The search for the perfect wave is really a search for God, with both ending in euphoria, says Catholic school teacher, convert, and avid surfer Richard Sellwood.
The father of seven spends every spare moment he has in the surf, continuing a passion that has been a major part of his life since his youth.
He’s also passionate about the Catholic faith, and has combined his passions in his recently-completed book, Stoke: A Surfer’s Guide to the Catholic Faith, a work he says is an explanation of the faith through the use of surfing imagery.
The book highlights numerous parallels between surfing and Catholicism, some of which provide arguments for the existence of God.
“The ocean is the largest visible part of God’s creation and the breaking wave is the most interesting thing going on in that ocean,” Mr Sellwood says.
“You can see the effects of the wind on the ocean, because it’s nice and clean, but you can’t see the wind, so that’s a parallel for proving God’s existence in the argument from design.”
Last year, Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu wrote a unique pastoral letter addressed to surfers, and it’s no surprise to find that Mr Sellwood contributed to its content.
In the letter, Bishop Silva says some see surfing as “mystical and an experience of the presence of God”, and Mr Sellwood says he couldn’t agree more.
“It definitely has these mystical, contemplative dimensions to it, and that’s part of its appeal as a sport,” he says.
“These experiences that we have really point to the creator as well, the author of those experiences. The ocean is like an icon of God as pointing towards the creator, when the beautiful waves are coming through.
“People flock to the ocean just for a bit of therapy, for a bit of relaxation, it just rejuvenates the soul.”
The ultimate aim of surfing often begins with a long, difficult and tiring quest for the perfect wave, but once it is found, an indescribable joy is found, Mr Sellwood says.
“There’s this incredible feeling of euphoria that you get from riding a wave, what we call ‘stoke’, that’s really what captures me I suppose,” he says.
“It’s something you can never get bored of… for someone who’s got the surfing bug, you can never get enough of it.”
One of the hardest skills to master in surfing is ‘getting barrelled’, and Mr Sellwood likens the experience to contemplative prayer.
“With contemplative prayer, you’re not saying or doing anything, it’s God that’s doing everything,” he explains.
“It’s the same when you’re getting barrelled, you’re just kind of standing there and the wave’s doing everything, you’re just being engulfed.”
“It’s almost like a time machine, the world kind of stands still, it’s really a strange sort of experience that you can never get sick of.”
The fact that the major players in the sport of surfing are man and God sets it apart from other sports, Mr Sellwood says.
“You’re in the elements, you’ve got waves breaking around you, you’ve got to be watchful,” he explains. “It forces you to live in the now, in the present moment, rather than thinking about the past, present and future.
“You might think I’m a little bit biased but I do think surfing is the best sport in the world.”
While surfing has its redeeming features, Mr Sellwood admits the sport’s not entirely squeaky clean.
“I feel that it’s so close to the ultimate rush and feeling and the ultimate kind of sport, it can be replaced as a bit of a false god,” he says.
Then there’s the culture of drugs, parties and hedonism that can accompany the sport, and the self-absorption and selfishness that it can generate in someone who can’t get enough of the ocean.
It’s something Mr Sellwood experienced in his teens, moving to WA’s south-west as soon as he finished school so he could surf every single day rather than work. Until he found a room to rent, he simply slept in his car.
“You don’t get people leaving their high-paid jobs in the world to go form little ping-pong or badminton communities where they just hang out playing ping-pong all day, but you do with surfing,” he says. “It can overtake your life if you’re not careful about it.
“I suppose I replaced God with surfing, I was looking for the ultimate and immersed myself in surfing.”
Fortunately for Mr Sellwood, surfing inadvertently led him to Catholicism. In 1992, he attended a Christian surfers meeting because it was the only way he could go night surfing at City Beach, and then to a surf break the following day.
At the meeting, one of the Christian leaders gave Mr Sellwood a book to read in response to his challenge to prove that God existed.
Five years later, while he was watching a television show about miracles, he began thinking about God, prompting him to pick up the book and start reading.
Belief in God suddenly seemed completely reasonable, and Mr Sellwood immediately began to change his life and to pray regularly.
His own book is an attempt to reach out to today’s surfers who live the life he did in his teenage years, in the hope that they will be prompted by the wonder of the ocean to begin searching for God.
“The whole purpose of the book is to make a simple explanation of the Catholic faith, because I felt that many books are too complicated or they are not easy to read at first,” he says, adding that it’s his contribution to the New Evangelisation.
The book is now complete and will be published later this year.
Although he’s incredibly busy as a full-time religious education teacher with a large family, it seems nothing will ever force Mr Sellwood to hang up his surfboard.
“I cannot spend enough time in the sea,” he says.
“The ocean, with its aura of mystique and serenity, is powerful and seems to crystallise the very best of creation.”
But, unlike his unhealthy obsession with the sport as a teenager, now Mr Sellwood can see beyond the waves.
“The search for the perfect wave really is a search for God,” he says. “It is a search for life’s ultimate fulfilment, perfect and lasting bliss.”