Journalist Heller's gripping memoir of finding the value of life while shooting the curl off Baja starts off as a disappointing middle-aged man's lament about the lack of love and meaning in his life. Just back from an exhausting assignment in Tibet, he gets a phone call from an old friend in California who wants Heller to come out so they can take surfing lessons together. Reluctant at first to leave Denver and his girlfriend, Kim, he follows the call to this new adventure. At Huntington Beach, Heller violates every rule of surfing etiquette, and other surfers vilify him as a kook, a beginning surfer. Initially, Heller is embarrassed, but he soon becomes so consumed by surfing that he brings Kim to California with him so that she can take lessons; soon, the two are traveling to various surfing locales in California and Mexico as Heller follows the waves. People admire surfers so much, he argues, because they have bowed to a force greater than themselves—the wave—and have transformed themselves into beings who can respond to such power with grace, humility, and beauty. By the end of this powerful memoir, Heller has learned that surfing is not simply about staying up on your board; it's about love: of a woman, of living, of the sea. (July)
Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave
Narrated by Mike Chamberlain
Peter HellerUnabridged — 10 hours, 9 minutes
Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave
Narrated by Mike Chamberlain
Peter HellerUnabridged — 10 hours, 9 minutes
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Overview
Having resolved to master a big-hollow wave-that is, to go from kook (surfese for beginner) to shredder-in a single year, Heller travels from Southern California down the coast of Mexico in the company of his girlfriend and the eccentric surfers they meet. Exuberant and fearless, Heller explores the technique and science of surfing the secrets of its culture, and the environmental ravages to the stunning coastline he visits.
As Heller plumbs the working of his own heart and finds joy in both love and surfing, he affords listeners vivid insight into this fascinating world, with all of its perils and pleasures, its absurdity and wonder. Exhilarating, entertaining, and moving, Kook is a love story between a man and his surfboard, a man and his girlfriend, a not-so-old man and the sea.
Editorial Reviews
"In this rich and gracefully written book, Heller's creative and artistic abilities are on full display. We follow along with him on an insightful, year-long quest as he grapples with the dual, ever capricious, challenges of love and the sea."
—National Outdoor Book Award
“Breathtaking. . . . As Heller slips deeper and deeper into the surfing world, he teeters at the edge of obsession. . . . Over the course of this journey, Heller comes to understand the power of the waves, the value of the ocean and its suffering at the hands of man. Perhaps most important, he discovers his ability to commit, to love.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“Told with an honesty and self-deprecating sense of humor, Heller’s tale is as much about surfing as it is about his personal growth as an individual once he starts getting his glide on. With a finely trained ability to both have insight and share it, Heller connects the dots between the simple act of surfing, emotional health, personal redemption, and our duty to work as stewards of Mother Earth. Next time an employer, a parent, or a significant other questions why you surf or what the bigger meaning of so much time getting waterlogged actually adds up to, this book is the ideal answer to give them.”
—Santa Barbara Independent
“The book may be about surfing, but the real subject here is obsession. How far is one man willing to push his body, mind, and relationship to achieve a singular goal? Though Peter Heller may end up catching a wave that is perfect, the life lessons along the way are even more powerful.”
—Mark Obmascik, author of Halfway to Heaven and The Big Year
“Heller is a guy you would want to go on an adventure with: likeable, fallible, good-humored, given to near-fatal bouts of love—for the ocean, for his girl, for the perfect wave. What begins as a mid-life crisis evolves, in this engaged and engaging story, into a deeply impassioned stand on behalf of marine-life, and of all life. Kook makes the dangerously unhip suggestion that it is still possible to find meaning—even transcendence—in the ever diminishing natural world.”
—Pam Houston, author of Sight Hound
“Heller takes us on a wild, unforgettable adventure with the poet's gift for capturing the quintessential in risking everything and the transformation that comes with it. This book is a funny, compelling exploration of love, surfing and the everyday, even when life proves as uncompromising as the wave.”
