Forgetting your waves

No, not really, you sure your alright?

 

Yep, lay off thw wacky weed and you will remember more. Honestly thought I know what you mean, I do the same thing with guitar. My band will play a song then next thing I know it's 2 songs later and I suggest the one we played 10 minuets before. Sometimes I think you get zoned and "auto pilot" takes over.

 

This happens to me as well. Sometimes when it's crowded and I know that I was dodging people I can't remember actually seeing the people while it's happening. Weird. I know I burn too much

 

Sounds like a normal Saturday to me. Hash cookies will do that to ya.

 

I don't know about the burning man thing, but I can relate on not remembering waves. I can't recall waves that I just rode sometimes. Maybe it is the overloaded concentration thing.

My theory, as it were, has been that I get slightly concussed in the ocean from all the heavy water shots to the noggin. People get concussions from heading soccer balls, for example, and yet the ocean hits with a lot more force, and hits the brain a lot more often, than a friggin soccer ball.

 

Bro right on with this tread. Great topic. I think about it all the time, what you're describing. I'm a bit brain dead from a long, enduring yet satisfying day that started with failed DP recon runs, then epic noon sesh on glassy medium period, then arduous but necessary work day that just ended.

I usually have a photographic memory of my rides. My best ever one and all the breakthrough rides are still so fresh in my mind now despite all the clutter of other things in it. I feel we recollect and encode experiences in our brain best for good when we visually replay them in our heads right after experiencing them then several times in the days and months ahead.

Think of an experience as a peanut M&M. The original event is the peanut and every time you've ever replayed the event (and therefore relived it if it was emotional in any way) is a layer of chocolate around the peanut. With our more intensely emotional experiences (best rides ever, worst thrashings, brushes with death), each next time we replay it in our heads evokes an even more emotional and intense response within us - the peanut M&M is cumulatively growing bigger and thicker.

With all the sessions we get and all the rides in those sessions, the mental filing cabinet gets cluttered. You may not have encoded certain rides or sessions very well if you don't revisit them and they can be bumped from the memory bank forever. Our capacity for memory is only so much and varies from person to person. The reason emotional experience leave the strongest and most lasting impressions on our psyche is so we can either seek to recreate it (if positive) or avoid (if negative) in the future.

On levels of stoke and progression, maintaining the memory bank is key. I was thinking about this again just today too bro, you were reading my mind! Especially with the notion that we may have been so focused on a given ride that we fail to realize it may have just been a steep drop or failed turn. I believe we have to increase our awareness during the original event to absorb more sensory data of the experience and really was planning on asking the higher skilled bros if they make a point to maintain high awareness during the ride.

Like how I want to get in the high line of the wave more often and still have managed to do it at times in the past and honestly way early in my progression on occasion. My thought today was that as soon as I get to feet and have angled in, I next must immediately look down the line (i.e. look where you want to go) before the drop itself continues and actually happens because your window to get in that high line is slim.

If my hypothesis is correct then let me know braddahs. This is why I love this forum - because you're a resource for me not only to share stoke with but also benefit and progress from. My only greater hope is that I can likewise contribute to you cats in any way possible on the relevant topics I do have knowledge in.

Thanks for a great tread bro. Pretty dope for one of your initial posts on SI!

 

I forget short and mediocre waves frequently, but waves that are notable for any reason, I tend to remember.

When falling asleep after a good sesh, I don't find myself thinking about any specific waves, but instead relapse into wave analysis mode, seeing set after set coming ... waking up again and again in bed, wishing there was better surf tomorrow. This is how I know I had a good day of surfing.

Peanut M&M's ... increased awareness during the ride ... Emass, did you take your meds today?

As far as 'high in the line' goes, I've managed it by getting into waves earlier, popping up immediately, and (as you said) looking down the line while getting to my feet. Look right, look left, pop up. Usually when I look at my board I delay setting my rail, which on forgiving days is fine, but on on days like this past Saturday, it results in notable beatings.

I'm sure there's a 'high on the line' thread somewhere in the archives- or maybe the elders could weigh in on it. But it's a frequent goal for me in comfortable conditions. Feels great when you set it high, cruise, drop in on the wave, and set it high again.

 

i do this too and find that the only way to completely remember the wave is to replay it in your mind as
soon as you are done - kind of forced remembrance..

 

i have experienced the exact thing you describe. i really only get it on days when im getting tons of waves. after a stoke inducing wave or two i stop commiting the mediocre waves to memory. i use it as an indicator that im having a fun session. i actually love this phenomenon because to me more waves forgotten equals more memorable rides!! does that make sense? ...im not sure, but the burn sure does

awesome topic btw

 

I had that happen a few times last summer, we referred to it as being in a "surf coma"

 

and that's why you're supposed to go out an purchase a GoPro

 

everyone either forgets their waves or remembers a better ride than it actually was...

