Lost your stoke? Need some new reads? Not frothing on cold water surfing? Open up one of these books and be taken to a tropical paradise with some cool buds and tasty waves.
My favorite surf book ever. This book really captures the essence of a surf travel for me. It opened my mind to the magic and wildness of Mexico.
On his journey from New York to Central America in search of a long lost friend he finds himself in some wild locales. Surfing empty waves and gathering clues of his dear friend Captain Zero’s where about along the way. Hilarious and entraining from beginning to end.
I still dream of driving through Mexico to Central America, maybe one day it will happen. Eventually I did make it to Salsa Brava though, a town in the far south on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. As far as I know Captain Zero is still living there. My sister ran into him a few years ago in Panama and they surfed together.
I read this book while living in Hawaii. The author “Rabbit” is an Australian surf legend who writes about his adventures in Hawaii in the winter of 1975. The Australian was almost chased out of Hawaii, first by locals then by huge waves crashing through their front door in the night.
After reading this book I moved to Australia and eventually met him at Southern Cross University where I was studying Sports Management “surfing studies”. I remember we were all sitting at our desk with him in the front of the class. He was a guest speaker I cant really remember what it was about but we sort of just had an open discussion with him. He asked us if we could maybe leave our desk and sit in a circle on the floor instead. Legend indeed.
“The particulars of new places grabbed me and held me, the sweep of new coasts, cold, lovely, dawns. The world was incomprehensibly large, and there was still so much to see. Yes, I got sick sometimes of being an expatriate, always ignorant, on the outside of things, but I didn't feel ready for domestic life, for seeing the same people, the same places, thinking more or less the same thoughts, each day. I liked surrendering to the onrush, the uncertainty, the serendipity of the road.” — Finnegan
This quote taken from the book sums up the excitement of surf travel. Never knowing what is around the next corner. Traveling to new place and exposing yourself to new cultures, embracing the unexpected. I read it in a few days. After reading I starting thinking about surfing bigger waves and began training a few weeks later.