This was the trip I first was told that maybe I am not goofy but natural. Cue confusion
A few weeks ago I attended an Ikigai session put on by The Castle. We partnered with another person, and we each had to listen without judgement and write down what each person loves, what they are good at, what they can get paid for and what the world needs. By the end of the session, my Ikigai partner and I, emotionally awakened, looked over what we wrote for each other, and he said, "You have a duality of minds. You live in a very analytical scientific world, but on the other hand, you like people and want to engage with people." The notion of duality is something that plagued my mind for many years, and now in retrospect, everything that happened in Jersey for this surf trip makes a lot more sense.
It was only my second surf trip, and the Jersey Islands is England's best kept surfing secret. Glassy conditions, beautiful sky, a beach town with a french Je ne sais quoi. I landed on a Friday afternoon, and on Saturday we took a drive and ended up on a beautiful beach in the middle of May. Wetsuit on (4/3) and foamy in hand, we paddled. It was a peaceful beach break, and I went out with a great surfer, who I met on my first surf trip. After a few hours of me failing to get up, he asked me to switch sides. I was struggling with goofy and then all of a sudden I wasn't struggling to catch green waves at all with a natural foot. It is true that if I drink, I tend to struggle with what side I should choose, but a few years later, if I hurt my toe or I am tired, I got back to being goofy. So that weekend I surfed and stood up on the board way more times than my first surf trip, natural foot but still needing some help with wave entry. We surfed 3 times that weekend, exhausted and happy, we enjoyed the crisp English air at nights and surfed all day. It was absolutely beautiful and a bit confusing for me. I went back to London, honestly wondering what foot am I?
Physical aspects aside, I am more flexible on my left side and a lot stronger there too. Even though I am supposed to be right handed. A quick search on google scholar gives only one research paper on cross dominance. However, as scientific as I want to get in understanding this, this blog is about feels. So this trip was the first time my duality was placed right in my face. This is why I surf. It is the only thing that reveals my true nature without me even asking and knowing what I was capable of.
A few years later, I accepted that duality, left my academic post and started my life. Taking time to curate both the left and the right side, the scientist and the surfer, the loner and the friend. Since I am not fighting my duality anymore, life is a lot easier. Sometimes I surf goofy, and other times I surf natural... depends on the wave and if I am hungover.