These surf quotes will inspire you. Surf is the swell of the sea that breaks upon the shore or the mass or line of foam formed by waves breaking on a seashore or reef.
A collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging surf quotes, surf sayings, and surf proverbs.
Best Surf Quotes
- “An FBI agent ought to be able to surf the net and look for sites that instruct people how to make bombs.” ~ John Ashcroft
- “It’s hard for me to describe the joy I felt after I stood up and rode wave in for the first time after the attack. I was incredibly thankful and happy inside. The tiny bit of doubt that would sometimes tell me you’ll never surf again was gone in one wave.” ~ Bethany Hamilton
- “I got to learn to surf.” ~ Sheryl Crow
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“Well, maybe surf one time; I think it would be fun to catch a wave just once.” ~ Crystal Gayle
- “Wildness and silence disappeared from the countryside, sweetness fell from the air, not because anyone wished them to vanish or fall but because throughways had to floor the meadows with cement to carry the automobiles which advancing technology produced. Tropical beaches turned into high-priced slums where thousand-room hotels elbowed each other for glimpses of once-famous surf not because those who loved the beaches wanted them there but because enormous jets could bring a million tourists every year – and therefore did.” ~ Archibald MacLeish
- “You can’t TV surf without coming across an Andy of Mayberry episode where you’ve just got to watch Don as Barney. And that’s why I put Don in several of my movies.” ~ Tim Conway
- “Well I’m a longtime AOL subscriber and I love the whole thing. I’m an email junkie and I love the internet, though 7th Heaven doesn’t give me much free time to surf these days.” ~ Stephen Collins
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“Now that I’m older, I like almost anything that’s done well, even surf music and instrumentals; I really enjoyed the interviews with the Ventures in your magazine.” ~ John Fogerty
- “The kids called me King of the Surf Guitar. I surfed sunup to sundown.” ~ Dick Dale
- “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is really advice to myself, a reminder to myself not to avoid change or uncertainty, but to go with it, to surf into change.” ~ Alan Alda
- “Adventure Bay is a convenient and safe place for any number of ships to take in wood and water during the summer months: but in the winter, when the southerly winds are strong, the surf, on all parts of the shore, makes the landing exceedingly troublesome.” ~ William Bligh
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“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “Thank God for a few free waves.” ~ Miki Dora
- “I think when a surfer becomes a surfer, it’s almost like an obligation to be an environmentalist at the same time.” ~ Kelly Slater
- “There is not one right way to ride a wave.” ~ Jamie O’Brien
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“Surfing’s the source. Can change your life. Swear to god” ~ Patrick Swayze
- “It’s not tragic to die doing something you love.” ~ Mark Foo
- “Your surfing can get better on every turn, on every wave you catch. Learn to read the ocean better. A big part of my success has been wave knowledge.” ~ Kelly Slater , Learning to surf quotes
- “Surfing’s one of the few sports that you look ahead to see what’s behind.” ~ Laird Hamilton
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“I could not help concluding, that this man felt the most supreme pleasure, while he was driven on, so fast and so smoothly, by the sea.” ~ James Cook
- “I try changing my surfing, which is the absolute worst thing you can do. Everyone surfs their own way. If I try to surf like someone else I look like a dork.” ~ Andy Irons
- “It’s like the mafia. Once you’re in – your in. There’s no getting out.” ~ Kelly Slater
- “Surfing soothes me, it’s always been a kind of Zen experience for me. The ocean is so magnificent, peaceful, and awesome. The rest of the world disappears for me when I’m on a wave.” ~ Paul Walker
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“Sometimes in the morning, when it’s a good surf, I go out there, and I don’t feel like it’s a bad world.” ~ Kary Mullis
- “To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.” ~ Rachel Carson , Surf quotes about life
- “The biggest sin in the world would be if I lost my love for the ocean.” ~ Laird Hamilton
- “The joy of surfing is so many things combined, from the physical exertion of it, to the challenge of it, to the mental side of the sport.” ~ Kelly Slater
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“I’m just a surfer who wanted to build something that would allow me to surf longer.” ~ Jack O’Neill
- “It’s all about where your mind’s at” ~ Kelly Slater
- “What I love the most about surfing is that it’s my first love. It’s the first thing I can remember being consumed by.” ~ Stephanie Gilmore
- “It’s a culmination of your life of surfing when you turn and paddle in at Mavericks.” ~ Jeff Clark
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“I’ve committed to surfing the rest of my life.” ~ Lance Armstrong
- “For those searching for something more than just the norm. We lay it all down, including what others call sanity, for just a few moments on waves larger than life. We do this because we know there is still something greater than all of us. Something that inspires us spiritually. We start going down hill, when we stop taking risks.” ~ Laird Hamilton
- “For me, surfing is as close a connection I can have with Mother Nature. To surf, you’re riding a pulse of energy from Mother Nature. And it’s strong. It’s real. It’s there. And you’re dancing with that. You’re connecting with that. You’re might be the only person in the history of the universe that connects with that particular pulse of energy.” ~ Xavier Rudd
- “Waves are not measured in feet or inches, they are measured in increments of fear.” ~ Buzzy Trent
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“Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true.” ~ Patrick Swayze
- “Not to sound too deep or weird, but I think that the times when you really appreciate surfing are the times you really sort of becoming one with nature. Surfing’s as raw of a sport as it gets.” ~ Kelly Slater
- “When I moved to L.A. in 1989, the very first thing I did was this horrific pilot called To Protect And Surf.” ~ Thomas Haden Church
- “Change is the only constant. Learn to surf your life instead of planting your feet.” ~ Amy Poehler
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“If you can surf your life rather than plant your feet, you will be happier.” ~ Amy Poehler
- “I think people in general that don’t surf, have a fascination with it. It’s definitely much more than a sport or activity, its a way of life. There is a culture that surrounds it and I think people are intrigued by that.” ~ Tristan Prettyman
- “Under the thinning fog, the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form itself on the edge of consciousness.” ~ Raymond Chandler
- “Sssh says the ocean
Sssh says the small wave at the shore
sssh not so violent, not so proud, not so remarkable.
