“It’s like the mafia. Once you’re in, you’re in. There’s no getting out"Surfing is a lifestyle, full stop. It isn’t like bowling or ice skating, tennis or netball.Yet surfing is special in a way that almost no other sports can compare with. It engages us in an activity where we are totally connected with the elements - the sea engulfs us and we are at once 99% water inside and 100% surrounded by water outside. We are in a physically neutral state of balance, and internally we are mentally buoyant. We adapt the energy of the entire ocean to our pleasure, we sit in the sun or rain, indifferent to the weather, we return to the land afterwards, feeling both that we are back where we belong but also like we are somehow incomplete, having left a part of ourselves back out in the ocean.