Surf Warrior

By R. Paul Stevens

[Introduction - The Binomial Theorem - If Only You Were Here Yesterday - The Acid Test - Surfing is a Risky Business - Quipping Up - Surfing fit - The Jump Up & Drop - It’s All About the Wind - Catching the Wave (&) the Right (of) Way - Let’s Go - The Facts of Life - Can You Explain This? - No Way But Down - Epilogue (1) Have you Got Your Seats? - Epilogue (2) Murphy’s 10 Laws of Surfing - Author Page]

• Language: English
• Publisher: R. Paul Stevens
• Release date: Jun 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476339733

R. Paul Stevens

R. Paul Stevens is professor emeritus of marketplace theology and leadership at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, and a marketplace ministry mentor. He has worked as a carpenter and businessman, and served as the pastor of an inner-city church in Montreal. He has written many books and Bible studies, including Doing God's Business, Work Matters, Marriage Spirituality, The Other Six Days and Spiritual Gifts. He is coauthor (with Pete Hammond and Todd Svanoe) of The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography.

Book preview

Surf Warrior

Smashwords Edition

By Paul Stevens

Introduction - The Binomial Theorem - If Only You Were Here Yesterday - The Acid Test - Surfing is a Risky Business - Quipping Up - Surfing fit - The Jump Up & Drop - It’s All About the Wind - Catching the Wave (&) the Right (of) Way - Let’s Go - The Facts of Life - Can You Explain This? - No Way But Down (2) - Epilogue (1) Have you Got Your Seats? - Epilogue (2) Murphy’s 10 Laws of Surfing – Also By This Author

All Rights reserved © 2012 Paul Stevens

Introduction

Do you have talent?

That wonderful raw quality that means you can take up any sport and excel at it within days, weeks or a few months at worst?

Well here is my story.

It’s about my struggle to learn surfing starting very late in life in my mid sixties..

As you will see, not only have I been not blessed with much of a body but I also qualify handsomely in the innate talent-less category.

So what I have lacked in sporting talent and physical resources I have had to make up with lots and lots of determination.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Nothing like getting things off your chest!

No, this is not a surfing manual. Plenty of excellent books you can buy that spell everything out in great detail. Rather it focuses on the inside story of the journey itself to surfing skill yet will nevertheless fast track you to your first amazing ride…

If somewhere, anywhere out there, there is a middle aged person looking for a (surfing) leash (excuse the pun) of life and this book helps him achieve that, then I’ve met my objective.

Enjoy!

The Binomial Theorem

I know exactly what you are going ask.

What on earth has the Binomial Theorem to do with learning to surf?

Before I go any further let me reproduce from Wikopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_theorem) what the binomial theorem is about:

In elementary algebra, the binomial theorem describes the algebraic expansion of powers of a binomial. According to the theorem, it is possible to expand the power (x + y)n into a sum involving terms of the form axbyc, where the exponents b and c are nonnegative integers with b + c = n, and the coefficient a of each term is a specific positive integer depending on n and b. When an exponent is zero, the corresponding power is usually omitted from the term. For example,

The coefficient a in the term of xbyc is known as the binomial coefficient or (the two have the same value). These coefficients for varying n and b can be arranged to form Pascal's triangle. These numbers also arise in combinatorics, where gives the number of different combinations of b elements that can be chosen from an n-element set.

Got that?

It leads to the Pascal triangle of coefficients:

I have a very special regard for the binomial theorem and its corollary, PASCAL’s triangle.

Actually I can trace this right back to my earliest school years.

In my country of birth, the schooling system consisted of two sub standards (A & B) then 10 regular standards leading to a school leaving certificate known as a matric. This pass would be rewarded in the first, second or third degrees, with a first class pass being necessary to gain entrance to University.

Now for some reason my parents decided I should switch schools after completing sub A and go to a school which actually only started at Standard 2. Never mind that I couldn’t read or write or do basic math. I just had to learn it fast.

The net result was I finished school two years earlier than everyone else, and somehow even scraped a university pass.

There, I decided to do a degree in science. I had dreams of becoming a famous scientist.

At the tender age of 16 I was now confronted with advanced topics on physics, chemistry, pure and applied mathematics.

This was a tough workload on anyone especially an immature young boy.

My initial results were terrible. I was failing everything, simply not coping. My parents got wind of it and were very concerned putting even more pressure on me.

The worst of all was my performance in the monthly pure mathematics test. I was getting like 20%. In fact I was bottom of the class. Give up, said Peter my oldest friend, doing the same courses as me.

Struggling on all fronts I knew I was facing a crisis.

Sort of make or break.

For some reason there had been a big intake of students in the pure mathematics faculty. So many in fact there weren’t enough seats and there were always a few rows of students standing at the back of the lecture room.

Next up was the Binomial Theorem.

For once I wasn’t alone in my struggles. Everyone in the class was having trouble with this theorem and trying to solve the fiendish exercises that accompanied it.

A key quarterly exam was coming up and it was devoted entirely to the Binomial Theorem.

I went home that weekend and promised myself that I would not move from my desk until I mastered it.

Although it is now more than