Current Issue: Spring 2007 (Vol I)
Surfing and the Beatific Vision
I have always felt a certain call from the Ocean. As long as I can remember, the vast body of water has beckoned me to Her—sometimes softly, other times fervently—and inevitably, with an intense longing, I’ve returned to Her. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the water was never far from my doorstep, and having two parents who were open- water swimmers only facilitated my natural gravitation toward the liquid environment so close to home. Most of my childhood activities revolved around water recreation, and whether I was sailing, swimming, surfing, or walking along the beach, the Pacific Ocean was the ultimate playground for my soul and sun burnt body. I have often found that the longing for union I have felt for the Ocean parallels my relationship with God. Surfing in particular has provided me with a channel through which I have been able to understand my spiritual life in terms of my physical surroundings. I would agree with former world champion surfer Tom Carrol who once said, “Soul surfing to me is what you do when you are thoroughly in the moment enjoying and expressing yourself on the wave and being one with the ocean.” For me, the Wave is the symphony through which I am able to express my relationship with God.
The bridge that I would like to build between the art of surfing and one’s spiritual life is primarily directed at comprehending the connection between freewill and the Beatific Vision at death. In his short essay “Surfing and Spirituality,” Boston College professor Peter Kreeft tells us:
The key elements in the symbolism are pretty clear: I, the surfer, am—myself. The body with which I surf in the sea symbolizes the soul, with which I “surf” in God. The sea is God. The beach is the approach to God. Surfing is the experience of God, or the spiritual life.1
And it is with these instruments that I shall compose my symphony.
Perhaps the greatest element of riding waves is what many have termed the “barrel.” “Tube riding” or “getting barreled” occurs when the surfer rides within the hollow tube created by a folding wave. Blessed with the right wind and tide conditions, those advanced and fortunate surfers who experience such a wonder can all attest to the transcendent nature of the moment. To be enveloped and embraced within a watery womb only to be shot out into the daylight a moment later is truly an experience beyond compare. For these surfers, the moment connects their decisions (i.e. paddling into the wave and pulling into the barrel) with the beautiful and creative hand of Nature. The Ocean is the all-giving entity of the relationship; we stand on the receiving end. It is our ability to receive the Ocean’s great gift of the Wave that allows us to stabilize ourselves. In a similar way, what happens to our freewill at the moment of the Beatific Vision parallels, on a much higher level, what happens to the freewill of the surfer when getting barreled.
Paddling into the Wave may be seen as a representation of the transition between our earthly death and eternal rebirth. As we glide down the watery face, the Wave peaks up before us. As the watery crest reaches its climax, we stand up and direct the nose of the board toward the impending barrel. It is at this moment that, in the spiritual realm, one is confronted by the Beatific Vision, “the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 21:6). With all His glory and power present before us, we are each faced with a decision, a completely free choice between eternal union with God or eternal separation from Him. As the character George MacDonald says in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce,
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.2
Any intelligent surfer ultimately says, “Thy will be done” to the Wave, and, with this decision, allows himself to be consumed by the gaping barrel before him. In a parallel situation, the soul who chooses to be united with the Almighty makes the active choice to be consumed by the Eternal Love, the never-ending joy that every human is called to experience. We must remember, however, that despite being engulfed by the Wave, or consumed in the Beatific Vision, our freedom is present at the same moment. Freedom simply loses its significance in the light of the Glory that surrounds the soul.
C.S. Lewis’ words eloquently express this idea of beatific consumption when he says: The odd thing was that before God closed in on me, I was in fact offered what now appears a moment of wholly free choice…. The choice appeared to be momentous but it was strangely unemotional. In a sense I was not moved by anything. I chose to open, to unbuckle, to loosen the rein. I say, “I chose,” yet it did not really seem possible to do the opposite.3
In this “wholly free choice” the surfer becomes one with the Wave in both a figurative and a literal sense. Just as the child is one with the mother in pregnancy, so too is the surfer unique but unified with the swelling Ocean. It is in that liquid tube, where sound, light, and air are transformed, that our soul undergoes its own transformation. Here we become one with the ineffable God; here is Heaven.
To complete the bridge, our glorified soul can be represented by the surfer who finally flies out of the gaping Wave into the bright warmth of a summer’s day at the beach. St. Iranaeus once proclaimed, “The Glory of God is man fully alive!” If you’ve ever seen the triumphant smile on the face of a person who makes it through a perfect barrel, you have some small idea of the Glory of God and our ultimate union with Him.
Yet perhaps we may feel reservation about this experience. It will certainly be a moment beyond any pain or joy felt in our earthly lives. Just as surfing is sometimes overwhelming to the senses, the Beatific Vision will overwhelm our entire self; but this is what we are ultimately called to face. While his words may not provide us with the comfort we are looking for, the character Tor gives us the truth in Lewis’ sci-fi novel Perelandra when he says, “He gave me no assurance. No fixed land. Always one must throw oneself into the wave.”4
1. Peter Kreeft, “Surfing and Spirituality,” available from www.peterkreeft.com/topics/surfing.htm, accessed 14 January 2007.
2. C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2001), 75.
3. C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Inc., 1955), 224.
4. C.S. Lewis, Perelandra (New York, NY: Scribner, 2003), 181.
T.R. Hofmann is a junior in the school of Arts and Sciences majoring in Philosophy and English. He enjoys exploring the parallels between basic human experiences and the spiritual life. Inspired by several Christian writers and philosophers of the 20th Century, he has an interest in existential philosophy and its relation to Christian theology. Upon graduating, T.R. plans to pursue further study in Philosophy, Theology, or English, with the hope of teaching on either the university or high school level. He is an avid surfer.