Somewhere on the North Shore, a surfer sits on his board in the lineup and waits for a set that will decide his next heat. Before the paddle, before the drop, before a single wave has broken, he says he has already been there. That is the core of a short, six-minute video from Dr. Joe Dispenza's channel featuring professional surfer Koa Smith, who grew up on Kauai and has spent much of his life chasing the largest waves on the planet. After a traumatic brain injury took him out of the water for roughly a year, Smith says he found a different kind of focus in a daily meditation practice. He now uses it to rehearse the outcome he wants before he goes out: seeing himself safely back on the beach, locking onto one specific wave, and committing without doubt when the moment arrives. He ties that practice to a contest result he calls one of the defining moments of his career, and to a larger shift from living in survival mode to living in possibility.
Smith introduces himself plainly: he is from Kauai, Hawaii, he is a professional surfer, and he does a lot of big-wave surfing, including Pipeline, which he describes as one of the most dangerous waves in the world. He started surfing at age three and says he was raised by nature as much as by his family. The video does not dwell on his résumé. It moves quickly to the turning point.
That turning point was a traumatic brain injury sustained while surfing. In the video he describes the year that followed in blunt terms: he could not surf, could not hang out with his friends, and could not do anything "that the Koa that I knew could do." The chapter the video labels "A traumatic brain injury changes everything" is the emotional foundation of the whole piece. Without that loss, there is no reason for the meditation practice that comes later.
"I couldn't surf. I couldn't hang out with my friends. I couldn't do anything that the Koa that I knew could do."
— Koa Smith, in the video (0:53)
Smith also describes depression that followed the concussion, and he is open about looking for healing outside conventional routes. He says he had an experience with psilocybin in which he felt a spontaneous healing, and that afterward he "never felt the depression that came along with the concussion again." He does not present that experience as a prescription. He presents it as the moment he began to look for a clearer map to healing, and it is the bridge to the work that now shapes his days.
The distinction Smith draws is the most useful idea in the video. He says that what he encountered in Dr. Joe's work showed him that "you can reach that psychedelic realm of just being so connected, but instead of ingesting something and being on this really intense ride, you can take yourself there." In other words, the state of deep connection he had touched with a substance could be approached through the mind, on purpose, and repeated.
"It was the first time someone is putting into words what I deeply felt inside."
— Koa Smith, in the video (1:23)
He goes further: "I feel like once you discover this work, then the rules of life change." What changed, in his telling, is the way he approaches his days. He describes it as "being very clear on what I want to do and going through my life with that at the front of my heart." That phrase, clarity of intention carried at the front of the heart, is the thread that runs through every other part of his account.
Smith also contrasts meditation with the usual ways people chase the feeling that surfing gives them. He says that surfing is one of the most intense, unpredictable sports, that the feeling it gives is hard to find on land, and that many people "go towards drugs and alcohol" to keep that adrenaline going. His claim is that meditation taught him to find the same aliveness without the crash that follows.
Smith says he meditates every single morning, and that "the longer the meditation, the better." The benefit he names is a kind of synchronicity: "The more I'm in that, just the more synchronized my life is and the more magic I experience." He is not describing a relaxation routine. He is describing a rehearsal.
The most concrete part of the practice is what he does before he goes out. In his words, he tunes in to the outcome he wants. The sequence he describes has three steps:
- Tune in to the outcome. He pictures being back on the beach, which is the end of a safe session.
- Tune in to safety. He holds the feeling of being safe as part of the picture, not as an afterthought.
- Tune in to the exact wave. He selects the specific wave he wants to ride and holds it in mind.
"I tune in to being on the beach. I tune in to being safe and then I tune into the exact wave that I want to experience and then when I'm done with my meditation and I go out there and I see that wave, I just I'm all in."
