Get Your Feet In Some Water This Weekend To Honor Dale Webster, A Legend Who Passed Away After Surfing Every Single Day For Over 40 Years Straight
Carlo Allegri. Getty Images.One of the oldest questions that humans have always pondered is the meaning of life. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written sometime between 2100-1200 BC, and it explored finding some sort of "meaning" to life through mortality, relationships, and legacy. So what we're getting at here is that humans have been trying to figure out the meaning of life for thousands of years.
There's no one specific answer. The meaning of life is different to everybody. For Dale Webster, that meaning came in the form of getting in the ocean for 14,642 consecutive days to catch a few waves.
Surfer.com -- Dale Webster’s record of surfing 14,642 consecutive days, which is essentially 40 years without missing a session, is virtually unbreakable. Sadly, after 76 laps around the sun, Webster, aka Daily Dale, aka the Daily Wavester, has gracefully kicked out.
…Eventually moving up to Sonoma County in 1973, Webster’s cosmic calling came into view when the Monster from New Zealand swell hammered the California coast in 1975…Staring with that fateful session on September 3, 1975, Webster would go on to surf for 14,642 more days (riding a confirmed 43,923 waves in the process). Inspired by iconic surf heroes Doc Paskowitz and Phil Edwards, three waves to the beach was Webster’s requirement for each session.
For anyone who has watched "Step Into Liquid", you'll remember that Dale Webster said his goal was to surf until 2004.
Turns out he had so much fun that he kept going for another 11 years straight with his streak ending in 2015 because he had to get a medical procedure done.
Maybe it was a crazy way to go about life. Never taking a single day off because of the weather, because of an illness, because of unfortunately losing his wife to cancer. For Dale Webster, being out in the water brought him all the peace in life he was searching for. And I guess that's the meaning. Not the streak, or even the act of surfing every day. But just finding that one thing in the world that makes you feel at peace, and trying to soak up as much of it as you possibly can while you're still standing on this side of the ground. And maybe just hope that your thing is something that you can do for 40 straight years without taking a break. Obviously some passions have a little more longevity than others.
But anyway, take the spirit of Dale Webster into the weekend with you. Go out and do something that brings you peace and makes you feel like it's what you're meant to be doing. Who knows, maybe you'll end up doing it every day for the next 40 years of your life.