Kook: What Surfing Taught Me about Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave [Paperback]

I have not been surfing for very long so I am definitely a Kook. Surfing has taught me a lot about life and people and it's great to be able to read about other peoples experiences. This is a very inspirational book and when reading it, I just wanted to go out and catch a wave. A great piece of surf art I found is Palmetto State Surf Art Poster. This piece really captures my lifestyle and my love for surfing and the ocean.

This is my first review ever, and I'm only writing it because there were none, so I figured it would be helpful to prospective purchasers to have something here other then professional reviews.

I'll start by saying this book is an easy read, entertaining and well worth the price of admission, even to non-surfers. Heller, as a self desribed kook (or beginner), takes us slowly into surfing culture and lingo at a pace where we can easily understand certain aspects of surfing without actually being a surfer. There is a good feel for the complexity and commitment that it takes to become proficient at surfing and I thought the author was able to get the emotions and spirituality of the surfing experience across to a wider audience. As a surfing lifestyle book, I think it is a sucess.

The other themes of the book are secondary: Ocean Conservation and Relationships. It is obvious Heller's passion is the ocean and there is a conservationist message sprinkled throughout that is mostly well integrated, but at times seemed a bit forced. If you are a right wing ultra conservative (or Japanese) you may find the message off putting, but if you fall into that camp you probably wouldn't be out surfing or reading this book.

The only reason I didn't give the book a full five stars is because I wasn't convinced Heller learned the relationship advice he was giving himself as he grew throughout the book. Towards the end of the book, he doesn't seem to be any more understanding of his girlfriend/wife's difficulties, and even if he understands, he doesn't seem to actually *do* anything about it, he just goes surfing and leaves her behind or whines about having to wait for her, even though he knows its selfish. As a relationship book, I think this fails. Heller seems proud of the fact that he finally realizes he is being a selfish jerk, but he doesn't seem to improve his behaiviour. Why?

Finally, it seems towards the end of his book he has become good at surfing, but bad at having a good surfing attitude. He seems to have become the guy he complains about in the beginning of the book, snaking (stealing) waves from lesser surfers and acting out aggressively at the slightest provocation. I may have gotten this wrong since towards the last few chapters Heller is no longer surfing 'beginner' waves and the opportunity to be polite to kooks doesn't present itself as often, but if his self described behaviour in his last true beginner's wave ('Old Man's' in Cabo or Acapulquito) is any indication, his attitude has become one where his superiority allows him to break the rules of courtesy he had such a hard time learning in the first few chapters.

I may be overly sensitive to the subject since I was just there (Acapulquito) last week: There was a gringo in a longboard that kept paddling around me to the peak, when it was obviuos it was my wave. Several times. Then he did it several times to my son. Some sort of turtle-ish tatoo on his left bicep. He wasn't even that good! Heller, was that you? :) Interestingly, the locals were more than polite and never snaked. They knew where to be at the right time for the right wave, so they didn't have to.

In conclusion, Heller's book is good. It is entertaining, which is what every good book should strive to be, and the writing is adjective rich and descriptive- almost too much so at times. The message is there and the topics are timely, and I came away with the feeling that although Heller is not the guy I want to run into at the lineup of my home break in Puerto Rico (or dating my daughter, for that matter), he IS the guy I want out there writing about whales and sea turtles, and hopefully making a difference.

First things first - based on reading this book only and none of his other work, Peter Heller seems to be a decent writer and has the potential to be good. I get the sense that he knows how to tell a story pretty well and he has a better than average grasp of how to describe things using colorful language. The middle of this book is entertaining and kept me reading on to the end, but the beginning and the end really fell flat. At the beginning I thought I was in for a very bumpy and unpleasant ride because the author has some stylistic tendencies that I find annoying, like his love of the sentence fragment. I'm pretty sure he uses them intentionally, but it's still bad grammar. His editorial team should have fixed them, but and this is the biggest problem with the book - the editors didn't do their jobs. It's a shame because with a decent editorial team, this book could be really good. I found countless major errors in grammar and vocabulary throughout this book. "Funnest" and "disattached" are two notable examples of non-words that didn't get axed. In his many attempts at literary description, the author misused several adjectives (for example, "capricious" to describe the sun and "turgid" to describe heat). Heller's writing and this book are turgid. Repetition and descriptive hyperbole populate these pages ad nauseum. The editor's greatest disservice to Mr. Heller was in allowing this book to ramble on for 323 pages. It could have been a much more pleasant experience had they cut a good 20% or more of the text. Mr. Heller, for your next book, I suggest you find a better copywriter and editor.

As far as the story itself goes, I got the sense that the author didn't learn a thing except how to surf. Even that story was lost in all the description and unnecessary detail that should have been edited out. Nevertheless the core of the book is good, which is why I gave it three stars instead of two. If you know nothing about surfing, then you might find the explanations he provides interesting. If you are, like me, from Baja California Sur, you will find his descriptions of the places and people you know interesting as well. But, like so many other reviewers, I feel the need to point out to any beginning surfers that Heller's take on surfing is, well, kooky. He doesn't really "get" it. He seems more concerned about being cool than with being considerate and respectful of his fellow surfers (or his wife!). And he has the nerve to suggest that surfing "aloha" doesn't exist any more. He is wrong and does a disservice to the sport by spouting this kind of trash.