—Rebecca Rowe, author of Forbidden Cargo
"The author has a great feel for people… As a result, the reader gets to know a collection of fascinating characters: surf stars, expats, and environmentalists, to say nothing of the creatures of the sea…Mr. Heller’s colorful and informative paean to humility belongs on the bookshelves of kooks and surf gods alike." —The East Hampton Star
"Heller has learned that surfing is not simply about staying up on your board; it's about love: of a woman, of living, of the sea." —Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Narrator Mike Chamberlain gives a staid performance of this memoir about writer Peter Heller’s introduction to surfing in his 40s, an undertaking that eventually led him to devote a full year to his quest to become an adept surfer. Heller meets a lot of colorful characters when he and his girlfriend, Kim, take off in a converted van to spend a year along the Pacific Coast in California and Mexico. Chamberlain gives each character an accent or slight change in tone. But the focus is always on the story itself, which explores Heller’s journey while also delving into the history of surfing, environmental issues, the nature of obsession, and finding meaning in life. A.F. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
A midlife crisis spurs an adventure writer to pursue surfing. At 45, having just completed a mountain-climbing expedition in Tibet, Heller (The Whale Warriors: The Battle at the Bottom of the World to Save the Planet's Largest Mammals, 2008, etc.) was eager for a new adventure. He found it in Orange County, Calif., where a college buddy proposed that they learn to surf. Neoprene wetsuits and surfboards set the stage for a reckless, overconfident first attempt at Huntington Beach that went awry ("windmilling arms, big splashes") and incited the ire of nearby seasoned pros who recognize a "kook" (beginner surfer) when they see one. Undeterred by bruising and exhaustion, Heller continued even after he'd abandoned the beach for several writing opportunities and returned three years later fortified with a healthy determination to become a skilled surfer in just six months. Though his restless lifestyle had made him romantically undesirable in the past, current girlfriend Kim agreed to join him and the pair married. Heller and his new wife soon became ensconced in the Southern California surfing community, then traveled to Mexico. However, their new adventures were tabled in favor of Heller's participation in exposing the slaughter of whales and dolphins by Japanese fishermen. The author deviates from his waterborne exploits to opine on the state of surfing (a booming "billion-dollar industry") and its diverse culture, and he notes that his time negotiating coastal waters afforded him the opportunity to assess the rapidly deteriorating state of West Coast beaches and coastal erosion. Negotiating riptides and surprise swells, Heller eventually developed a fresh appreciation for "the forces a surfer deals with" and, even as a neophyte, applauded their "prowess and grace." "Surfers are an intense bunch," he writes, "and they love their coast the way they love their mothers."A glib, charming take on a popular watersport. Agent: David Halpern/The Robbins Office
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170631339 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 03/15/2016 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
Kook
What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect WaveBy Peter Heller
Free Press
Copyright © 2010 Peter HellerAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780743294201
WITNESS
I had watched the seal catch two waves. Now his head popped up beside me where I sat on my board. I almost fell off in surprise. “Hi,” I stammered. He blinked, unafraid and curious. Oh, man, I thought, he wants to be my friend. “Right?” I proffered. The seal didn’t seem to be into conversation. He turned his head toward the open ocean, just like a surfer looking for a set. Wow. These are the kind of moments we dream about. He had position on me. I mean that, technically, he was closer to the peak where the waves broke and so the next wave belonged to him. But no rule of surf etiquette said I had to yield to a pinniped. I’m going, I thought. Next good wave is mine. You can catch waves all day long.
He turned his sleek head and looked at me with such frank and kindly condescension that I winced. What on earth are you doing in my house? he seemed to say. You are such a kook.
Kook means “beginner surfer.” It is not a neutral term; it carries a slug of derision, a brand for the clueless, for those without hope, without grace, without rhythm. To be a kook is to be consigned to a kind of beginner’s hell. The seal disappeared in a swirl of green water. Good. I always messed up when someone was watching. I needed a little alone time.
I sat on the board and focused on the horizon. My ocean-sharpened eyes were hunting set waves—the distinctly bigger, more powerful swells that came like big fat birthday presents out of the Pacific. One was bound to have my name on it.
Was that one? Way, way out? Yes! I turned the board and lay down. Ready!
Surfers, people who actually knew how to surf, spun their boards just under the wave and took off. Not me. I needed a lot of lead time. I started paddling. My wave might not get here for a while, but I’d have some momentum.
The seal’s head popped up, not ten feet away. Now he was about to burst with glee. Evidently he thought I was hilarious. He kept his head half turned, eyes unblinking and locked on mine as he effortlessly cruised beside me on my right. Go ahead, laugh! I thought. You won’t be the first, but I’m getting this wave. I already suspected he could read my mind, so I added, Big shot.
I looked once over my shoulder. Oh, man, there it was, the building wall, barreling in just behind, steepening, lifting. This was it. The wave picked up my tail and shot me forward. Yes! Okay, okay, pop up!
In the split second it took to attempt the most crucial move in surfing—from passenger-prone to standing and in control—two thoughts flashed: Anything is possible. And: What the hell am I doing here?
© 2010 Peter Heller
Continues...
Excerpted from Kook by Peter Heller Copyright © 2010 by Peter Heller. Excerpted by permission.
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