Surfing doesn’t give you a choice about failure. You fall. Constantly. Sometimes in front of a crowd, sometimes alone with just a seagull watching. The point is, you’re going to mess up—a lot. But each fall teaches you something. Every time you paddle back out, you’re braver, wiser, and a little bit stronger.

In a way, surfing is one of the best teachers of resilience. It doesn’t sugarcoat anything. You either keep trying or you don’t progress. But that’s what makes your first real ride feel so incredible—it’s hard-earned.

In Finding Waves, I talk about how this constant cycle of falling and trying again helped me grow not just as a surfer, but as a person. It made me more patient. More curious. More willing to look silly in pursuit of something meaningful. The ocean became my crash course in failing forward—and it changed the way I approach life on land.