Wisdom

Sal Masekela,47

Sports commentator, television journalist and musician, Los Angeles, CA

- Ashtyn Douglas-Rosa

The act of surfing is about as musical as physical expression can be in sports. It’s rhythmic, and if you don’t have rhythm with the ocean, you won’t be able to surf—you have to have metronome in some way. I grew up playing music and when I first moved to the West Coast I traded in music for surfing. Surfing became my music.

Surfing is something that’s multigenerational. Grandma, grandpa, parents and kids can all go on a surf trip together. There’s something extremely powerful and bonding about the fact that water covers most of the planet and you can do it anywhere and for most of your life. Whereas something like skateboarding, at a certain point you’re going to wave the white flag and just watch from the sidelines.

On the surface, surfing seems like it would be a place for progressive thinking, but surfing is the most reluctant to change compared to other lifestyle sports. It likes things the way they are, so when you come in with new shit, people want to march in with their ideals and let you know why this thing shouldn’t work or should.