Τhе brеаth οf thе unіⅴеrѕе

(One of the first pictures of a surfer, Hawai, 1890)

Article by Milosz Matuschek, first published on “Freischwebende Intelligenz”.

Everything comes in waves. Almost exactly four years ago, the world narrowed rapidly: curfews, lockdowns, compulsory masks, vaccination madness. The corona period brought me to a decision: do what you’ve always wanted to do now, the old world might not be around for much longer. The threat of the future made the present more intense for me. The corona period, as bad as it was, put a damper on my procrastination; it forced my focus from the future to the immediate here and now. In the present, I came face to face with myself and looked ruthlessly in the mirror: I was in my early 40s, a single man stranded in a men’s shared flat in Zurich, who had just successfully got rid of two prestigious jobs in Swiss journalism and was back where he had started: as a kind of “blogger” on the fringes of the media business. I booked a flight to the Canary Islands, happily missed the return flight, set up my publication “Freischwebende Intelligenz” and started surfing intensively.

I have never regretted any of it.

The sea became my teacher

Surfing: just a banal pastime for big kids and authors in midlife crisis? Surfing, what is it anyway? A sport? A lifestyle? An art form? In 2012, I got on a surfboard for the first time in Trestles Beach, California, without knowing what I was doing. The place is mentioned in the Beach Boys’ classic “Surfin’ USA”, the main aim of the lyrically simple song is to list the American surf beaches: that’s what good PR rock’n’roll sounds like. I took my first real course in France, later I tried the beaches of Portugal. It’s interesting that Corona turned my focus back in this direction. During Corona, I probably expected to find a critical, like-minded environment among surfers. An expectation that was only partially fulfilled, but is somehow part of the myth of the sport: this is where the rebels, non-conformists and non-conformists are most likely to be. Kary Mullis, the inventor of the PCR method, was an enthusiastic surfer and free spirit. When the Nobel Committee called him in the morning, he thought it was a joke, hung up and went to the surfing beach. When he returned, there was a crowd of journalists outside his house. The next day, the LA Times ran the headline:

(Screenshot LA Times)

The origins of surfing admittedly predate the pop-culture revival on California beaches. Captain Cook made his first, surprising notes on this phenomenon in Hawaii in 1778. Apparently, the longing to stand on a wave like on the roof of the world and feel the power of the sea beneath you is a long-cherished dream of mankind, just like flying. Surfing became a personal ray of hope for me in the coronavirus dark ages. The sea became more than just a playground or pastime. It became my teacher. At some point, I felt a fusion with the rhythm of the waves. Probably nothing surprising for someone born under the zodiac sign of Pisces. Water had always been my element. With every surfing experience, I learned something new.

• Take every wave (i.e. life) as it comes and make the best of it.
• Sound out the terrain, observe the conditions carefully before you position yourself: how are the waves building up, which sets are coming up, where is the wind coming from?
• You are not entitled to a wave, but you do have the opportunity to use it.
• Look for gaps in the waves to get through. The sea will also show you this way.
• The situation determines the possibilities, not necessarily your ambition.
• If you want to catch a wave, you have to be able to compress the present, wait patiently for the right moment and then use it gratefully.
• Don’t rush after a wave, the next one is sure to come.
• Learn to be patient before every wave and to feel either gratitude or humility after every wave.
• Accept the highs as well as the lows, both have a meaning.
• Be where the wave is not, learn to anticipate it, categorize it and adapt to it. Go with the flow.
• Always work with the sea, never against it.

Riding the waves: An allegory of life

Surfing is a dance with the ocean, a constant negotiation with its rhythms. To ride a wave, a surfer must understand the cycles of the ocean: The swell of the wave, the timing of the wave’s buildup, the rise and fall of the tides and the intervals between waves. These natural rhythms, dictated by gravity, the weather, the moon, are unchanging and indifferent to human will. A surfer who defies these rhythms - paddles too early or hesitates too long - cannot catch the wave. As Jaimal Yogis writes in “Saltwater Buddha”: “You cannot fight the ocean. You must surrender to its power and move with it.” This surrender is not a sign of weakness, but a deep adaptation to the rhythm of nature. The surfer becomes attuned to the pulse of the ocean and learns to act in harmony with the forces around him instead of fighting against them.

