Everyone is eventually humbled by the ocean. I myself have been humbled many times only to that I didn't need any more lessons. I learned the hard way two truths: it's the best swimmers that often drown and it's what you learn after you know everything. Last March I found myself on the outside of that monster swell in palm beach. I had my big wave board, I was ready and it was huge. It kept getting even bigger and it was so huge and breaking so fast that it was basically impossible. It got to where I kept paddling further and further out to avoid getting swept by the sets. Finally I was out far enough where I could not get the wave and I couldn't get in. There was a group of us. Stuck. It started feeling dangerous. I had paddled for and missed waves that looked like massive car crushers that I imagined I could make if I dropped in on my rail and I actually made one drop only to bobble and wreck when I held the rail too long. Here I was again. In a dangerous place thinking I could turn defeat into victory with a bomb drop and a pulled rail. I was blaming my buddy for choosing this spot over reef road but we both made our choice and we both thought we had beat the crowd and scored a bigger better wave. Instead we were stuck and couldn't even get in. Let the humbling begin. It took me an hour to get get in. My fin sliced my heel in the spin cycle and I got out a mile south of where I got in. How many waves did I get? None. I was held under so long I had to climb my leash. I only know this trick because I keep learning the same lesson and keep confusing bravery with stupidity. This is in no way the same as Eddie trying to paddle impossible distances to save his friends but his choice to surf monster waves and go on open water paddles for thousands of miles is the same. It is this. There is no fine line between a well reasoned risk and a stupid choice. The only difference is humility. You know, that lesson we keep relearning our whole lives.

-------------------------

"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.