100 episodes, 0 waves (kinda)—on the eternal guilt of not going out surfing

Today is our 100th episode of The Wipeout Weekly podcast. The beauty of doing a daily podcast. And 100 days since we launched The Wipeout Weekly newsletter and website. It also happens to be International Surfing Day. I only celebrate two of these ‘national days’—May the Fourth and Top Gun Day. But this one? International Surfing Day? Kinda hits different this year.

During the last 100 days, I have most definitely spent more time writing, talking, and reading about surfing than actually surfing. I do feel bad about it. But also—I shouldn’t. So today, I will rejoice in being an “occasional surfer.” And that’s what today’s episode is about.

It’s cloudy. The waves are too big. So much clean-up afterwards. I’m exhausted. The drive’s too long. I can’t fit in my wetsuit. OMG, it’s freezing. My board sucks ass. There will be people there. Oh man, I’m just not feeling it. The list of excuses why we don’t go out surfing is as long as Pipeline is high.

I’m a permanent occasional surfer, with pockets filled with excuses. One year, I went a whole year without surfing once. In my defence, it was also the year when I was this close to nuking the Girls Who Can’t Surf Good group. All of a sudden, the comments turned trolly and unhelpful. The whole situation got me terribly stressed, and I literally couldn’t sleep at night with worry. And this wasn’t even my job—just something I was doing because I loved it.

Same with surfing. If we love surfing so much, why don’t we just go out surfing more often?

Because unless you’re a pro on the circuit, surfing isn’t your job. People juggle work, kids, insomnia, mental stuff, injuries.

You don’t owe the ocean anything.

It’s supposed to be joyful and fun—not a burden, like a stone hanging round your neck.

We treat surfing like it’s all-or-nothing. But it doesn’t have to be.

One of the Girls Who Can’t Surf Good, Hanka, summed it up perfectly: “I love pizza too. But I don’t eat it every time I theoretically could.”

When I started surfing in the UK, I would travel to the surf for hours, every weekend, like clockwork. In the summer and in the winter. And here I am, minutes away from the break in Southern California—I can’t get my ass over there.

Did you know that locals often surf less than out-of-towners who plan trips? Proximity doesn’t automatically create discipline.

But the guilt that comes from “I could go but I won’t” is real.

Pammie was right: “You get picky and lazy when it’s walking distance from home… in a way, you’re better off not living at the beach.”

It’s funny how it works. You know that surfing is good for you. You won’t regret going, but you will regret not going. No one’s ever regretted getting a bit wet, sitting on a board in the ocean, not catching waves.

But you need to give yourself permission not to go out surfing—and not feel guilty about it.

Otherwise, you are going to go loopy. And we have enough crazy surfers as it is.

You can be like Josephine: “Sometimes I push through and go anyway and have fun… and other times I give myself permission to do other things and let surfing go.”

Or, if you need a surf forcing function, do what Courtney does: park in a tow zone overnight, and then it’s either wake up to surf… or a $500 fine.

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