Barbarian Days

Why Surfing?

• Keeps you "in the present"
• Nature, dedication, physical & mental release, overcoming fear
• Playing field is always moving, always changing
• Harnessing energy from a wave that has traveled miles and miles...

Hobby into obsession..

• " In other words, once it emerges from the ­adolescent-rebellion stage of its development, surfing presents itself as a problematic passion…”

My Story

• Jersey shore, Boogey board, '69 Stretch
• "Point Break" - the original!
• College trips - OBX & FL
• Moved to CA in 1998. 12 miles from Santa Cruz, CA
• Hobby to Passion overnight....
• NJ, FL, VA, NC, NY, OR, HI (Oahu, Maui, Kaui), CA north/south, Mainland Mexico & Baja, Nicaragua, Costa Rica

Finnegan's Background

• NY Native, raised CA and HI
• UC Santa Cruz & University of Montana
• Journalistic career covered South Africa at end of Apartheid, war torn Sudan, Mexico factory conditions, Peruvian Andes prospecting
• Staff writer for The New Yorker
• "Playing Doc's Games" - August, 1992

Where this book will take you...

• Oahu & Maui, HI
• South Pacific - Fiji and Micronesia
• Australia - Gold Coast, Western Oz
• Indonesia - Bali, Grajagan, Nias
• Madeira, Portugal
• San Francisco, CA - Ocean Beach

Terminology

• Swell patterns and Bathymetry
• Beach break vs Point Break
• Wave height - Hawaiian vs Mainland
• Localism
• Surfboard shape and design - squash, pin, V, concave, Thruster, Quad, Fish, Log