Tom Sachs Is Teaching You "How to Learn How to Surf"
The quest to become “OK surfers.”
American contemporary artist Tom Sachs embarked on a journey last summer with his team to Bali on a quest to learn the art of surfing, and as part of the experience, Sachs documented the trip and made a film out of it, called How to Learn How to Surf. To promote his film — which features a group of “bad surfers on the long painful road to becoming OK surfers” — the artist partook in an interview with Interview Magazine, dropping his top 10 steps to mastering the sport.
First and foremost, Sachs says that you must “dogmatically show respect for your environment. If you go into it with respect, 90 percent of your problems are already solved right there.” Then, you must understand the rules native to the sport. The artist’s third rule recommends that you learn from a master, his being Pat “Punker Pat” Towersey. He follows this rule up with a little mental gem forming the fourth tip: “Expectation is the thief of joy, so you must come to terms with the fact that surfing is paddling and waiting for waves as much as it is getting barreled.” Once you’ve got these down, Sachs says you should “get in the boat,” but that you should also “be afraid. Be sort of afraid.”
Sachs’ seventh and eight points come together to tell you that you should always be having fun with the right mentality that allows you to fail with joy. Concluding, the artist’s final two tips are to push your boundaries, and persevere. He ends with a quote from Ray Kroc, a founder of McDonald’s: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Tom Sachs’ How to Learn How to Surf is now screening at various theaters and museums across the States. You can check out the trailer above.
Elsewhere in entertainment, Batman is getting his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
