to the limitations of conceptual thinking. It is intuitive truth before doubt intervenes.   And compassion is the way we act in the world: In unity, there is no separation between self and other, between surfer and wave. With no sense of separation, like the trillions of cells in a single organism, our actions naturally benefit all.

While other situations may not produce the same immediate sense of unity that a surfer experiences inside a tube, all things are equally interdependent. Like barreling waves, everything is produced by interdependence and the endless ripening and reordering of causes and conditions from previous moments. Whether it be the gallo pinto that arrives at your table or the palm trees that sway on the shoreline; whether it be the clouds gathering for an afternoon storm, or the way they dissipate at the storm’s end; whether it be the ideas that pop into your head, the actions you take in your life, even life itself; all things arise, abide, and dissolve. And when we are able to see this—when we are able to both witness and participate in the interactive play of phenomena peeling all around us—the tube ride, and the experience of creativity, never ends.

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For more on the experience of being inside a barreling wave, check out master surfer and luminary Gerry Lopez’s article Inside the Tube