When I was a teenage, I built two of my own surfboards. The results were at best mediocre. It takes real skill to be able to design, shape, and fiberglass a board. So when I was 15, I decided to hire one of Oahu's best surfboard shapers to build my next board. This was the board that allowed me to finally get good at surfing.
I rode it almost daily between the ages of 15 and 19 in Hawaii. Even after I left Hawaii for California, it was my constant companion. True, Huntington Beach ain't no Pupukea or Haleiwa, but a wave is a wave. As you can see, Bill Stonebraker was responsible for this masterpiece.
Interestingly, Bill went on to become a pastor in Honolulu. You can read his amazing testimony here.
Lord willing, in 23 days I'll be back on Oahu for 9 days of surfing. I've begun to rough out a schedule. Currently it looks something like this:
If Kailua Beach seems a bit prominent in the list, it's because that's where I grew up. I'll be staying less than a block from the beach where I surfed every day during my teen years.
I don't know why I've become so nostalgic about Hawaii in my later years. I do know that nostalgia is often triggered by happy memories. I get a rush of nostalgia as soon as my plane lands in Honolulu. I use the term "nostalgia" instead of "sentimentality" because the latter term is often used in a negative sense. That said, I'll admit that I become sentimental about the island of my birth. I mean, how can I ever forget my honeymoon in Kailua with Becky in my home while my family was on the mainland? You simply can't. I think sometimes I also become melancholic. Melancholy is a feeling of sadness, ennui, depression, and the like. It's like the beauty of a fading flower or the color of autumn leaves. Melancholy's song is a sigh. And sighing I will do aplenty during the 9 days I'll be in Hawaii.
Do you know the origin of the words nostalgia and melancholy? Nostalgia comes from the Greek words for "return" and "pain." Melancholy comes from the Greek words for "black" and "gastric acid." According to Hippocrates, if you had more gastric acid than you should, you turned into a bitter person like your stomach. Melancholy sometimes means you're in a low-level state of sadness. But if it's sadness, it's a sweet sadness.
Nostalgia can be a safe place, as long as it doesn't make you live in the past. The most beautiful songs are often remakes. Even the biggest movies are remakes (Mission Impossible, anyone?). As I think back to my young adulthood, I realize that many if not most of the things in my life today are better than they were back then. I suppose my nostalgia is mostly for the carefree surfer culture that was such a big part of my life in those days, though I'm sure I'm reading the past with rose-colored glasses.
I never think, "Man, I wish I could relive those days." But revisiting the past for about 9 days every year seems about right. It does something for my spirit that's, well, inexplicable.
Have a wonderful day!