 

Ho brah, no worries on that. I'm a copious consumer and my memory is uncannily sharp.

As far as remembering waves, the best ones are obviously the easiest to remember, but all day after a sesh I will get like still image memories/thoughts of sections I didn't recall at first.

 

Happens to me all the time... I call it a "Zen Moment." It's when you're completely absorbed, and living in the present, which transcends the past and future. A state of unthinking purity of existence, when your body, mind, and world around you become one infinite entity.

Feel good about it... because it means you're enlightened. Not everybody can get there.

 

Well said LBCrew.

 

Used to happen to me ALL THE TIME in CA. I think a lot of it has to do with my ADHD personality and my "never enough" mentality regarding surfing. But I have had some of the sickest waves in my life, and by the time I am back at the lineup, I sit there like, "dude, savor the fact that you just got spit out of a sick barrel". Its like, if you don't sit there and decompress a little after the wave, it just blends into nothing... Cause as soon as the wave is over, my mind goes into instinct mode and everything I am doing is natural muscle memory. Pop over the back, scrape back out as quick as possible avoiding set waves and get back into position.

But yeah brother, it does happen. It's because when you are actually surfing, your mind switches into reaction and muscle memory mode. As you are doing turns and whatever, your mind is already racing ahead and looking forward at the next section to analyze what is about to happen. And when your mind and body are so in tune like that, sometimes it doesn't switch off right away....

It's like this.... And its scary because this is symptoms of stroke victims...

But here is what it's like: If you take the same commute to work EVERY DAY, or you have lived in the same house for 10 years, sometimes when you are driving home at night, you can "Zone Out". Where your mind is wondering. Maybe you are listening to a good song. Maybe you are daydreaming about the surf the next day or whatever, thinking of what you have to do at work the next day.... All of the sudden, you realize that you dont really remember the last 5 minutes of driving. You stopped at the stop lights. You made the correct turns, but the whole time, you mind is wondering. You do what you are supposed to do. You are driving safely, but your mind was elsewhere and sometimes you snap out of it, like damn... I was totalled zoning out there, but your mind and body do exactly what they are supposed to...

A similar effect happens to me surfing sometimes... Its like you really are transformed into a strange Zen like state, where your mind is in survival and react mode and just continues on like a Juggernaut because its trained and tuned to do so. It knows you are supposed to stop worrying about watch just happened and continue to look forward into the immediate future, like navigating the set waves, taking big breathes before a duck dive....

It's strange how the human mind works with regards to surfing. Another strange anomaly that happens to me, is on my way to surf, my mind starts kicking into body commuicating and I start having flem build up. Like it's my bodys way of telling me that it knows that I am going surfing and it wants me to Hydrate. So, even though I am not conciously thinking of the surfing, my body knows based on the routine that I am in, that it is about to get into the ocean, so it naturally goes into survival and instict mode, triggering a response that I have to drink water. I can drink a whole gatorade on the way, but still on the walk up the beach I find myself spitting and stuff because my body is in preparation mode....

Anyway, yeah dude. Just snap out of it and remember to enjoy it. Its a shame when you get a long, sick wave and do 10 turns, but the only think you remember was the very end of it... strange that it happens, but it is common for sure.

 

Yup... see, it took me like 16,000 words to say the exact same thing. You are quite the wordsmith my friend.

 

It's a little of both. But I would say 75% of it is muscle memory and 25% of it is the Zen and mental stuff....

Here is another question for all surfers... This is another way I started looking at strange mental stuff in surfing... When I was teaching a friend to surf last summer, I was out in the water trying to talk him through it. He was just watching what I did and stuff. And he asked me, so "When you pop up, where exactly do you put your hands? Which leg goes up first. Does your knee ever touch the board? etc..." and for the first time, when trying to talk about surfing, I was stumped. I sat there, trying to remember exactly where I put my hands. Do they wrap around each rail? Do I keep my palms flat on the top of the board? Since I am goofy, I would assume that I swing my right leg up first...." But I was stumped. Something I have done tens of thousands of times, I just couldn't exactly put into words how I do it. It has just become something that I do so often and so naturally, that every time I do it, it goes into consciousness and then if goes right back out.

There are so many little things like that in surfing that are crazy, that if someone was trying to get really technical about so many things that we do while we are out here, unless you watch video review of yourself, things goes so fast out there that is slips in and out of your own consciousness and memory.

Popping up on a wave becomes so second nature, that your mind doesn't even process it anymore. Its like breathing. You can't explain exactly what your lungs are doing, you just know they suck air in and out. Your mind never processes the details.

Crazy zen stuff bro.