Review

WL Rating

My first real exposure to Cortes Bank came courtesy of Dana Brown’s movie, Step Into Liquid, showing Mike Parsons endlessly dropping into a ridiculously large wave. I had heard of the Bank before that, but nothing really captured the dynamic nature of the place like that clip. Over the past decade, there have been articles here and there about the Bank and that session in particular, but it’s Chris Dixon’s new book, Ghost Wave, that really pulls the wave and its history into clear relief. Dixon’s book is a well-written, engaging history of the Bank from its possible early Native American “discovery”, to its role in the sinking of ships, and on through to its performance in some of the most exciting water theater around. Readers not interested in some of the book’s drier history would do well to at least pick up the book at the point where, in 1965, a couple of audacious, and slightly nutty, entrepreneurs attempt to scuttle a boat and establish a new nation named Abalonia on top of the Bank. Moving past that bit of hilarity, Dixon begins chronicling the Bank’s recent surfing history, and the book’s pace and intensity accelerate. In particular, Dixon does a great job delving into the psyche and motivation of the surfers who ride the Bank. In fact, unlike in Susan Casey’s book The Wave where the surfers are described ad nauseum as fearless, almost godlike, hellmen, Dixon’s approach is much more honest, portraying the surfers‘ in stark HD, capturing their glory along with all their warts....and there are plenty of warts to go around. Whereas I couldn’t see Casey’s book appealing to surfers or scientists, I can say with a high degree of confidence that Dixon’s fine book is one that all surfers will enjoy. (December 2011)

Ghost Wave - Chris Dixon

Details

Category: Non-Fiction

Reading Style: Medium

Pages: 272

Pub Date: 2011

Tags: History, Surfing