January 8, 2013 Tuesday

Jamil Yogis – The Fear Project

Today was the release date for Jaimal Yogis’ second book The Fear Project. His first book, Saltwater Buddha, (a book I loved) had done well and is being made into a documentary. Jaimal is now a successful journalist and regularly writes for the San Francisco Magazine, Surfer and several others.

I traveled by ferry to the city to attend his talk and book signing at Book Passage in the Ferry Building. I arrived early and immediately went into the store to purchase a copy. The bookseller, a friendly gentleman about my age, told me that this was the first time an author to one of their events was going to arrive by water. Jaimal and his good friend Jamie Patrick were swimming 2.4 miles from Yerba Buena Island to the Embarcadero and would arrive at a stairwell near that silly rocket statue perched next to the water – a promotional stunt, but an affective one.

A photo opportunity I thought. So I hustled out to the rocket, saw a KUTV Channel 2 news truck parked out front and a camera crew heading out to the tourist pier there. I followed them. They set up at the end of the pier and so did I. A classic sailing yacht was slowly motoring behind two bodies swimming towards the city. They would power swim for a few minutes, pause a few moments and then start up again. I was impressed at how fast they stroked through the water. Within minutes they were at the base of the pier. Both the camera crew and I moved to get some pictures of them exiting the water. That’s them in the above photo, Jaimal is on the left and Jamie on the right. A small crowd of enthusiastic friends was on hand to greet them.

At the end of his talk, Jaimal’s mother, who was in the audience, reminded him to introduce Jamie Patrick, who is a big part of the book. Jamie is a long distance swimmer, who managed to overcome his fears to swim incredible distances, like a 100 miles.

Book Passage is a small store that is crammed with books. Since all the bookcases were on wheels, the store manager quickly pushed them around to make space for a podium and twenty-five folding chairs. By 6:30 pm seventy people (my estimate) had jammed into the store to hear Jaimal speak, most were standing, including me.

Jaimal began by relating how he got onto the topic of fear. One hang-up all his life has been fear of facing a crowd. A fear that caused more terror in him than the gnarly breaks that he has surfed. To promote his first book he had to speak in front of groups numerous times. This forced him to face his fear of public speaking and to overcome it. That started him on his study of fear, which became a multi-year pursuit. By the end of his talk, I was convinced that he had become an expert on fear, all forms of fear. He extensively read scientific studies, and interviewed professors, extreme athletes and others who had gone through fearful events. He recited the areas of the brain and how they react and influence the rest of the body in periods of fright. His theme is that we humans can and should face our fears to reduce anxiety and stress.

Positive exposure to one’s fear is one method of overcoming it. He gave three personal examples. One, his five-month old son had developed a fear of his crib and would incessantly cry while in it. Of course this was driving the parents nuts. So Jaimal spent two nights sleeping in the crib with his baby son, to the torture of his back. But it worked. His son immediately dropped his fear of the crib and now loves being in it.

Two, fear of great white sharks. Jaimal faced this one by going on a shark-cage dive off of the Farallon Islands. With wetsuit on, an air hose for oxygen, Jaimal climbed into a small cage of steel tubing and was lowered underwater near where sharks had just attacked a sea lion. After several minutes of nothing but darkness, he saw a dark shadow moving underneath him. Jaimal couldn’t believe the size of this creature, big enough for him to skateboard down its back. The shark gracefully glided back and forth by the cage and showed no interest in the human inside. Jaimal was stunned by the size, grace, speed and agility of this beast. By watching it closely, he gained such an appreciation of its beauty that he wanted to climb on its back and go with it. Since that trip, Jaimal has become a strong advocate for the preservation of sharks.

Three, fear of big waves. Jaimal worked up the courage to ride the big waves at Mavericks. During the Q&A session, I asked him what it is like to peer over the edge of a gigantic thirty-foot wave. “Terrifying!” And he got pounded, but the pounding wasn’t as bad as he had feared. He went back out and did it again. Jaimal did it enough times that the experience was beginning to be fun. He has spoken with several Mavericks surfers who had near death experiences, and all had to start from the beginning to overcome their fears again.

That reminded me of Greg Noll’s experience. In 1969 Greg paddled into the largest wave ever ridden. He dropped down the face and was buried by tons of white water; he barely survived and he left surfing for good on that day.

In his talk, Jaimal related several stories, events and facts regarding other forms of fear that kept the audience enthralled. He spoke for over an hour and very few people left. Normally after an author completes a talk and opens it up to questions, a large portion of the audience exits. But not this evening, the entire audience hung in there for another 45 minutes until the store manage forced the session to end. Jaimal was still there signing books when I had to dash out the door to make the 8:10 ferry home.

What a stimulating talk on an interesting subject. I’m looking forward to reading the book.