SURFERMAG.COM CURRENT ISSUE: VOL 44#1

The Chemistry of Fear (con't)

Alladio remembers that she was furious, screaming at Flea that his reckless heroics almost got him and Barney killed. Flea, she said, was nearly gibbering, muttering about that being the gnarliest thing that ever happened to him, that he thought he was going to die. But then suddenly the fear evaporated. "Hey...where's my board?" he asked. And just like that, he was back to normal (or as normal as Flea can be). No shakes, no sitting in the channel for a few hours contemplating the meaning of life, no moments considering a change of career. And I'll bet he was happy as hell for the rest of the day, just another fear junkie getting a good fix.

Neurobiologists now believe that chronically low levels of a critical neurotransmitter called dopamine exist in the brains of high sensation seekers, particularly in a region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. Interestingly, many drugs that elicit feelings of confidence, excitement, euphoria, and well-being also cause an increase in dopamine levels in this part of the brain.

According to the published research on sensation seeking, this kind of behavior does have a root in your genetic code. Some studies have put the heritability of the gene for thrill and adventure seeking (TAS) as high as 58 percent-in other words if you're a hellman, it's probably half your parents' fault. In fact, measurements of another brain chemical, the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO), taken from the umbilical cords of newborns, correlate closely with observed behavioral differences during the first three days of life, with low MAO babies exhibiting more crying, higher activity levels, greater reactivity and less "cuddliness." Now we know why Laird Hamilton was such a "well behaved" child!

When interviewed for this story, Dr. Zuckerman explained that the seemingly fearless self-expression exhibited by some surfers isn't so much the pursuit of fear per se, but the "rewarding effect of these activities, having stimulated the reward center of the brain and elicited the sought-after dopamine response." And while the good doctor disagreed with assertions that the guys in the pit were "self medicating" with this sort of behavior, he did concur that their need for ever-increasing levels of stimulation was much like the attenuation one gets when abusing addictive drugs. Sooner or later more-or in the case of waves, bigger-dosages are needed to approximate the effect.

"The high level sensation seeker of the TAS sort requires situations that are novel, intense, complex and dynamic," says Zuckerman, also mentioning that classic thrill and adventure seeking personality traits include extroversion, confidence, and high boredom susceptibility (this probably explains why many fidgety, hyper-active, high sensation seekers have infuriated school teachers the world over.)