That Oceanic Feeling

As a young woman on Australia's southern coast, Fiona Capp had always loved to go surfing - a most supreme pleasure', in Captain Cook's early words. But then fifteen years went by, she had a child, and suddenly, approaching forty, she realised if she didn't do it again soon she probably never would...That Oceanic Feeling is part travelogue, part inner autobiography, part cultural exploration - about why we surf, and what surfing does to us. Fiona Capp traces the sport's origins back to the earliest Pacific peoples, and establishes when Enlightenment Europe first discovered its exhilarating appeal. She tells of her own re-acquaintance with the surf and her quest to become good enough to take on the fabled and terrifying wave Corsair. And in exploring surfing landscapes from Victoria, Australia to Hawaii, France and Cornwall, she asks why we feel compelled to push ourselves out of our safety zones and venture into unknown waters. That Oceanic Feeling is a beautifully written, original sports book to rival Haunts of the Black Masseur, about a sport hitherto sorely lacking profound literary exploration.