A wise man once told me to “find something difficult to do and do it.” Upon quitting my job, I’ve dedicated myself to learn three difficult things: start a business, silk screen, and surf.

Surfing is, by far, the sexiest and most fun of the three, and I’ve found that it’s an excellent source of metaphors for how to do anything awesome. I want to share these metaphors with the world, so this is the first of what may be a never-ending series of posts about how learning to surf is like learning to [insert almost anything here].

Surfing metaphor #1: Going Surfing

I accomplished my goal of learning to surf last week (i.e. catching a real wave, standing on the board, and riding the wave for a period of time long enough to be comprehended by the human brain).

It turns out that I was on the cusp of knowing how for a long time, but had failed to do one really important thing—namely: go surfing.

I’ve been making half-assed attempts to surf for the past 3 years. I took a course at UCSD during my Winter 2005 quarter of grad school. A particularly rainy winter cancelled a lot of our classes that year and the course ended before I could accomplish anything more than getting up on some whitewater (the little piddly leftovers of real waves that break further out).

I went out about ten more times over the next three years, borrowing boards until a friend gave me one in February 2006 that had been abandoned by an old roommate.

Oddly, even having my own board for two years didn’t teach me how to surf.

Now I know that if I want to get better at surfing, I need to go surfing. It seems that living near the ocean and owning a surfboard doesn’t make you a surfer. Kind of like if you want to write a book, you should write one. Your pen and paper won’t do it for you.

A couple of things that kept me from going were the hassle of getting into a wetsuit and rigging the surfboard rack to my car. After three straight days of going out last week, I got better at squeezing into my wetsuit and realized that I can walk to the beach from my place. It’s a hike, but I prefer it to driving.

Regardless of the nuisances that try to keep me on terra firma, I know this: I will never regret going surfing. Experience always manages to teach me things that I don’t even know I’m being taught, and I somehow get a tiny bit better each time I go out, even if I totally suck (which I totally do).