Why Not Have More Fun, Passion and Adventure?

 

 

 

Dear Kindred Spirits,

 

When was the last time you were bored?

 

I personally can’t remember the last time I felt bored. It has to be over ten years ago.Boredom is a choice. I chose not to be bored.

 

Each Friday we will have a Kindred Spirit letter and Why Not Huddle, found on YouTube or by liking the Callagy Law and Coaching Facebook page.

 

The purposes of these Friday’s are:

 

1. To connect with that part of us that likes to have “fun”, “passion”

and “adventure”;

 

1. To talk about specific types of fun, passion and adventure filled activities that we can enjoy, feel proud about and further a life of positive energy and results:

 

1. Explore the concept that we can find fun, passion and adventure in virtually anything we do.

 

I’ve been blessed to have some amazing experiences filled with fun, passion and adventure around the world. I’ve gone diving with close to 100 sharks on a remote island in the Bahamas you need to reach by sea plane. I’ve skied with the top of the Matterhorn in site from a one hour ride to the mountain top beginning in Zermatt, Switzerland intoCervinia, Italy for lunch. I surf, dive, ski, cliff jump, played baseball in Shea and Yankee stadium, stayed in a water bungalow in Tahiti and dove with Manta Rays that were fifteen 15 across while having an 11 foot lemon shark follow me for most of the dive, zip lined through a coastal rain forest trekking through four feet of snow with my children and their grandmother well over 100 feet above the ice cold Fitzsimmons Creek at Whistler upside down in the dark, and on and on.

 

Yes, I’ve been very fortunate to have dozens of once in a lifetime experiences.

 

BUT, many people believe you need a lot of money and time to have amazing experiences. I disagree. On these Friday’s, we will explore both some amazing adventures that do take more time, money and effort, but we will also explore much more simple concepts of fun, adventure and passion.

 

So, for our first Friday, I want to talk about something very simple if you happen to live in the New York or New Jersey area. All you need is a car and a few hours. In fact, you could also take a bus if you don’t have a car.

 

The place that is my home away from home is Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

LBI, as it is referred to, is a magical 18 mile long island, sort of, but that’s a different story for a different day, that is only several hundred yard wide at its most narrow, allowing you to see both the ocean and bay at the same time. It literally is an island that you travel over a bridge to reach off of the coast of New Jersey.

 

Short public service announcement: New Jersey is the most underrated state in these great United States of America. LBI, by the way, has been rated the second best swimming beach in America by Dr. Beach at Florida International University.

 

LBI was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. However, in true New Jersey fashion, the island has come back better and stronger than ever.

 

Now, what in particular are we talking about on LBI? Well, there are many things to do on this great island that are filled with fun, passion and adventure. Our discussion for today though involves two related, but separate activities.

 

LBI, in my humble opinion, has the best body surfing beaches, and swimming beaches, in America. Here’s how the game is played. Every day at low tide, especially on the southern end of the island in Holgate, sand bar forms.

The awesome thing about this sand bar is that it generally doesn’t result in the water completely disappearing. Instead, the ocean simply becomes very shallow. Thus, for families with small children, you can watch your children safely playing in a natural baby pool that forms during the two hours before and after high tide, or walk out another 100 feet or so and still be in knee deep water with really fun smaller waves rolling through.

 

For older children, eight and up if they can swim, and adults, the body surfing is amazing and the feature show. Now, when we say body surfing and New Jersey, people probably laugh and think I don’t know what I’m talking about. Well folks, the Wedge in California is considered by many to be a big time surfing body surfing spot. In my humble opinion, and with no disrespect to the Beach Boys, Holgate blows away the Wedge for body surfing fun!

 

I regularly catch and ride waves in Holgate that carry me for 75 yards or more. On a bad day you can still catch rides for 40 yards.

 

This is not a how to body surf letter, but, you go out to the break line, where you are only a bit above waist deep and paddle right as the wave is about to break. When you catch it right, which with skill should be virtually every wave, the rush and acceleration of the wave is amazing. By body surfing, as oppossed to being on a surf board, you are literally in the wave feeling its energy, power and velocity.

 

This is the greatest 4 hours for free that I can possibly think of enjoying.

In that time, if you have the energy, you can catch 50 waves or more. Oh, and it becomes infectious. Fun is contagious, right? So few people know about body surfing it amazes me. Almost every day I’m there, when I’m with my kids in the ocean, people first watch, then begin to join and try body surfing. It is NEVER crowded. In fact, contrary to popular myths about the Jersey Shore, LBI often has less than 100 people on a strip of beach that goes for a quarter of a mile.

 

By the way, if anyone can consistently outride me distance wise on the waves of LBI, I will buy you dinner. I do fancy myself as the king of Holgate body surfing, so if anyone knows Laird Hamilton, tell him to bring it on. He may be the king of surfing 100 foot waves, but I will crush him on the body surfing waves of LBI!

 

Now, as if that wasn’t enough, on these very same LBI beaches, including the beaches of Holgate, there is an additional adventure that people would spend a fortune to find in some distant or remote piece of ocean half way around the world. While you are enjoying the amazing body surfing, some friends will often stop by for a visit.

 

Two months ago in September, my son and I were enjoying the body surfing before a baseball tournament, when we both surfaced having heard one of our favorite sounds: the high pitched echo location of LBI’s dolphins.

 

We both became very excited, and my son spotted one only 50 feet away. So, we bolted for our kayak and hit the ocean.

 

While you are not allowed to harass or even really approach the dolphins, once you’re out in a kayak, they often approach you. My son and I were quickly in a pod of more than twenty dolphins surfacing, playing and apparently hunting right around us. You want to talk about a magic moment in life, try sitting alone with your son or someone you live, in quiet isolation on the ocean surrounded by some of the most amazing creatures on the face of the earth who clearly are as interested in you as you are them.

 

For me, these dolphin encounters create such overwhelming emotions of joy, connection to nature, gratitude, adventure and wonder. It is a truly spiritual moment that touches my heart and soul at the deepest levels.

 

AND, it happens a lot. To be ready, simply rent a kayak for twenty or thirty bucks and have it ready for launch on the beach. Don’t harass or go right at the dolphins, just paddle out, and they will find you.

 

Now, I know people who’ve been going to LBI for years and would say I’ve never body surfed, and I’ve never seen anyone in a kayak near dolphins. In fact, 99 percent of people would potentially say that who’ve been to LBI.

 

That is the magic of living a life where you are seeking out fun, passion and adventure: you can find it everywhere, especially in nature, when you begin to look.

 

For me, I am so thankful to have had these moments in LBI with my family.

I’ve been enjoying the LBI ocean for my entire life. Oh, and by the way, please don’t fear interactions with wild life, including sharks. You’ve got a much better chance ending up in the hospital from a bee sting, or slipping in the shower than you do from a shark encounter (attack is also a blown up word by the media!). The last New Jersey shark bite was over 60 years ago.

Put that up against hitting deer with your car, being bitten by dogs or even spider bites in your own home.

 

Do NOT let irrational fear stop your fun, passion and adventure. You can be incredibly safe, and enjoy life at amazingly unique levels.

 

So, put down the beer, jump in the ocean and find a high that is very difficult to beat in the magic of the beaches of LBI, especially Holgate.

 

Whatever you do this weekend, even if you’re working, find ways to make It fun, passionate and even adventurous. Finding boredom or fun is really a choice in focus, beliefs and perspective.

 

Have an amazing day and weekend!

 

Please share this and the Why Not videos by liking the Callagy Law and Coaching Facebook Page.

 

Thanks, and In Your Service,

 

Sean Callagy

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