Sssh says the surf crowding around the outcrops, washing the shore.
Sssh, they say to people, this is our Earth, our eternity.” ~ Rolf Jacobsen -
“We need the sea. We need a place to stand and touch and listen – to feel the pulse of the world as the surf rolls in.” ~ David R. Brower
- “I’m a homer, so the closer [I perform] to my house the better. If I could get crowds to gather around my bed, that would be ideal. I also like doing stand-up in places that I can surf, snowboard, or anywhere that I have a pregnancy scare.” ~ Daniel Tosh
- “When I landed in L.A. in early ’89, William Morris decided to take me on to see if I could get any jobs. I was cast in a TV movie called Protected Surf and made $30,000 in four weeks, and I decided I needed to take acting seriously, because I had never made that much money in a year, much less four weeks. That’s when I decided I thought I could make a career out of it.” ~ Thomas Haden Church
- “Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore.” ~ Florence Nightingale
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“Men in high levels of government seldom surf.” ~ Rita Rudner
- “Out of the depths of my happy heart wells a great tide of love and prayer for this priceless treasure that is confided to my lifelong keeping. You cannot see its waves as they flow toward you, darling, but in these lines you will hear…the distant beating of its surf.” ~ Mark Twain
- “By suggestion and example, I believe children can be helped to hear the many voices about them. Take Time to listen and talk about the voices of the earth and what they mean-the majestic voice of thunder, the winds, the sound of surf or flowing streams.” ~ Rachel Carson
- “Sharks will scare me. I went out to Malibu a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful, clear day, out in five feet of water, going to surf, and there was this big ol’ freakin’ leopard shark… I’m looking at him and I’m thinking, ‘OK, he won’t hurt me.” ~ Timothy Olyphant
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“Stay in one place too long and the tide can overwhelm you. Ride the tide, surf the waves, stay on top of the changes.” ~ Ron Kaufman
- “We’re all trying to get to the same island — whether you swim, fly, surf, or skydive, it doesn’t matter. What matters is when the red light goes on.” ~ Jerry Seinfeld
- “Put any two people together and each will seek ways of feeling superior to the other. If a ship went down in the Pacific and a single sailor managed to swim to a desert island, would he be pleased to see, ten minutes later, another sailor emerging from the surf? Quite possibly – but only if the new arrival accepted that the first man was now a landed aristocrat while he himself was an illegal immigrant.” ~ Michael Foley
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“Happiness had never been like this before. Now it came like sun showers, the sun and the rain together. Happiness was happier than it had been – sharp, piercing, and snatched, like a breath while swimming in surf.” ~ Elizabeth Knox
- “When you make a mistake, the ocean gives you an instant reminder. You get punished. If golf clubs could shock you every time you hit the ball wrong, we’d probably learn how to play golf pretty well.” ~ Laird Hamilton
- “You gotta go in the mud sometimes to figure who you are.” ~ Andy Irons
- “If Jesus is on Tim Curran’s side and Occy is Jesus, who gets to win?” ~ Cintra Wilson
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“Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all collapsed; and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.” ~ Moby
- “WE HAD AN AMAZING STAY AT SURF AND SUNSET VILLA. THE WHOLE FAMILY REALLY ENJOYED THE HOLIDAY AND THE SURF WAS GREAT!” ~ Tim Regan
- “We grew up quickly, surrounded by guys eighteen and older, in their prime. They lived to surf, drink, raise hell and score heavily with women. I saw these guys going up and down the coast on surf trips, drinking and bagging girls, and all I could think of was ‘What a neat life!'” ~ Greg Noll
- “Swlmmlng After swallowing some water at Changsha I taste a Wuchang fish in the surf and swim across the Yangtze River that winds ten thousand li. I see the entire Chu sky. Wind batters me, waves hit me-I don’t care. Better than walking lazily in the patio. Today I have a lot of time. Here on the river the Master said “Dying-dying into the past-is like a river flowing.”” ~ Mao Zedong
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“If there was no such thing as barrels I probably wouldn’t even surf.” ~ Clay Marzo
- “I’m not retiring. I am graduating. Today is my graduation day. Retirement means that you’ll just go ahead and live on your laurels and surf all day in Oceanside. It ain’t going to happen.” ~ Junior Seau
- “After becoming established as a surfboard manufacturer and surf film producer whose films were shown on TV, all of a sudden all the teachers and counselors who wanted nothing to do with my ass during school were wanting to kiss it. They’d be interviewed by a newspaper of magazine and their tone would change. ‘Oh yes, I knew Greg Noll. He was in my class. Fine, upstanding young man.’ What bullshit.” ~ Greg Noll
