Camera: GoPro HD Surf HERO Edit: iMovie 11 Location: Rockaway Beach, New York Surfer: Father Kevin Gabriel Gillen, O.P. "The wave is a magical instrument. It's the fundamental force of energy throughout the universe. It's the fingerprint of God. So when I surf on a wave, it's a foretaste of heaven." Dr. Peter Kreeft, Boston College. When there are waves, I spent my day off surfing in my hometown of Rockaway Beach. As you can see from the video above, I sometimes surf on a waveski with a paddle to propel and ride on the waves. Some surfers have a disdain of the tow-in-surfing; stand-up paddle boards and waveskis; preferring the purist attitude that surfing is about nothing but the man, the board, and the sea. Laird Hamilton, one of the co-inventors of tow-in surfing, explained that it was the only way to catch the monstrous sized waves such as those that can be seen a Peahi (Jaws) off the coast of Maui and the coastline of Tahiti. He also has called stand-up paddle boards a return to an old, traditional Hawaiian way of surfing. Hamilton does not speak about waveskis but thankfully no one in Rockaway gives me a hard time about it. Although I've surfed some pretty good size waves, it is still hard to imagine taking off on a 30- 50 ft wave. Being caught in the falling lip of a wave can send surfers underwater so deep and so fast that the pressure change breaks their eardrums and the capillaries in their lungs. Dismemberment, fractures, or broken bones from contact with the ocean floor, your board or from the seething force of whitewater are so common that Hamilton stopped counting his stitches after a thousand and both of his feet are disfigured from broken arches. The sea can certainly be dangerous but she has a way of getting into your blood. Everytime I moved far away from the coast I always experienced a deep longing to return to her. In Chesterton's book Orthodoxy he describes a man who sets sail from England in order to discover a new land. He accidentally gets turned around and returns to England, thinking it is the new place he had sought to discover, and finds himself looking at familiar things as if seeing them for the first time. Chesterton's story of discovery is a metaphor for his own spiritual odyssey and my own. After the sudden death of my sister from aplastic anemia I set sail in search for a new land. I moved into Manhattan from Rockaway, to work as a stockbroker, hoping Wall Street would be my Promised Land. I remember driving to the beach one morning and hearing a song on the radio by Simon and Garfunkel and could never get it out of my head afterwards. The lyrics are based on a narrative poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson in 1897. They say that Richard Cory owns one half of this whole town, With political connections to spread his wealth around. Born into society, a banker's only child, He had everything a man could want: power, grace, and style. But I work in his factory And I curse the life I'm living And I curse my poverty And I wish that I could be, Oh, I wish that I could be, Oh, I wish that I could be Richard Cory. The papers print his picture almost everywhere he goes: Richard Cory at the opera, Richard Cory at a show. And the rumor of his parties and the orgies on his yacht! Oh, he surely must be happy with everything he's got. But I work in his factory And I curse the life I'm living And I curse my poverty And I wish that I could be, Oh, I wish that I could be, Oh, I wish that I could be Richard Cory. He freely gave to charity, he had the common touch, And they were grateful for his patronage and thanked him very much, So my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read: "Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head." Although Richard Cory was a fictional character, I had met several Richard Cory's in Manhattan. The question that I kept asking myself was, "Do I still wish that I could be Richard Cory?" That same weekend that I was home my mom dragged me to Sunday Mass. In the homily the priest told the story of a man named George. George was born in Waterville, a very small town in Upstate New York. His parents were poor immigrants but told George every day, to study and work hard and he would fulfill the American Dream. George was self-educated, worked very hard and in 1884, George played a leading role in transforming photography from an expensive hobby of a few devotees into a relatively inexpensive and immensely popular pastime. In 1888 he perfected the Kodak camera, the first camera designed specifically for roll film. In 1892, he established the Eastman Kodak Company, Even after the 1929 market crash George's wealth continued to grow. George had fulfilled the American Dream. He was rich, richer than a king and like Richard Cory he too went home one night and committed suicide. Every time I saw the stock quote EK travel across my computer screen at work or in the news paper I thought of George's life. I knew if I continue