Amy Waeschle - Chasing Waves: A Surfers Tale of Obsessive Wandering

Praise for CHASING WAVES by Amy Waeschle

Any person who has ever daydreamed about traveling the world to conquer her personal goals and passions will love Amys chronicle. From the first chapter to the last page, I felt as if I was reliving my own past surf travels. A sense of freedom, overcoming fears, discovering new cultures, dealing with love, the exciting, unexplainable feeling of riding a wavethis is what Chasing Waves is all about.

Mary Osborne, pro surfer and co-author of Sister Surfer: A Womans Guide to Surfing with Bliss and Courage

Like a big, smooth wave peeling toward everybody who loves a good story, Chasing Waves takes you along on the surf-obsessed walkabout youve always dreamed of, but never had a chance to do. The people, the places, the loves, the losses, and the aching curiosity about ones own destiny and motivationsits all rendered here in strong, fresh prose. This beautiful, worthy book has a place in every surf-literature home library, and is doubtless just the beginning of a great writers career.

Daniel Duane, author of Caught Inside:A Surfers Year on the California Coast

With love and respect for the ocean, Chasing Waves captures the soul of surfing and the search for adventure from a female perspective.

Isabelle Izzy Tihanyi, founder and co-owner of Surf Diva Surf School

Amy Waeschle has written a beautiful book that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you go seek out a surfboard and the nearest ocean. Lyrical, heartfelt, and flat-out entertaining, this book is one wave that you must catch.

Jeff Shelby, author of Wicked Break and Killer Swell

I also have spent much of my life dreaming of bikinis, boards, and green waves; hence, I followed a very similar quest to Amysthat of becoming an efficient and competent surfer. Her book left me in stitches! Enjoy it as an armchair adventure read, and marvel at how conquering our fears makes us stronger, more confident people in everyday life.

Alison Gannett, world champion extreme skier and award-winning global cooling consultant

I was lost in these tales of the failures, successes, and passions of a surfing life. Truthfully funny and warmhearted,Chasing Waves is about a surfing odyssey of which most of us can only dream. Its inspiring to know that it can become a reality!

Belinda Peterson-Baggs, pro surfer

Chasing Waves is the first book Ive read that actually gives the reader a realistic look at what it feels like to be a surfer. Amy Waeschle cuts through all the clichs about surfing to reveal an amazing life journey by a bold yet cautious woman who decides to dedicate her life to this exhilarating sport. (Who else could explain why surfers crave waves like women crave chocolate?) Her writing is so vivid that I feel as if I just traveled to places like Fiji and Costa Rica; I can almost feel the mud on my feet and smell the salt in my hair. After reading this book, surfing will no longer feel like such a mystery to the non-surfer. Pack this book on your next adventure!

Jenny Stewart, owner, Surf Sister Surf Schools

THE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS is the nonprofit publishing arm of The Mountaineers Club, an organization founded in 1906 and dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas.

1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134

2009 by Amy Waeschle
All rights reserved
First edition, 2009

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Portions of this text previously appeared in altered form in the Patagonia catalog.

Certain surfing locations have been left vague or their names have been changed. This is intentional and is intended to preserve the sense of discovery shared by all surfers.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Copy Editor: Colin Chisholm
Cover Design: Karen Schober
Book Design and Layout: Mayumi Thompson
Cover photograph: Caroline Woodham/Getty Images
Back cover photograph: Amy Waeschle after surfing Namo Beach, Kadavu Island, Fiji (Photo by Kurt Waeschle)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Waeschle, Amy.
Chasing waves : a surfers tale of obsessive wandering / Amy Waeschle.1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59485-113-1 (ppb)
1. Waeschle, Amy. 2. SurfersUnited StatesBiography. 3. Surfing. I. Title.
GV838.W33 2009
797.32092dc22
[B]

2009009467

Printed on recycled paper

FOR KURT

Listen: when someone tells me he or she wants to learn the athleticism, the art, of surfing, my first reaction is invariably, Careful, it can change everything.
Alan Weisbecker, In Search of Captain Zero

the point being, I now know for certain, not the thrill of risk or the pride of achievement, but rather the dailiness of well-spent time, the accumulation of moments that will never translate into anything but a private sense of well-being.
Daniel Duane, Caught Inside

I REMEMBER THE EXACT MOMENT I realized my love for surfing had become an obsession. I sat across from my husband on a remote beach in Washington State, my five-millimeter wetsuit peeled past my bikini top to my waist, the morning sun warming my shoulders. Late summer breezes stirred the leaves of the alders edging the shore, and the faint hiss and growl of the surf drifted over the dunes. Our morning session of playful waves had ended only because we craved coffee and the lineup had grown to more than ten surferscrowded for those parts. It was the perfect summer moment. I should have been blissfully satisfied, but I wasnt.

I was frustrated by the lack of wave time available to us in the Northwest. Unlike in California or even Oregon, Washingtons surfing beaches are far from metropolitan areas, accessible only after many hours of driving. Unless we decided to relocate to the fringes (think double-wides, red-checked flannel, and lots and lots of moss), live off the land (think fish, moonshine, and moss), surfing could be only an occasional pastime, a way to fill up free weekends when the conditions looked promising. Which was another thorn in my side: often wed make the five-hour pilgrimage to the coast only to find the winds too strong, the swell direction not quite right, or because of missing the early ferry, wed also missed the tide. So instead of surfing, wed drive around, chasing our tails, knowing that wed been skunked yet again.

I was hungry to be a better surfer, a good surferlike Kurt and our surfing buddy Rick. Id read about a place where I could make this happen. A place with warm water and perfect waves that peeled the length of endless beaches the color of cinnamon and gold. No camping in the cold rain. No wetsuits. No getting skunked. No moss.

Lets go to Costa Rica, I blurted.

Kurt took another sip of his coffee and eyed me warily. Er, yeah, someday.

No, I replied. In October.

Kurt looked alarmed. This isnt about that surf camp again, is it?

Kurt had learned to surf as a kid in Southern California. Back then nobody taught surfing; you just grabbed a board and paddled out and got thrashed. One day you figured out how to catch a wave, and in a few years you