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To live life by the minimum standard and to build all my projects by the minimum standard, one isn’t going be very fulfilling for me as a person but two I don’t think it’s going to create a very beautiful world and that’s something that I want, that I want to live in, that’s something I want to pass on to future generations. So, yeah, I think we need codes and I think we need standards. I think they’re valuable but to live your life by checking that box and checking that box alone isn’t going to be adequate for us as a species to survive on this planet and isn’t going to be adequate for us as an individual to find fulfillment, much less connection with each other and all the other beautiful things that can occur on the planet if we do things right.~Ethan Crouch


















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Interview Transcript
Introduction
Maia: My name is Maia Dery. This episode impart of a series called the Waves to Wisdom Interviews. The project is a simple one. I seek out people I admire, surfers with what look to me to be ocean centered wisdom practices. I ask them if they’d be willing to share a surf session or two and then, after we’ve ridden some waves together, talk to me about their oceanic habits: about surfing, work, meaning, anything that comes up.
Ethan: To live life by the minimum standard and to build all my projects by the minimum standard, one isn’t going be very fulfilling for me as a person but two I don’t think it’s going to create a very beautiful world and that’s something that I want, that I want to live in, that’s something I want to pass on to future generations. So, yeah, I think we need codes and I think we need standards. I think they’re valuable but to live your life by checking that box and checking that box alone isn’t going to be adequate for us as a species to survive on this planet and isn’t going to be adequate for us as an individual to find fulfillment, much less connection with each other and all the other beautiful things that can occur on the planet if we do things right.
Maia: I first came across Ethan through his work with Surfrider Foundation— he’s one of the people working hard to make sure the beaches I an so many others enjoy are still healthy, accessible places. A business owner, consultant, passionately committed surfer and board shaper , and he’s been generous enough to speak to several groups of my students in the past. His ability to articulate the ways in which his undergraduate training in philosophy prepared him for his financially and emotionally abundant work in the construction industry inspired more than a few of those students to think more broadly about the possibilities for their own learning.
In our conversations for this interview, Ethan cited the ideas of two 20th Century philosophers, Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas as powerful currents in his own life. Both of these philosophers wrote about ethics based on deep connection. I loved Ethan’s story of connection with the ocean and out shared community and his commitment to leave a more beautiful world in the wake of his life.
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Maia: OK, if you are comfortable with it could you tell me your name, age, and how long you been surfing?
Ethan: Okay, my name is Ethan Crouch. I’m 36 years old and I’ve been surfing for, I, I guess pretty consistently for 17 years, 15 I don’t know [okay] 10-12 to 15 years?
Maia: So, it sounds as if you came to surfing in college?
Ethan: Yeah that’s when I really got committed to surfing is in college. And um upon graduation you know what I determined I wanted to live by the coast so that’s when I got, I’d say full time into the surfing so that was 2005 so10 years full...

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