Surf Till 100 Blog Entry 1

Health is Wealth

Health Is Wealth

By Felipe Pomar

If you could add 20 healthy, productive, joyful years to the end of your life, would you?  Off course you would!!! That is practically another life time! 

I am here to tell you that you have the opportunity to have another go at life. Another opportunity to make all your dreams come true. More time, more energy. A second chance to do all those things you used to dream about and have practically given up on.

 And in case you have doubts, do not worry, I will prove everything I am saying before you finish reading this short introduction because I have done it myself.

Having lost my health in my fifties, I studied the life of extraordinary people, in some instances friends, who were able to add 20 to 30 good healthy years to what is considered a normal life span. I also travelled around the world to study the lifestyle and secrets of the centenarians.  

The result has been the creation of a simple, proven, program that can help you develop extraordinary health and enjoy a long productive and joyful life.

I imagine you will want proof, so here is my story.

At age 21 I was fortunate to became the first Big Wave World Surfing Champion. It came to me as a surprise.

Actually a double surprise. I was competing against the best and most famous surfers in the world so I certainly did not expect to win. Secondly while I had told myself countless times that I wanted to be the best big wave surfer in the world, it was just a dream really, and I had meant, some day, not now!

On my behalf I can say that I believe I was the fittest of the lot. It probably had to do with the fact that having been a fat boy who hated to exercise my mother had registered me into a swimming academy. It was terribly boring swimming countless laps, back and forth in a 25 meter pool. But it taught me the value of discipline and training.

With the newly acquired title of Big Wave World Surfing Champion I returned to my home, at that time, the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Once back I realized that the title carried a heavy price and that it fueled serious expectations.  When the waves were huge, and they were huge often, it seemed to me that the big wave riders of that time would look at me and say (or think) ok world champ, show us what you’ve got! Soon enough I would be paddling out and taking my life in my hands, I mean that literally.

My only lifeline was my fitness and whatever confidence I could muster in the face of deadly odds. And I mean deadly.

In those days there were no leashes, no jet skis and no lifeguards. Even the buddy system did not really exist, it didn’t work. The playing field was too expansive. It was all up to you. You got yourself out, and you got back to shore, if you could! Too many didn’t.

Does it sound to you like I am playing it up?

 Well let me expand. My original surf partner came to visit me and died surfing at Pipeline.

Another good friend drowned at another beach called Laniakea.

There were so many young fit service men drowning back then that the U S Army had to declare the entire North Shore area OFF LIMITS to all military personnel. That meant that if you were in the Army and were seen anywhere on the North shore you would be court marshaled. I myself died underwater, I guess I did not totally die, as I am here to tell the story. But I did see an amazing light, experienced incredible colors, and saw a body floating in the distance. Eventually I wondered who was the owner of that floating body? When that thought crossed my mind I turned to focus on the body and to my surprise it started to move in my direction. Initially it moved very slowly and then accelerated and moved very fast. Suddenly it was there right in front of me. But the body had come at me backwards. As a result all that I could see was the back of someone’s head. Then the body turned around to face me and I was shocked to see that it had my face. When I saw my face on this floating body I knew something serious was happening. That is when I felt a sharp and intense feeling in my gut. It was like a unexpected punch to the plexus, and although I did not understand what was happening, I did somehow understand that it was deadly serious. Fortunately that intense feeling in my gut seemed to bring me back into that floating body and the next thing I knew I was struggling for the surface and a breath of precious air. I was fortunate to make it to the surface. Once again it was probably a combination of fitness and fear that had enabled me to survive.

Fitness and fear were my daily companions and most likely the factors that fueled me and kept me alive.

I thought I had it all handled back then. I even ventured to surf a Tsunami with my second best friend. We thought we were bullet proof back then. Perhaps we were for a while.

But you can’t dance with fear forever without stopping to pay the piper.

I hit the wall in my fifties. Having been fit and healthy most of my life I was unprepared. I will not go into great detail but I will state that it was a extremely difficult time for me.

One of my health problems was what my Dr. described as an incurable disease. He was a specialist in his field and he said to me “we don’t understand this decease so we can’t cure it. There is however an experimental drug that some people have chosen to try. It has made some people better, it has made some people worse, and it has made some people blind. I instantly knew that drug was not for me.

So, there I was, with a serious incurable disease. Why me?

As has happened often in my life a friend appeared and consoled me. His name was Dr. Bob, he was an Emergency Physician who had gone to Viet Nam and who practiced Orthomolecular Medicine. He listened to me and said “sometimes you just have to give it time and the body heals itself. In the mean time you can come over to my apartment and I will give you mega amounts of vitamin C intravenously.”

Fortunately I trusted Dr, Bob and had done some reading about Orthomolecular Medicine.  I listened and he turned out to be right. With time, and lots of intravenous vitamin C treatments, I got well.

But all was not well. During my fifties I hit the wall and suffered several serious health problems, among them Ulcerative Colitis, shingles, hernia, kidney stones, prostate inflammation, and two shoulder operations.

The surgeon on my second operation was a surfer and a friend. He pulled me aside and seriously said; I must advise you to give up surfing. Your shoulder could dislocate at any time and you could go into shock and drown.  I reflected on what he was saying but at the same time knew there was no way I was going to give up surfing. 

