The Mission

I have always felt a deep connection to Johnny Utah. Johnny, hero of the 1991 cinematic classic Point Break, played by Keanu Reeves, is a straight-laced Midwestern lawyer and former Ohio State QB who moves to LA to join the FBI’s bank robbery unit. He goes undercover to find a gang of bank-robbing surfers (yep), and ends up getting a little too deep. The movie is great, but absurd, and my college friends and I loved to watch it for the unintentional comedy. There was something about the fish-out-of-water Johnny, though, that I really did identify with.

I, too, was drawn to the west coast out of college, and I, too, was a bit more stiff and Eagle Scout-y than the people I met out there. I slowly opened up and came into my own in the three years I lived in LA and became a different person. CrossFit became the focus of my life, both athletically as a competitor and professionally as a coach. I went from an aspiring comedian who thought CrossFit was a fun hobby to a full-time coach and pretty decent athlete. I owe who I am today to the sea change my life took out there.

But I never learned how to surf.

The Training

As a CrossFit coach, fitness is not how much you can clean, it’s not how many pullups you can do, and it’s not how fast you can do a workout. To be fit is, literally, to be ready or prepared.

"My training has me ready for anything."

When the opportunity to learn to surf came, I did a bit of specific prep—ankle mobility for getting up and balancing on the board and pulling strength for all the paddling—but the work I had consistently done for years meant I was physically ready to go.

My training also means I am prepared to take action when incredible opportunities come up. That kind of mental preparation, focus and decision making, comes from my CrossFit work too. Patience and persistence from working towards CrossFit goals and benchmarks kept me chasing the waves.

The Journey

During one of my last classes at CrossFit LA, I was talking to a friend and student who is a big-time surfer.

“The only thing I really regret is that I never learned how to surf,” I told him.

“If you had, you wouldn’t be leaving right now.”

His reply stayed with me in the months and years ahead. I really had blown a huge opportunity. Here I was living in LA with the chance to follow in Johnny Utah’s footsteps and I never did it. For a self-proclaimed outdoorsman and liver of an active life, it was inexcusable.  

After a year back in the Midwest, I thought about surfing from time to time. Then one night my fiancé, Hannah, and I watched Endless Summer. The itch came back, bad. I had to learn to surf. I devised schemes, but the opportunity evaded me time and again.

Then the chance smacked me right in the face. Justin told me each coach would be getting a stipend to take an adventure and #liveBIG. I couldn’t believe it. This is the kind of stuff that happens to my annoyingly successful friend who works in Silicon Valley, not me.

It took me about seven seconds to settle on a surf camp. I found a great place in Barbados, Zed’s Surfing Adventures, and booked the trip. I flew south to make my west coast dreams come true.

Barbados is a nice place to be in February. I left Chicago on a day when the wind chill dipped to -3°F, and the next morning I was on the beach. The sun felt amazing, the views were beautiful and the sound of the waves was overwhelmingly peaceful. But I wasn’t here to soak up rays and read novels. I was here to shred. And I was ready.

On the first morning, we started on dry land. My awesome coach, Jacob, took me and some much younger students through the steps one by one. Surfing is all about the steps: find your nosemark, paddle straight, time it right, then up hands then knees, right knee forward, left foot down, right foot down, stand, balance, turn, shred. Thanks to some great help, I got up pretty quick.

The Results

That first ride. It’s an incredible feeling. You paddle like hell. Then you hear the teacher yelling, “Up, now!” You try to remember your steps and not take a headlong dive into the coral. You stagger, almost eat it, and then whoosh, you’re up.

The rush of water shoots you forward and you try to balance as your board cuts through the emerald water. And suddenly, this thing you’d had in the back of your mind for years becomes the thing you are doing, right here, at that moment.

"I rode that first wave, tiny as it was, all the way in. I was hooked."

You can learn a tremendous amount in four days of surfing, but you still suck. In some ways, it reminded me of golf. In the beginning you hit way more bad shots than good ones, but the good ones are enough to make it more than worth the walk. That week, I fell many more times than I stood up, and I paddled after many, many, many waves only to watch them crash on the shore without me. My awesome teachers kept me pointed in the right direction and I never stopped trying. I learned so much and came so far in my short time in Barbados, but I still left as a novice.

This trip, though, wasn’t about learning it all at once. I traveled to Barbados and learned to surf so I could start a lifelong journey, not check something off a to-do list. I am going surfing again the first chance I get, and it’s not going to take an adventure stipend this time.

Like that first ride, it’s about the ones that come next. I now have an excuse to travel, get outside and continue being active for the rest of my life. I may not be an expert yet, but I sure had a hell of a good time.

The Takeaway

Be ready for an opportunity. Don’t abandon something you’ve always dreamed of doing. Go do it.