Its only Drowning - finished

The Coffee Shop
1

Its an easy read.

I found it massively underwhelming, glad I read it on holiday.

Anecdotally it was interesting; right meets left. I’d certainly align more with the author than his brother in law and we share many of the same views and a total lack of understanding of how the other side ends up where it ends up, but I just did not think it was the great.

I think the only takeaway was that we all need to find the place where we can agree; Taylor Swift, surfing and edge in to those other contentious spaces cautiously but I was not overly impressed

Part of that I think is I started meeting his brother in law when I started BJJ - conspiracy theorists, anti vaxers, covids a hoax, don’t wear masks and there are a massive range of backgrounds; lawyers, surgeons and dentists to the unemployed student socialists and everything inbetween and it’s clear 5 years in, there are not productive discussions to be bad because if you think the earth is flat, or pharma creates diseases for which they have vaccinations we are starting from a position so far apart it’s an unbelievable gap and the response to many of these push backs is you’re a brainwashed chump so I go to class,.roll, talk shit and leave and it turns out surfing is has the same breadth of characters

Barbarian days was infinitely better

2

I’ll agree that Barbarian Days was better, but that’s the Gold Standard for Surf Storytelling, isn’t it?

It’s like saying “in the genre of stories about being chasing a fish that’s also chasing you, Jaws is not as good as Moby Dick”

I posted my review in the Reading thread (I wanted to put it in the Surfing thread, but I was the last responder in that one, and I’ve maxed out my “three posts in a row” limit, so it’s stuck down there; much like getting a leash tangled in a reef, and no way to come back up)

Although I haven’t stood up on a surfboard in decades, I can still vividly remember all the sensations, and David renders them perfectly

In my day, I surfed a lot of the breaks he goes to in Jersey, and his descriptions are pretty accurate. I’ve not travelled the globe as he & his brother-in-law do, but I’ve seen enough of them on YouTube to say “yep. That’s about right”

His use of metaphor in describing wave heights in “dry land” term is hilarious. Usually, waves are tallied in body parts: “ankle-high” “knee-high” “waist-high” etc., up to “overhead” “double-overhead” and beyond; David uses things you might see or find around the house: garden gnome, daffodil, kitchen counter

ETA: the nicknames he comes up with other surfers are hilarious: “The Predator”, “Angry Face”, etc

I wasn’t looking to learn anything about the gulf between David and his brother-in-law, or if it ever got resolved. I was looking at the process of learning how to surf, the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of being an outsider in a world of outsiders, and how one navigates that

I gave it :star::star::star::star:

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I’m with you. I’m a very old time surfer. Found his writing spot on describing the emotional, physical, and mental aspects of his surfing journey. Wonderful read plus it’s nice to mingle with all kinds.

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Forgot to add this review
From Brendan “Semi-Rad” Leonard

I don’t surf, but I loved William Finnegan’s Pulitzer-winning surfing memoir, Barbarian Days, which I think will be a far different book than David Litt’s new memoir about learning to surf as an adult, It’s Only Drowning. I mean, when your book has blurbs by Laird Hamilton, Judd Apatow, and the former U.S. Treasury Secretary, it probably comes from a unique perspective.

5

It took less than a day and half to read it between incessant kids activities…I mean it was fine but…

Dirt and Barbarian days were amazing.

This was like lee child…:grimacing:

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I think you are quite well rounded in activities, ideas, life. Do you surf or did you used to surf?

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I have tried it. In fact we are having lessons and renting boards this week but Finnegan is correct, after 15, let alone 50 it’s too late

So I’d say I was a not terrible athlete, I ski and snowboard well, used to golf well and have nearly 5 years of BJJ

Surfing is difficult, but all of the above are to do well. I think part of the problem with surfing is it’s difficult just to do it badly let alone well

Going from cobra type pose to standing - I don’t have hip mobility to get foot between hands…

It’s difficult

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Regular or Goofy?

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Board goofy and tried surfing goofy

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He’s not helping me stand up

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This looks like it could be a scene from the book