— Koa Smith, in the video (2:46)
What matters for a surfer is what happens after the meditation ends. Smith says he does not reopen the question. "I'm not questioning whether it's right or wrong. You can't have self-doubt." At Pipeline, a half-second of hesitation is the difference between a drop and a wipeout, so that instruction is not abstract. The meditation is meant to settle the decision before the water makes it for him. He also frames the commitment as total: when he sees a wave coming in, he says, you cannot have self-doubt, limitation, or a sense of unworthiness, and you put in "a 110% commitment."
The same logic, he says, applies off the water. "Not letting fear hold you back from going all in on what you want" is how he describes the pattern he sees in surfing that carries into life.
The video's central story takes place around a contest. Smith says that about three days before the Pipe Masters, he did a meditation he calls Body Electric. At the end, where you lay your body down, he started to drift, and then, in his description, he was suddenly inside a barrel, "the most beautiful barrel," looking at the wave. He asked it a question he had never asked before: "How are you anyway?" The ocean answered, in his account, with "this deep vibration" that was "so vibrant and so loud" that it woke him up.
"I was like, 'How are you anyway?' Like I've never asked the ocean, 'How are you?' And it responded in this deep vibration."
— Koa Smith, in the video (3:26)
That was the lead-up. In the final heat of the event, Smith needed a specific score to advance to the final. He says he "just felt like I was in the zone" and that he went out with a clear intention. A wave he calls one of the craziest he had ever seen came in. He paddled as hard as he could, barely made the drop, pulled into the biggest, most beautiful barrel he had ever seen, and came out at the end of it. He describes the beach erupting "like being in a stadium." He received a perfect 10-point ride and advanced to the final.
Smith's reading of the result is not about luck. "To me, it just felt like the universe like 'We see you. Like we're matching your effort and like here you go.'" He calls it the most powerful experience of his life. The video does not claim that meditation caused the score, and it is worth being precise about that: Smith's own framing is that the practice shaped his intention and commitment, and that the moment felt like a response to that commitment.
"To me, it just felt like the universe like 'We see you. Like we're matching your effort and like here you go.'"
— Koa Smith, in the video (4:33)
The last section of the video is less about surfing than about temperament. Smith says that since he began this work, "my entire life has changed." Before, he says, he was in survival mode, thinking "Oh, I got to do this. Well, I got to do that." Now he says he is "playing the game."
He credits the work with helping him see what was out of alignment in his life and with getting rid of the things that were "holding me down and making me feel unworthy." The phrase "a little bit of a manual to play this game in the most unlimited way" captures his sense of what the practice gave him: not a set of rules, but a framework for choosing what to focus on.
"Like all of a sudden you have a little bit of a manual to play this game in the most unlimited way. If you can think it, you can do it."
— Koa Smith, in the video (5:00)
Smith's closing message is simple. "All possibilities exist," he says, and if you can connect to a possibility and commit to it, you can "watch it as it evolves and comes into your life." He encourages people to "dream as big as you can and live the dream life," and to take the leap and see what happens. He describes the whole thing as "one big experiment," and adds that it "just worked."
"It's up to you to dream as big as you can and live the dream life."
— Koa Smith, in the video (5:54)
What makes this more than an inspirational clip is the specificity of the method. Smith is not asking viewers to believe in the universe. He is describing a repeatable sequence: a daily practice, a picture of the outcome that includes safety, a selection of a precise target, and a decision to commit without reopening it. Whatever one makes of his interpretation of the Pipe Masters moment, the practice itself is concrete enough to test in a smaller setting.
If this piece has you thinking about your own version of tuning into the outcome before a hard moment, the best next step is the source itself. Watch Smith's six-minute video from Dr. Joe Dispenza's channel, paying attention to the chapter on his pre-wave practice. Then explore more of Dr. Joe's work through his website at drjoedispenza.com, which the channel links to in its description.
A practical way to start is small. Pick one situation in the next week that matters to you, such as a conversation, a presentation, or a physical challenge. Spend a few minutes before it picturing the outcome you want, including the feeling of being safe and capable. Then name one specific piece of it, the way Smith names "the exact wave," and commit to it without rehearsing your doubts. Notice what changes, not only in the result but in how you carry yourself into it.
