Chapter 9: The 50 Day Challenge

Ok ok - before you get all macho on me and think "Only 50 Days!? I did 200 in a row last year", pump your brakes. This post is not about bragging. Also, if you foiled 200 days in a row last year - my content probably isn't for you.

Anyways, after getting back from a friend's wedding in early June, I had a ~2 month window of consistent time at my home in Baja. The surf forecast looked good at the time and I had just discovered the magic of SUP foiling, so I decided it was a perfect time to challenge myself.

The Challenge: Surf in waves on foil for 50 days straight.

Human powered. No batteries. No towing. No rest days. No excuses. No exceptions.

Prior to owning a SUP, this type of challenge would have been impossible. My home is simply too inconsistent to be able to prone foil in waves every day. But with a DW SUP - the impossible becomes possible. Or should I say, 'ride the impossible'! Hopefully Flitelab doesn't sue me for that one.

The challenge officially started on Monday June 16 and as of today (August 4), I am beyond stoked to say that the challenge was completed successfully. Of the 50 days, 28 of them were solely SUP foiling and 22 were a combination of prone, sup, and even some good 'ol traditional surfing mixed in.

I'll be honest. Some of the SUP days were brutal. Windy, cold, schools of fish everywhere. Seaweed forests trapping me. Literal lake conditions (until a tiny bump or two roll through after waiting 30 minutes). There were a handful of days that I was the only person in my town to go in the water - and a handful of days that I thought I would fail the challenge. But mother nature delivered and patience was the key.

2 weeks into the challenge, I realized how important it would be to keep my body in peak physical form. I couldn't afford waking up feeling like shit if my only window to foil was early morning. So - I decided to stop drinking for the month of July. And stretch daily.

Now the reason I am sharing this post is because I learned a lot through the process. For starters, taking 1+ months off from drinking was amazing. I'm now halfway into the first week of August and I honestly have zero desire to drink. Prior to the challenge, I loved having a post-work mezcal to relax in the evening. I've been a casual drinker since college and this challenge seemed like a great opportunity to see what life was like without alcohol. By far the biggest surprise was how much energy I had after stopping. And how great my body felt. My lower back pain vanished and my sessions got longer. Suddenly I felt able to be in the water for 6+ hours in a single day, surfing, sup foiling, and prone foiling depending on what the wind, swell, and tides were doing. I guess it makes sense now thinking about how no person in history has ever claimed that drinking helped them achieve greatness.

In short - I felt young again. Correction - I feel young again.

On the foiling side of things, I learned SO MUCH about my gear. Prior to the challenge, I honestly had a hard time picking which wing or stab to use depending on conditions. Now I feel way more confident picking the right board, mast position, and foil setup depending on the day.

Here's a few learnings that surprised me:

1. Massive front wings actually work great with tiny stabs. On a few days, I paired my AFS Enduro 1300 wing with my smallest stabilizer - the AFS Silk 132. It was by no means a high performance carving setup but it turned great! I bought the 1300 to learn how to dock start and was blown away that it could carve up and down the face of waist high waves.

2. My HA Stabs (AFS Silk HA 38 and 43) are better (for me) when the conditions are smaller, off-shore wind is blasting me, or I'm foiling at slower speeds. Previously, I always used my HA 38 on big days when I'd be going my fastest. It's even the stab I used the entire time in Chicama.

3. Huge DW SUPs can turn surprisingly well - even with big front wings. And the best part? They smooth out your turns which translates nicely when you hop back on a prone board. I feel like the best comparison is the smooth style you learn from a large single fin surfboard. There is a lot of body movement and patience involved in turning a big board smoothly and I still have a lot to learn but I was surprised how easy 3-1 connections were with a huge 1300 HA wing on an 8'2 DW SUP.

4. It's fun to go back to a beginner prone board! I hadn't surfed my 5'0 Amundson Nubby (44L) in over a year and it was so much fun hopping back on it with my Enduro 900. It got into waves 2x easier than my 4'5 (36L) daily driver and definitely increased my wave count. I previously thought it was too big to ride aggressively but after getting used to turning a SUP, it honestly felt nicer to have a bit more board under my feet. In fact, I've been riding my 4'5 less lately because it feels almost too light under my feet.

   
   

Outside of gear, I was shocked by how many times the ocean surprised me. There were easily 10+ days that I drove to the beach, looked out - and saw nothing remotely surfable. There were so many days that friends reported "zero waves today, it's a lake" and I came home smiling after an hour in the water with 9 waves and 7+ minutes on foil (like today).

This is what I drove up to today and was so stoked!

So here I am - on day 50 and I don't feel one bit relieved that it's over. All I can think about now is how long can I go? I have a trip to Europe in a few weeks and sadly there will be no foiling - so I think I'll try my best to keep my streak up until the day we fly out.

In summary, go challenge yourself. Set a goal. My mental and physical state feel better than ever. Every day I wake up with a challenge. And every day I get to spend time in the ocean, breathing fresh air, enjoying mother nature. Even on the worst days it boosts my mood, provides me with exercise and feels like a form of meditation - especially when I am all by myself floating among the fish with a breathtaking sunrise or sunset.

If you are feeling stuck or need to shake things up - I can't stress this enough. Go set a new goal in your life. It doesn't need to involve foiling, waves, or the ocean. Go walk in a park every day. Go do something! Create a challenge or goal that adds a healthy routine in your life and let me know how it goes.