R.C. Shaw

I was looking to re-evaluate my life and everything that I should feel fortunate about and sometimes forget.

And I think stepping away from it and also leaving the technology behind so that I could really meditate on those things on the road and meeting all these new, kind, generous people in the province that I call home.

All of these things I was hoping would then, when I got back, make me ideally a better person, but definitely more grateful for what I had.

To be a surfer means you show respect to the ocean.

You learn about it.

You understand tides, current, swell, wind, and you take calculated risks.

It's not that you don't take risks.

It's all about risk, really, because paddling into a wave and dropping is really risk in its purest form.

You know that there's a chance you're going to fall off.

You know there's a chance you might hit the bottom.

But if you've done your homework and practiced and worked on it enough, you can get the timing right to get down the face of the wave.

And then that's why we're all out there is to be on the face of a wave gliding.

And it feels almost as if you were a bird or it's the type of feeling that you can only get, or in my opinion, only get while surfing on a wave.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Just living inside of a moment, even just being out in the water.

And you look back at the shoreline.

In my case, I can see my house from the water.

But it's just this physical that becomes metaphorical separation.

So...

When I'm out there, it feels like I've taken a step away from worldly cares on land.