GL winemaker/surfer

        The parallels between  surfing and winemaking may not be obvious but they sure do exist. The winemaker known as “GL “'s passion for wine and surfing came not over time but quickly and at a very young age. Both wine and surfing share the innate ability to grab someone’s passion and love at the core of one’s soul, immediately. Once you are hooked both can be virtually impossible to delete from one’s mind and heart. A true surfer or a true winemaker cannot constrain their emotions nor their needs to do what they know they have to do (surf and make wine)  in order to feel sane, to feel a part of the world,  to be  filled with joy and a pure sense of accomplishment. That first wave is as similar as that first sip of a beautifully made wine.....addicting, You never forget either experience and both drive you to want more, to need more, to find more. They both intensely grab you, become part of you,  never to let you go. The yearning  continues.

Surfing demands the same talents and desires as great winemaking does: Commitment, balance, strength, determination, focus, flexibility, fearlessness, optimism,  casual changes in direction, the absolute need to get better, to do better, the insatiable  need to do it again and again, the true understanding of taking advantage of the present. knowing that you have to be prepared for the future, understanding the ride is to be enjoyed at the moment and yet one knows something even greater exists at the end, and   finally, The pure  will to fall,  to wipe out and get right back up, “the will to Walk the Plank” so to speak, to take it as far as you can go, to push it  to get wherever it is you are going. Getting there  In the way you need to get there . All in kindness to yourself and others…. Transcendental.

This winemakers choices in life were steered by surfing and his surfing was guided by his winemaking. For him, both defined his being, giving him a pure understanding of what he needed to do in life to be happy, to be mentally and spiritually connected , to be content. There is no greater joy than riding a wave to the beach and there is no greater joy than opening the fruits of ones labor and realizing that all the hard work and passion can exist inside one bottle of wine. To make your dreams a reality you will have to at some point in time, “Walk the Plank”. Do it with style and grace.