VGCC Instructor discusses appeal of Surfing
An English instructor at Vance-Granville Community College used his own experiences as a surfer to inform a recent special public lecture, the second in a series from the college’s Arts and Sciences division under the umbrella title, “Earth’s Energy and Wave Motion: Harmony and Disharmony in Our Relationship with Nature and with Each Other.” Instructor David Wyche’s presentation, called “Tapping the Source: Why Surfing Might Be Good for the Soul,” was held in the VGCC Civic Center on March 23.
Wyche said that the premise of the VGCC lecture series was that the world is made up of waves, large and small, including brain waves and radio waves. Surfing on ocean waves has a mystical quality, and poetic language must be used when discussing it, according to the instructor. “The ocean is a symbol of mystery,” Wyche said. “Are we drawn to the ocean because we are made of waves, and we find our origin there?” he asked. “Surfing involves a connection with nature that we can’t get in any other way, and every wave is unique.” The instructor said that some have described riding a wave as “a few seconds of infinity.” Wyche told attendees that he only started learning to surf shortly before he turned 50 years old, which, he emphasized, was “not that long ago!” He said that he is still a “kook,” a term for an inexperienced surfer.
Wyche related the history of surfing, which started about 1,000 years ago in Hawaii, where it was intimately connected with the native religious belief system. “Waves were seen as gifts from God,” Wyche said. “In a very real way, that association is still alive today. A contemporary surfer compared it to being ‘kissed’ by God.” Ironically, since surfing is so associated with native Hawaiians, it was an Austrian-American author who arguably had more to do with the explosion in the sport’s popularity than any other person. Frederick Kohner published a novel, inspired by his teenage daughter and her fondness for surfing, called “Gidget” in 1958. The book, and particularly its 1959 feature film adaptation, gave the sport a huge mainstream audience.
The lecture series continues with presentations by Spanish instructor Matthew Nielsen, on our responses to extraordinary waves in nature, on Wednesday, April 13; and music instructor Michael Stephenson on “Harmony and Discord in the Music and Personal Lives of the Beatles,” on Wednesday, April 27. Both begin at 1 p.m. in the VGCC Civic Center and are open to the public. For more information on these lectures, call VGCC instructor Joshua McKaughan at (252) 738-3464.
Above: VGCC English instructor David Wyche discusses ocean waves and surfing during his March 23 lecture in the VGCC Civic Center. (VGCC photo)
