When surfing the Baltic Sea, you learn to find your own slice of paradise. Photo: Krzysztof Jędrzejak
As surfers, we’ve all at least heard surfing exists in the Baltic Sea, right? Or maybe you haven’t. Either way, you most likely wouldn’t give a flying duck. It’s a tiny, shallow, lake-like body of water neatly tugged between continental Europe and Scandinavia. Water with no solid ground swell nor proper saltiness to give that flavoring of a proper sea. Even still, this thinly fish-flavored soup has a special meaning for Baltic surfers. It’s cozy, slightly stormy, and windblown. But for us, it’s a reflection of the real big blue.
It’s a privilege to grow up in Finland. Access to education and healthcare provides us a sweet start with extra sugar on top. You become aware of things. You criticize and analyze our world from an informed point of view, often without knowing what that real life is like outside of those books, the lectures, and the exams. That real life is for you to explore and witness. But we can’t blame the system for not showing us because processing given knowledge into action is what many would simply call “life.”
We all need to find perspective in life one way or another. “No pain, no gain,” they say. Building knowledge can be painful, but it creates that needed perspective. It creates a mental state that allows you to make your own decisions in life, whether you pursue glory or fame, career and fortune, or freedom. In my personal case, I aim for the latter. Becoming mentally free is worth every penny I give up by not being blinded by the idea of a career.
So, life is what we make out of it. The enthusiasm we get from surfing winter wind swells in the Baltic Sea leaves a solid mark in every single nordic surfer. It transports us back to surfing tropical waters, zipping Bintang in boardies, and whispering to the palm trees. And regardless of the temperature, any moment on a wave is freedom. It’s a precious feeling, being physically and emotionally moved by nature – by Poseidon itself. It’s uncomparable. Unforgettable. And that moment is what we’re all after for good. How we create that moment is totally up to us and our choices in life. There is no right or wrong answer to how we should live our lives. It’s ours to build and nobody else’s.
