One of the biggest reasons I joined the Marine Corps was to surf.

I started surfing during high school. It was something I discovered and realized at a young age how spiritual and soulful it was. I grew up in a town where there were a gathering of bays surrounding us. The best waves were down the coast in Galveston. My circle of surf buddies would skip school to go surfing. Don’t worry, we all turned out okay, I think.🤔😳

I always knew that Marines would be close to a beach, and we were. No matter where I was in the world, I always looked for breaking sets. Unfortunately most beaches I was on, mostly in a HMMWV, or “Hummer” as civilians call it, were either too dirty to surf or sometimes just too beautiful. I sparsely surfed the West Coast: San Diego up to Santa Monica. It was a total shock to realize how cold the Pacific ocean was.

When I deployed to Japan there wasn’t really any waves, but man were the beaches beautiful. Okinawa at the time was considered the second best place to dive in the world, or at least the Marines that spent their careers there said. Every other beach I was on in southeast Asia, even Russia, was either too damn dirty or the pitch wasn’t right for the waves to swell and break. It wasn’t until I got back to the States and was stationed at Camp LeJeune, that I found the perfect wave for a lowly surfer from Texas.

On base we had a place called Wrightsville Beach, which was where we would do our practice for amphibious landings. In fact, Recon had a barracks right there on the beach, lucky bastards. Well, they weren’t so “lucky” I guess. They had to swim that beach just like the Navy SEALs. But man, that beach had the best waves (I’m painting a picture so chillout shipmates).😉

There was a lone surf shop off-base in town owned and operated by a local. This guy was straight North Cackalacky, and he had that drawl you could only find in North Carolina. The guy reminded me of a horse-shoe Ferrier my friends and I used to surf with back in Texas. He put together the dimensions for a custom, 9 foot longboard with a single skeg. It was beautiful. I was so proud of it. The colors were green, purple, and yellow, which are the colors of Mardi Gras. I would surf Wrightsville Beach almost every day, if I wasn’t on an operation. Those waves were so fun and consistent. I really perfected my: walking the dog, hanging five, and eventually all 10 toes.

Next time you’re with your family and/or friends at the beach surfing or just walking, take a deep breath and enjoy it. I think it is comforting to the soul.