"Just take your time - wave comes. Let the other guys go, catch another one"
About this Quote
Patience, here, is less a virtue than a survival skill. Duke Kahanamoku isn’t offering a Hallmark mantra; he’s giving field-tested advice from a sport where panic is punished instantly. “Just take your time” isn’t passive. It’s an instruction to stay loose in a high-stakes environment, to conserve energy, to keep your judgment intact while the ocean and the crowd push you toward rash decisions.
The line “wave comes” carries the quiet authority of someone who has watched cycles outlast ego. Surfing tempts people into thinking every set is their only shot. Kahanamoku punctures that scarcity mindset with a simple promise: there will be another wave. That confidence flips the emotional script from fear of missing out to trust in rhythm. It also hints at something deeper: if you’re always scrambling to beat “the other guys,” you’ll miss what the water is actually doing.
“Let the other guys go” is the sharpest part. It’s competitive advice disguised as generosity. In a lineup, forcing yourself into a bad wave to prove you belong is how you wipe out, injure others, or blow your position. Letting others take the first chance means you get information: how fast the wave is, where it’s breaking, whether the set is worth it. Then: “catch another one.” Not retreat, not sulk - reset.
Context matters: Kahanamoku helped popularize surfing globally and carried Hawaiian water culture into a 20th-century world eager to commodify it. The quote reads like an antidote to hustle ideology, delivered by someone whose arena literally rewards waiting better than wanting.
The line “wave comes” carries the quiet authority of someone who has watched cycles outlast ego. Surfing tempts people into thinking every set is their only shot. Kahanamoku punctures that scarcity mindset with a simple promise: there will be another wave. That confidence flips the emotional script from fear of missing out to trust in rhythm. It also hints at something deeper: if you’re always scrambling to beat “the other guys,” you’ll miss what the water is actually doing.
“Let the other guys go” is the sharpest part. It’s competitive advice disguised as generosity. In a lineup, forcing yourself into a bad wave to prove you belong is how you wipe out, injure others, or blow your position. Letting others take the first chance means you get information: how fast the wave is, where it’s breaking, whether the set is worth it. Then: “catch another one.” Not retreat, not sulk - reset.
Context matters: Kahanamoku helped popularize surfing globally and carried Hawaiian water culture into a 20th-century world eager to commodify it. The quote reads like an antidote to hustle ideology, delivered by someone whose arena literally rewards waiting better than wanting.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
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