The sea sends the waves, like ever new life events, in an idiosyncratic sequence. Sometimes there is calm, sometimes there is alarm. In surfing, facing up to these life events and adapting to them is not a question of wanting to, but a duty to be practiced. There is one perfect moment to get on the wave and hundreds of other moments when the attempt can end in a minor catastrophe. The sea sets the rhythm and we either adapt or are severely punished and learn to respect the power of the sea. Every surfer knows the situation where the wave catches you on the wrong foot: you’re not on top of it but underneath it, perhaps right in the center of its power, being whirled by it like in a washing drum, pushed to the ground several times until it spits you out in a crackling foam bath and leaves you gasping for air.

Everything swings, nothing is static

Surfing suited me because it was a leisurely continuation of what I was already doing.

Hadn’t I become a surfer otherwise? In journalism, timing and the right assessment of a topic are important. Every topic is a wave that rises and falls. In journalism, I’ve always been particularly interested in the topics that other people don’t cover. Where many mainstreamers only saw shoals and whirlpools of disinformation and conspiracy theories, I saw a wave of information building up that would ultimately be most dangerous for those who did not dare to ride it: the journalists themselves. I learned from surfing that you often don’t choose the topics, just like you don’t choose the waves or life events. They come to you and expect a reaction from you. I decided to ride this wave back then.

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The fall of 2020 was also the beginning of the next bull market for Bitcoin & Co. In trading, you also count waves, interpret volumes and try to make better decisions by recognizing recurring patterns. The biggest lesson here is the same: Humility. You can ride five nice waves but go down with the sixth and never reappear because you’re broke. How the Bitcoin/crypto market has moved since 2009 has been easy to study. It was not too surprising what happened in 2019/2020/2021: Bitcoin rose from a low of USD 5,000 to over USD 70,000. Anyone who thought cyclically knew that. Anyone studying the prices now will easily recognize parallels. Position yourself or watch? Unlike the sea, life gives us this choice. But there is one thing you should never do: mourn missed opportunities or missed waves. They are gifts, not objects of entitlement.

The fifth hermetic principle

The principle of rhythm is the fifth “hermetic principle” and it teaches two lessons, among others: It is everywhere and is always concerned with balance, with compensation and homeostasis. Every situation has a lifespan. It can change in its shades and tip from one extreme position to the other. The universal, pendulum-like rhythm can be found, for example, in…

• Theories of history (Polybios, Ibn Chaldun or the authors of the “4th Turning”).
• Economic theories: In the alternation of bull and bear markets, in the Kondratiev cycles or the Elliott waves in trading.
• The sociology of power: thinkers such as Pareto, Mosca and Michels (all of whom remained outsiders) saw an elite cycle at work in politics.
• The Bible: In the Old Testament, Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams of the seven fat years and the seven lean years.

The pendulum of rhythm swings and it swings everywhere. At the macro level of history and the economy as well as at the micro level of our bodies. Every single cell has its tension, its frequency, in the end everything is in motion, nothing is static. Life oscillates. We think in terms of life cycles when we look at the calendar. We know that after winter comes spring, just as night is followed by day. In everyday life, we tend to forget the principle of rhythm. We don’t need to be reminded of its gravity, it is always there and keeps us from taking off and sticking to the ceiling. The rhythm of life, on the other hand, communicates with us in a cryptic language. We are presented with opportunities that we can seize. The prerequisite for this is that we recognize them. Those who sharpen their senses for these signs will increasingly invite them into their lives as signposts.

Become a soul surfer on the waves of life

The principle of rhythm is an encouraging principle. It tells me that we can survive any situation if we are only prepared to interpret the signals, sharpen our intuition and start practising pattern recognition. “No wind is favorable to those who do not know their destination,” Seneca knew. No external situation is dangerous for those who carry their home port within them. For those who operate with their own principles, values and objectives, life is a playground for applying these principles. Highs teach us to stay on the ground, defeats teach us sovereignty and inner detachment from external storms. In every situation in life, we have the opportunity to sharpen our principles or adapt them if necessary, to develop our character and to open another chapter in our world of experience.

What teacher have you found for yourself?

What perhaps banal activity revealed new approaches to reality to you?

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