Feb

14

I've been surfing for many decades and once was the Grandmaster Champion of my island. We had some big waves a week ago, and it was one of those magic sessions where the wave comes right to where you are sitting in the ocean, you turn take a couple of strokes and drop in and ride to the end. I got three big waves without even getting my hair wet. A perfect session. As traders, you all know the feeling.

But things don't always go so well. Positioning and timing are the key elements in surfing and catching a wave. If you are not perfect, you can be off balance. You are less able to compensate for wind chop, or warbles in the waves. If you are too late, you might get thrown 20 or 30 feet through the air. Or if you are too far inside the outside set can catch you and you get "caught inside". Or you can just get thrown off balance on the drop in by a small chop. The initial place where the wave breaks is usually the most violent with the most energy. The energy from huge hurricanes in the mid Pacific have traveled thousands of miles and focus on you.

As you fly through the air upside down you have time to think about the vicious thrashing in store and have to brace for the impact with the water and the hundreds of tons of water flying through the air with the consistency of cement about to snap your neck and arms off. People have broken bones in wipeouts and worse. You also try to get a breath of air to survive the hold down. Upon impact with the water, often as not, your breath can get knocked out, as you are driven down up to 30 feet deep. The water throws you around like rag doll inside a washing machine. Everything is dark. You have no idea which way is up or down. The key here is to relax and conserve oxygen. Though the biggest waves are only 20 seconds apart, if you don't catch a breath at the end of the first wave, drowning becomes ar real possibility. Your board is attached to your leg by an elastic cord and will drag you backwards at high speed. Better, the board will float towards the surface and pull you up from the depths towards the surface. At the surface, the foam can be a foot or two thick making it hard to catch a breath. The air in the water does not float your body as you struggle to catch a breath. As you break the surface, the worst thing to see is another 20 foot wave looming directly overhead ready to smash you down again. You know you are in trouble as your head starts spinning from lack of oxygen. You feel like vomiting. You fight panic and fear. Eventually within 20 to 40 seconds, as you know it will, the waves pass and you catch a wave.

At that point you are utterly exhausted. Your life force is near zero. However, its not over yet. By this time, the currents and waves have pushed you near the rocks and you have summon your last strength to paddle as hard as you can to avoid being smashed to death on the rocks. After catching your breath, you paddle out to rinse and repeat. I love surfing. As traders, you all know this feeling of the wipeout as well.


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

1 Comment so far

  1. Andre on February 14, 2018 2:01 pm

    noticed during the recent market decline that vic kept quiet on twitter while everyone else was tweeting with excitement. reminds me of the conserving of oxygen that you mention while most burned themselves out with nervous energy. at least thats what i think happened.

Archives

Resources & Links

Search