Peace, Love & Good Waves: Why Surfing Makes Everything Else Go Quiet
Every October 10, World Mental Health Day rolls around and reminds us to check in on how we are doing. Most of the advice that follows involves talking it out with a good friend or just ignoring screen time for a day. But we have a different suggestion that we know works a thousand times better: the benefits of surfing.
As avid surfers, we’ve experienced the strange but palpable hush that settles over you the moment a wave lifts the back of the board. It centers your mind to the present and pulls your thoughts into that one, singular moment. It is a type of focus found only in activities that demand your full attention.
That mental reset is one of surfing’s most underrated benefits, and we see it cross people’s faces daily here at Iguana Surf Camp in Tamarindo.
How does surfing calm the mind?
There’s a special word used to describe the state of total focus that surfing creates, a word that has become quite popular in all sorts of contexts. Psychologists call it ‘flow’, a term coined by researcher Mihály Csíkszentmihályi to describe those stretches when a hard, absorbing task swallows all your senses.
When you are in flow, the self-critical part of your brain dials right down, and that running commentary you carry around all day fades out to the background.
Surfers don’t need in-depth research to recognize the feeling. All they know is that their heads feel clearer after a good session, lighter than they have felt in ages. And the beauty of it is that this clarity can last for days.
You can watch Mihály’s inspirational TED talk here.
The secret? Surfing is about the only force that can pull us off our phones
Worries and mental burdens aren’t the only things a surfer can’t take out into the lineup. Phones can’t come either, and that’s one of surfing’s most powerful hacks. Get out there, and you will be unreachable for an hour or two. No messages, no pings, no phone calls and no accidentally doomscrolling for forty minutes.
The mental break this gifts is so much rarer than many of use realize and, once we get it, our nervous system clocks the difference. What fills the attention gap is a (literal) flood of real, physical information: the cold slap of the first duck-dive and the delicious feeling when the salt dries tight on your skin. Being outside in moving water is about as far from a glowing screen as a human can get and, let us tell you, it feels extraorndiarily freeing.
Calm gets built through small daily choices more than grand occasional gestures, and paddling out on an ordinary morning is a modest, repeatable version of that.
Plus, the only thing it costs you is a board and an early alarm and we think that’s small change for good mental health.
Surfing can teach you the art of letting go
It’s safe to say that most us hold on to the bad stuff far longer than we need to. Anger, disappointment, sadness, overwhelm, frustration. You name it, it’s usually there to stay. Yet the ocean does not care what you carry on your shoulders. You can’t yell at a wave that won’t come or argue with a swell. Keep those feelings when you’re on the board and they will weigh you down. You’ll miss the cues of the waves and skip the good chances; you won’t be able to jump up, you will fall off and tire yourself out in minutes. So, to do it well and enjoy it, surfing demands you leave all your baggage on land.
The act of shrugging before sprinting into the water, board underarm, is what many surfers do to virtually clear their minds. Surfing is humbling in so many ways: it demands your full attention only to ask for your patience. It requires you to learn to follow the rhythm of the ocean and not try to bend the ocean’s existence to align with your rhythm.
In the end, all you can do is relax, watch, adapt and learn to let it gooooooo.
All of it. Forgetaboutit.
Is learning something this hard actually good for you?
Glad you asked because yes, it is!
Surfing is a hard skill to learn and anyone who says otherwise has forgotten what being a beginner was like. It might not take you long to pop up on your first lesson but it will take a while before you feel at one with the sea, confident enough to tackle the bigger waves alone.
The arc from clumsy to capable is where a lot of the mental payoff hides. Learning a new demanding physical skill as an adult has the ability to change how you see yourself and, for myriad reasons, it’s something we do less often the older we get. At some point, adults just stop learning new stuff and it is imperative we fight this trend.
Every small win in the water, be it a cleaner pop-up or a longer ride, chips away at the often over-repeated story that you are too old or too unfit to learn a new trick.
Where is the best place to learn to surf in Costa Rica?
If any of this makes you want to try it yourself but you’re worried about the impending winter, then come give the warm water and forgiving beach breaks of Costa Rica a try. Tamarindo has soft, sandy-bottomed waves and steady surf close to shore, which is one reason so many travelers choose to learn to surf in Costa Rica right here.
At Iguana Surf, we have been teaching first-timers since 1989, long enough to know that the aim of a first lesson is never a flawless ride. It is the moment a nervous and hesitant beginner stands up and notices that the noise in their head has suddenly disappeared.
Our small-group lessons run at different times across the whole day, so you can pick a slot that matches your energy. We have a wonderful array of accommodation from luxury suites to gorgeous dorms, and a surfing family just waiting for you to come join in.
→ Ready to feel it for yourself?
This October, come celebrate World Mental Health Day with us down by the best beach in Costa Rica and discover the benefits of surfing. Your body, and your mind, will be grateful.
Book a surf lesson or a week at our Costa Rica surf camp, and come find your inner peace in Tamarindo.
