Body Surfing: " The Closest Thing To Being Born" - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com

"Even if body surfing were not the purest form of riding waves, the most fundamental test of man against ocean, the hairiest water activity going and, as someone once said, "the closest thing to the great trauma of being born"—all of which it probably is—the Wedge would be one of nature's finest showcases..."

https://vault.si.com/vault/1971/02/22/the-closest-thing-to-being-born