Wave If You Dig Surfing

As you know, surfing is a topic I love to write about. [Click the blue banners to read my blogs: "My Philadelphian Cousin is a Hawaiian Surfer" and"Diana Vreeland: A Surfer Wannabe."

But before we go further out, click here (and turn up the volume). Taste the brine. Feel the sea spray. Flick the sand from your imagination.

I caught up with Jonah Kogen, a bronco when it comes to catching waves. Here he is on a recent surfing trip to the Mentawaii's in West Sumatra, Indonesia:

So what's it like to ride a wave? Is it as swell as surfers say it is?

"It's an incredible feeling," Jonah wrote. "Every wave you catch or miss makes you a better, more tuned in, experienced surfer. Your mind and body has to adjust for years to put the pieces together.  Knowing how to get yourself in the right position, paddling as hard as possible to match the speed of the wave. Taking off on an elevator 

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                                                               p, focusing down the line on the wave instead of the razor sharp reef below you in a single-foot deep of disappearing water as it sucks up the face. Remembering that if you get clipped, it's like being tackled by a football team and getting dragged across a mine field while holding your breath. 

"When you make a wave like this, and get the full experience, it is unbelievable. There are few things in life that compare. Being in the water has the ability to clear your mind of everything else in the world and just be present in the moment ... one with the ocean and nature and realize just how amazing life is and can be."

I dig.