Surfing is all about living in the moment. When you walk out on the Sydney Cricket Ground to play cricket you're intensely aware of the history of the sport; you're playing on this historic ground surrounded by pictures of the legends. With surfing, you just dive into the water and paddle out and catch waves.

I know when I've been surfing I've got a sense of level of calmness to me, and when I hit the ocean, even in its presence, at the shore, and especially by a powerful surf, I've been put in my place as a person.

Surfing is all about living in the moment. When you walk out on the Sydney Cricket Ground to play cricket you're intensely aware of the history of the sport; you're playing on this historic ground surrounded by pictures of the legends. With surfing, you just dive into the water and paddle out and catch waves.

You're actually inside the surfboard... you're inside the landscape around you and the ocean is surging, you get totally inside the moment and it's so intense that time disappears, you disappear.

If you're going to make a big wave, you have to be totally unified with everything that's happening... Maybe in the moment of having to know everything all at once you burst through the barriers of trying to put things in order.

That's what I think people sense when they get hooked by surfing - hooked by their relationship with the ocean. All of a sudden, they're part of something that's bigger than them.