Birds Fly, Surfers Glide – The Art of Energy Flow

Birds learning to fly go through a process that mirrors how surfers learn to harness wave energy. It starts with fear of launching—fledglings hesitate to leave the nest, just like beginner surfers hesitate on their first takeoffs. They flap their wings in place, building strength but afraid of the drop. Eventually, they take their first flight, often chaotic and uncoordinated, much like a beginner surfer wiping out.

At first, fledglings don’t know how to control their flight. They flap frantically, wasting energy, just like surfers who paddle inefficiently or try to muscle their way through turns. But over time, they begin to feel the air. They learn that lift isn’t created by flapping harder—it comes from small internal oscillations within each wingbeat. This lift allows them to stay airborne, and from there, flight becomes about fine-tuning, not forcing.

Once birds master lift, they stop relying on constant flapping. They find energy within the air—learning to glide, harness updrafts, and move with the wind rather than against it. Large birds like eagles ride rising warm air (thermals) to gain altitude effortlessly before gliding down with precision. Others use dynamic soaring, tapping into wind gradients much like a skilled surfer taps into different parts of the wave to generate speed.

Now, imagine sticking your hand out of a car window while driving. Keep it flat, and there’s little resistance. Tilt it slightly down, and the air pressure pushes it downward. Tilt left or right, and the airflow naturally guides it into a turn. You don’t have to force the movement—you set an intention and let the air do the work.

Surfing works the same way. Once the wave gives you speed—your version of “lift”—you don’t need to force turns or pump excessively. Instead, you use small adjustments in weight and board angle to let the wave’s energy do the work. The best surfers don’t muscle their way through turns; they feel the wave, anticipate the energy, and glide effortlessly.

Birds don’t fly—they surf the air.Surfers don’t fight waves—they fly on water.

Tap into the energy, trust the flow, and let the wave carry you.

I’m sitting on a boat in the Mentawais at the moment watch and doing a lot of surfing and I personally had a major lightbulb moment open itself up to me.Warning it is pretty deep, however if you get it it could change the way you look at surfing. Here it is…

The Secret of Flow: Unlocking Nature’s Spiral Energy

Nature doesn’t move in straight lines; it flows in spirals. This is a fundamental truth that applies to everything from the way rivers wind through landscapes to the effortless flight of birds and the graceful lines drawn by the best surfers. At the heart of this movement is the principle of lift, which allows everything to move with maximum efficiency and minimal energy.

The Hidden Spiral of Water

At first glance, a river may seem like it’s flowing in a straight line. But look closer, and you’ll see that water moves in a continuous spiral as it flows downstream. This spiral motion is essential for the river’s health and efficiency.

As the water spirals, it cycles cold water from the bottom to the surface and warm water from the top down to the depths. This process creates a balanced exchange of energy, cooling and oxygenating the water as it flows. The spiral motion also controls the speed of the water, slowing it down as it approaches bends and speeding it up as it exits, creating an efficient rhythm.

This natural helical flow is what Viktor Schauberger called “implosive energy.” Instead of moving outward and dispersing energy, like an explosion, the river concentrates energy inward, conserving and using it more effectively. This inward spiral allows the river to flow with the least amount of energy possible, making it highly efficient.

In contrast, a river forced into a straight line loses that natural efficiency. It struggles against resistance, becoming chaotic and turbulent, requiring more energy to move the same volume of water.

How Birds Harness Implosive Energy

Birds are the masters of harnessing nature’s spiral energy. When a bird takes flight, it doesn’t rely on brute force to create speed. Instead, it uses its wings to create an implosive vortex—a spiral of air that generates lift.

Lift is the key to effortless flight. By creating an area of low pressure above their wings, birds allow the surrounding air to push them upward. This lift enables them to rise effortlessly and maintain altitude. Once they have lift, they can adjust the angle of their wings to control speed and direction.

In other words, the most important thing a bird does is not create speed but generate lift. With lift as the foundation, everything else—speed, control, and direction—becomes effortless.

This is nature’s secret: movement driven by implosive energy, where power is focused inward rather than forced outward.

The Spiral of a Wave: The Surfer’s Lift

A wave is a moving helix of energy, rolling through the ocean in a spiral pattern. Just like a river’s flow, the wave’s energy moves in a circular motion beneath the surface, creating a powerful, continuous force.

The best surfers understand that riding a wave is not about fighting against this energy but about tapping into it. They know that, like birds in flight, their primary goal is to create lift. By positioning themselves on the wave’s face and using compression and extension, they generate lift that allows them to move with the wave’s spiral energy.

This lift creates effortless speed, flow, and the ability to make direction changes with ease. Surfers who understand this principle don’t have to pump aggressively or force movements. Instead, they align themselves with the wave’s natural flow, harnessing the power of the spiral to achieve maximum efficiency.

Lift: The Universal Key to Effortless Motion

In nature, lift is the key to effortless movement. Rivers spiral to create lift and maintain efficient flow. Birds generate lift through implosive vortexes to rise and glide effortlessly. And surfers tap into the lift created by a wave’s spiral energy to move with speed and control.

The secret to mastery—whether in flight, water flow, or surfing—lies in understanding and using this principle of lift. It’s about aligning with nature’s spiral energy, moving with it rather than against it, and allowing implosive energy to carry you forward with minimal effort.

When you understand how to create lift, you unlock the potential for flow—where movement becomes effortless, graceful, and powerful. You tap into the same energy that drives rivers, lifts birds into the sky, and propels surfers across waves. This is nature’s code of efficiency, and it’s the key to becoming a master of flow.

Mark Hind Pick your targets closer to the waves energy. Your body is rushing the turnds faster than the board can travel through the turn which is canceling out energy. Timing your body with the turning circle of the board will create constructive energy and more speed and power.

Jason Cullen Too low on a compression will loose speed and power also remember on a wave you lean into it so the touch is not down but more across.