In retrospect I now know that using and abusing fear was at the base of several of my health problems. Fortunately I am an optimist. As such I said to myself: I will find a solution. I will overcome this. If necessary I will devote the rest of my life to learning how to build my health and regain the life that I love.

During the next 20 years I traveled around the world to the places where centenarians live and thrive. I studied and learned all I could about health, fitness and longevity, from friends, books, and seminars.

As I neared seventy I surprised myself again.

The program I had developed was working.

It was working so well I felt bullet proof once again. Not only did I feel great; I found I was catching some of the best waves of my life and surfing better than I had at 50, sometimes better than had at 20 when I won the world surfing championships.

I thought to myself, is this unusual? Am I supposed to have no aches, no pains and feel bullet proof at 70 years of age?  About this time I started spending more time with a good surfer friend who seemed to have had similar ideas and experiences. It turns out we almost had the same birthday and he too had a near death experience. Plus he had spent years working with a leading anti-aging Doctor, and had developed a personal antiaging program with exceptional results. Even our diets were very similar. We had arrived to the same destination via very different roads….and we were practically neighbors to boot

His name is Tom Woods. Tom and I discussed and agreed that we had both found something very rare and valuable. A fountain of youth of sorts.

We were both in our seventies enjoying perfect health and mobility and enjoying the surfing life as much as anybody. We figured that if we combined our experiences and developed a program that was simple and efficient we could help others build their health and enjoy many healthy decades at the end of their life.

Our challenge was to take an incredibly complex subject (Health and wellness) and simplify it so it was easy to explain and understand so that people could make some simple life style changes, and get amazing results. Once we agreed we decided the perfect name for our program would be Surfing till 100.

 I felt so well and able that after confirmation from my new partner Tom Woods we decided that it was imperative we do some additional testing to confirm that we had found the equivalent of the fountain of youth.

We now know that it is no longer necessary for you to age like your parents and grandparents. We know from advances in science and medicine that there are ways to prevent degenerative disease. We know that if you follow some basic rules your body can heal itself, strengthen itself, and you can attain extraordinary health and longevity.

The program that we have developed, has strengthened and rejuvenated us. I knew I now had a new challenge.

How could we prove to people that it is possible to stay healthy, feel great and not succumb to what we have called the aging myth (that after retirement age your life is pretty much over and you cannot continue being active, productive and doing the activities you love.)

Our challenge was figuring out how to prove to others that we had a program that could keep them healthy and well way beyond what is today thought possible!

One day it downed on me. I announced that I would improve on my winning time for a international 6 mile paddleboard race that I had won back in 1968.

In 2013 my partner Health researcher Tom Woods, videographer Phil Wilson, some friends (for moral support) and I travelled to Peru to recreate that race and see if I could beat my winning time established in 1968 ( 45 years previous)

The Peruvian surfing Federation (FENTA) sponsored and timed the event and

I bettered my winning time set 45 years earlier by almost 2 minutes.

Since then many great things have happened.

Jeff Hakman had witnessed the benefits of our program and has joined us and become one of the founders of our Surf Till 100 program which is a part of a larger, deeper program we have named Heart Wave Adventures.

Jeff Hakman brings a realm of vast experience with him and a heart that has touched the lives of many in all walks of life  

 Jeff has lived the life of a Champion in many arenas for not only did he dominate the competitive Surfing World for many years at the end of his competitive career  he broadened his horizons in the business world and  co-founded one of the largest Surfing Apparel Brands in the world , via Quiksilver USA and Quiksilver Europe, creating thousands of jobs while contributing to the economic growth of the Surfing industry on a global level.

Tom and I had dreamed for years of making this new business adventure real and Jeff Hakman was the missing piece to help us bring our mutual dreams to you with the hopes that what we can share with you the knowledge that has helped get closer to actually Surf Till 100.

Our Plan

Our plan is to teach, share and inspire surfers and people of all ages with the knowledge and wisdom that we have acquired to become the healthiest and best that they can be.

We all have the opportunity to become healthy, successful, curious, happy people who contribute to their community and help to make our world a better place.

In closing I would like to briefly clarify why you should join us.

Medicine is advancing at an amazing pace. It is very visible in smart phones and electronics and although less visible in medicine our current understanding of the human body is practically doubling every two years.

This means that in all likelihood we will all live considerably longer than expected. Some of us will enjoy an additional life time in good health while others will spend 20 years in and out of the hospital.

It is estimated that the future of the pharmaceutical industry will focus on personalized medicine.

Meaning if you have a serious condition big pharma will develop a medicine specifically for you. While this sounds good on the surface you may not like the price of each treatment. It is estimated that one treatment will cost from $100,000 to 1Million.

So how will you choose to spend your additional life (last 20 years). Spending all the money you worked all your life for in doctor and hospital bills.

Or surfing, enjoying life and helping friends and loved ones.

Tom, Jeff and I have made our choice. What will you choose?

WE invite you to join us!

Aloha Felipe Pomar

Surf Riders of Peru / Surf Till 100 Expedition

With Living Legends

Felipe Pomar and Jeff Hakman 

Spring, 2022

Surf the Longest Point Break in the World

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