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Cortes Bank, a submerged oceanic ridge a hundred miles west of the California coast, interrupts ocean swells that have been sweeping across the open Pacific for thousands of miles. The result, when conditions are right, is towering surf: waves that routinely hit 50-60 feet and can, under the right conditions, reach 100 feet or (hypothetically) even more. Surfers who specialize in the biggest of big waves have been drawn to Cores Bank since the 1990s, seeking the ultimate ride. Ghost Wave is a book about the bank, the waves, and the culture of big-wave surfing, but primarily the latter. Whereas Susan Casey's The Wave divided its focus between surfing and science, Dixon is almost entirely about what happens when boards (and towering ambition) meet towering waves.

Ghost Wave is—despite blurbs and reviews to the contrary—very much a "surfing book." Dixon is a surfing journalist, and he writes as if the reader already understands terms like home break, carve, slingshot, goofy foot, waterman, hold down, and the like. The people he's writing about are people he, himself, knows well, so his introductions of them to the reader (and the characterizations that would make one stand out from another in the reader's mind after those introductions) are given short shrift. By the later chapters, I was having difficulty keeping track of who was who in the large cast of characters. "You can't tell the players without a scorecard," the hawkers at the ballpark used to holler, and Dixon neglects to provide the reader with one.

The physics and technique of big-wave surfing, how they differ from surfing on less momentous waves, and why an open-ocean location like Cortes Bank poses unique hazards to surfers never get the kind of "101"-level explanation that they deserve. The lifestyles and psychology of big-wave surfers, and the conflicts within the community about whether, and how much, to share information get ongoing attention from Dixon, but he's too much a member of the community to step back and lay out the bigger picture dispassionately.

I enjoyed Ghost Wave while I was reading it, but (even as I write this, less than a week after finishing it) I find that very little of it has remained with me. It's not that kind of a book. If surfing has found its equivalent David Halberstam or John Feinstein—someone who can take non-participants deep inside the sport and the minds of whose who devote their lives to it—I haven't found them. Yet.
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ABVR | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Mar 16, 2024 |
Wow. What a fantastic book. Definitely not a Just a surf book, nor do you need to be a surfer to appreciate it. This is a fascinating account of a sea mount 100 miles off shore of California and a history of those who have tried to explore it, a crazy cast of characters who tried to Claim it/ colonize it in the 60’s and finally it is about a small subset of surfers who have surf it.
This is a look inside a world most people will never encounter with plenty of first hand accounts f what is is like to surf on 60 foot waves, and why they do it.
Best of all the author is a hell of a good writer and storyteller.
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zmagic69 | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Mar 31, 2023 |
Dixon is a surfer, journalist, and surf journalist who got fascinated with the Cortes Bank. The first part of the book concerns its history, including the episode in which a Hollywood celebrity planned, in 1966, to sink a derelict concrete Liberty Ship on top of the Bank and surround it with boulders to form an island. This island would declare itself the sovereign nation of Abalonia, and rake in the fishing profits.

The ship got there; so did a swell. The ship's rebar bones are home to lobsters. Owing to luck and courage, nobody died, and Dixon was able to learn the bizarro story in detail.

The second part of the book is the history of big-wave surfers as they interact with the Bank. If you liked Susan Casey's The Wave, you'll like this. It's also a good book to seed digital excursions: you can explore the Bank in detail in Google Earth (it's well surveyed), explore other bits of coast, maybe watch the odd surfing documentary.
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BASK | 2 weitere Rezensionen | Sep 23, 2020 |

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