In this memoir, William Finnegan writes of a lifetime spent chasing waves — of riding a board for the first time in California, searching for unsurfed waves in the South Pacific, and feeling the irresistible pull of the ocean time and time again.
“The surf was your refuge, your happy hiding place, but it was also a hostile wilderness—a dynamic, indifferent world. At thirteen, I had mostly stopped believing in God, but that was a new development, and it had left a hole in my world, a feeling that I’d been abandoned. The ocean was like an uncaring God, endlessly dangerous, power beyond measure.”
But this book is about so much more than surfing. It’s about nurturing an intimate relationship with the natural world, of seeking a simple life and learning to live off the land and the sea. It’s about yearning to decipher the mysteries of the ocean, while understanding that we will always be at her mercy — something I think few comprehend better than surfers!