So about a month ago, I had one of the more memorable sessions I’ve ever had surfing in New Jersey. It was your classic winter scenario with a south swell pushing up the coast and predicted offshore winds to arrive at first light. For those of you who are unfamiliar, these are the conditions New Jersey surfers dream about. For this swell I remember thinking to myself the night before that the waves were undoubtedly going to be good, but I didn’t think it would be a top 5 day by any means – the swell just wasn’t forecast to be big enough. All of that changed the second I walked over the frozen dunes and got my first glimpse of the gray ocean at dawn. It was huge. It was clean. And it was empty. I literally surfed for 7 hours that day until the cramps in my arms wouldn’t let me paddle anymore. It was that good.

At some point during the session, my brother, Trevor, whipped out my video camera for 30 minutes to grab a couple waves on film on for this site. While he was filming I think I made 3 barrels and got slammed by 7 – eventually breaking my board. As I thought about it I began to think about the ratio of the number of barrels made versus the number of barrels attempted. In this case, 3 out of 10 (slammed on 7). And despite what you might see in surf films this what I would consider an “average” ratio for an apt surfer. This certainly fluctuates though. Some days are amazing and you literally make every single barrel and go 10 for 10. Other days however, you strike out entirely and make zero. Now, what I asked myself was, “what does the ratio have to be to make a session a good session?”.

After some thinking I realized that it isn’t the ratio that matters (i.e. the numbers of barrel made relative to the number barrels attempted). Instead, I think there is a single number of barrels that can be made for a session to be deemed a good session. (And yes, we are assuming this is a barrel hunting session) That number I think is 1. Just one barrel!. If you try one barrel and make only that one I think it is a good session. If you get slammed on a thousand waves but still make one out of that thousand it can quickly be regarded as a good session. Because that’s how surfing manifests itself in most of us. We forget the bad and remember the good. And in my opinion that’s a good way to think about things – in both surfing and in life.