Daniel Duane was born in 1967 and is the author of Looking for Mo and Lighting Out: A Vision of California and the Mountains. He lives and surfs in Santa Cruz, California.
"Wonderful . . . [Duane is] an ontologist of dudedom, Henry David Thoreau doing aerials on a fiberglass board." --Will Blythe, Esquire "Enthralling. Duane has an honest take on surf culture, seeing both the romance and the irony . . . Best of all are his evocative, compelling observations about nature: fresh and thrilling descriptions of scenery and life on the coast." --David Sheff, Los Angeles Times
"Wonderful . . . [Duane is] an ontologist of dudedom, Henry David Thoreau doing aerials on a fiberglass board." --Will Blythe, Esquire "Enthralling. Duane has an honest take on surf culture, seeing both the romance and the irony . . . Best of all are his evocative, compelling observations about nature: fresh and thrilling descriptions of scenery and life on the coast." --David Sheff, Los Angeles Times
Duane's well-received debut, Lighting Out (LJ 3/1/94), told of the author's obsession with rock climbing. Here, he records a year spent on the California coast immersed in the cult of surfing. As much a natural history of Northern California's ocean wildlife‘otters, whales, sea lions, and (inevitably) sharks‘Duane's account is so well written that readers may find themselves shaking their heads during the book's first chapters; this is, after all, heavy treatment for a sport that conjures images of lazy, tow-headed beach bums and their bikinied admirers. Yet Duane neatly justifies the laid-back surfer lifestyle while laying to rest many popular misconceptions. His daily companions include Vince, a math lecturer at a local university who "failed to deliver a final exam once because of a good surf session," and Skinny, who works summers and then spends the rest of the year surfing. "I'd love to get a career going," Skinny levels, "but the problem is...I'm really busy surfing." Almost anti-Gidget in its honest portrayal of an often ascetic lifestyle, this is a fabulously written account that will interest literary athletes and natural history buffs alike. Highly recommended.‘Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"
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