oregonsurf.com

My dad was a philosophy major at UW back in the day. He sent me Surfing with Sartre by Aaron James author of the best selling a-holes: A Theory.

Anyway, turns out James is also a surfer. I am about 30 pages in....he is trying his damnedest to tie surfing to a coherent philosophical paradigm. The subtitle is: An Aquatic Inquiry into a life of Meaning.

Anyone else read it already?

Sorry- the Title is actually- Surfing with Sartre

The only (well-written) book I've read on surfing is Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. Highly recommend it yet be prepared to be more than a bit jealous. There's a great passage where his buddy chucks a brand new longboard down a canyon in the late 60's as he didn't want to be caught dead on it once shortboards started showing up.

Sounds interesting. I read a bit of Sarte and Camus back in the day. I really dug that existential stuff.

Herman Hess is my Fav

I really dug Hesse's Der Steppenwolf. A co-worker recommended it to me once but I didn't pick it up until I had to write a paper for a class. The prof told me that the first 50 or so pages were a slog but if I made it through that I would be rewarded. And yes, I was. It's been a long while since I read it, but it really fit my head space at the time.

Yup, that story is a work of literary genius, need to read that one again soon. Really digging on this guy Meher Baba, wrote a book called God Speaks...shite is insane.

Was an English major in college but didn't get to Hesse - focused on Romanticism (Blake, Wordsworth, etc.) but always dug existentialism, dystopia, and post-modernism (Slaughtrerhouse 5 anyone?)

Currently reading "Tribes" by Junger - makes you look at modern society in an entirely new way.

My dad is a huge Blake fan....actually read works from Blake at my little brothers funeral. The power of literature, kind of under rated these days.

Barbarian Day was an amazing book. Loved it having surfed Ocean Beach for 8 seasons. For that reason and many others. The ending was freakin great and inspiring.

I've liked several other surfing books too like Caught Inside and even liked Wisebeker (sp?) forget the name of it even though guy is annoying. Again because I surfed many of the same spots around the same time and could relate.

I'm no literary buff by any means more of a comic book head, but Barbarian Days was well written and the guy is great at articulating all the nuances of surfing. Seems like many non surfing friends and randoms keep telling me about it before I actually dug in.

Cool review, I have some surfer friends that really did enjoy Barbarian Days....I will have to pick it up. Anybody read Breath?
Surfing, deep diving, Australia, suffocation fetishes, little bit of everything and cool story about trying to overcome fear of big wave surfing.

What's up book club?

Currently reading In Deep by Matt George. A+ writing; impeccable credentials. Highly recommend.

Good timing.. I'm currently at the OB/SF section of Barbarian Days, if anybody wants it after, I can pass it along.

Edit:

On the topic of Sartre. I read No Exit over the weekend and it is definitely where Rod Serling took inspiration for the TZ episode "5 Characters in Search for an Exit"

Now cue Foul to come and school us all...

Thanks, Howly. I added it to my reading list.

Barbarian Days is fantastic, Intern. If you like that one, I for sure would recommend reading Caught Inside by Daniel Duane. Saltwater Buddha by Jamail Yogis is also a decent read in a similar vein.

I found Kook by Peter Heller to be pretty humorous as well.

As far as fiction books go, I recently read Breath by Tim Winton as Tex recommended above. It has some really great passages on surfing and learning to ride big waves. Be warned it takes a bit of a weird turn towards the end, though…

Yeah, Breath definitely went a tad bit dark for sure