Reply To: My Olympic Surfing rant

[Shukin]

July 27th follow up. After posting the above rant I went on instagram to see if anyone else in my feed had been watching and I came across a photo of Joey Buran’s post about a “A Sunday afternoon well spent!” I don’t know how many people turn to the gram for the photos only, I am one to actually read the captions, and I am certainly happy I did. Joey went on to say “How many Sundays in my life have I been able to watch surfing in the Olympics? Before yesterday …none. So historic.” I had to take a step back and open my mind a bit. I commented on his post “I’m using the app in Apple TV as well, are you finding the way they cut to commercials annoying? I feel like during the women’s heats yesterday I viewed more repeat commercials than Waves ridden.” I guess I was hoping he would agree with me and add his frustrations, but no, his response made me think even deeper and more holistic. He replied with a laughing emoji and “Just glad I can be watching!” I realized at that moment that I should stop looking for holes and step into gratitude for what is actually unfolding, and how monumental this really is.

Through my interactions with this spiritual man allowed me to view the rest of the Olympic Surfing coverage in a new light. I was on the edge of my seat during the Medina Igarashi show down and Barton Lynch carried me over the edge with his enthusiasm and excitement, he exudes an undeniable passion for the sport, I wish I could change my siri voice to his, could you imagine? I was still triggered by the women’s commentator, so I just lowered the volume and listened to Kenny G instead, painful, but much less. Joey’s teachings allowed me to feel fortunate to even have a way to watch all of the surfing even if I missed some to commercials, and I could appreciate the WSL app more for simple features like rewind and fast forward.

Interestingly enough, I was able to rewatch all the medal heats this morning with a lot less commercials, so was able to see waves I missed the first time around. I’m curious how many people around the world watched surfing in the olympics, how much airtime it got on the network and not the app.

I’m very interested to hear  others experience.