Wishful Thinking

When I was younger I wished a lot. Maybe I was a dreamer, a hopeless romantic or just gullible enough to think a penny in the fountain was actually a new surfboard waiting to be born. I tried wishing A LOT and it never really panned out.

Whenever my late grandfather would catch me wishing for something he’d sarcastically say, “There you go wishing again…”

To him, a wish was lazy.

I probably thought I just needed a more valuable coin to throw in the fountain to get what I wanted to prove him wrong, but now I know why he was so down on wishing.

He was a realist. He knew life wasn’t Disney magic and you needed a lot of foam and sandpaper to create my wished-for surfboard. He knew it needed to be shaped, glassed, sanded and shipped. And he knew that was part of the fun. The process. The lather of life didn’t exist in wishing. Where was the fun in it just rising from the fountain at the mall? He wanted me to know and appreciate all the stuff I’d miss if it just appeared.

I tell you all this sentimental nonsense because five (or so) years ago I caught myself in a wish. I was jobless and burnt out on the surf industry and wished (sorry Popo) there was a surf magazine that was also a surf shop and a surf brand that recommended music, books, films and made surf movies, threw parties at local surf shops and created guides for surf destinations, put on live music shows and made cool clothes so I could go work there.

Today I realized that wish actually came true and I do work here. There I go wishing again. —Travis Ferré

[Above poster: Flyer for screening of John Severson’s first surf movie: SURF at Roosevelt High School]