Trial and error...the error

Today was a crap session. I had a hard time catching waves and when I did, couldn't get up. Only once did I get up and then didn't have much of a ride.

Two hours of this. Then I got a talking to from my "surf coach" (unofficial) and made myself go back in to see if that had helped. I didn't do any better.

I can only believe that (at least in my case) it is a grave error to talk about "learning" to surf. That is not happening. If it were possible, it would have happened about two years ago. What is happening is trial and error, over which I have no control. When I get things right, it's a happy accident; when I don't, it is also just an accident. It's nothing I did or can do, or not do.

Statistics can tell you that a certain part of the time, things happen simply by chance. By themselves. Like winning the lottery. I don't know how you'd figure out the statistical probability of riding a wave in a certain number of attempts. I've got about a one in ten success rate. Can anyone calculate this? It seems like riding a wave would happen by chance alone that proportion of the time. That, I think, is what's going on. I'm just out there waiting for a happy chance.

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