Caught Inside: A Surfer's Year on the California Coast

I started surfing the San Francisco to Santa Cruz coast line back in 1963. I could never put into words the the beauty, joy and sense of freedom I experienced.Thank you Daniel Duane your book is everything and more.

I am not a surfer, I probably never will be a surfer. But this book captured me, not because it's about surfing, but because it's about one person's attempt to feel, experience, and then communicate his total communion with a rare piece of our Earth --- the Pacific Coast of California where the waves wash up on the Point. It's nature writing at its most profound....an attempt to take one little piece of the globe and get across what it's all about. I read this, wierdly enough, while camping at Tahoe, and it transformed my whole camping experience,as I tried to appreciate and then replicate the detailed beauty of view Duane brought to the Santa Cruz coast up in the mountains I was wandering, and then tried to feel hiking/tramping/backpacking the way he obviously feels surfing. Read it to appreciate surfing, to learn the ocean,to feel a piece of real peace. Sweet stuff!

This is a terrific book. The reviewers who complained about the history and the overly- descriptive prose are really just reflecting the mind-set they brought to the book, because he does both of those well. I mean, that's the book he set out to write. Also, there is not a story here - rather it is a collection of essays, like that from a journal. Approach this for what it is: a bang-on personal report about what it's like to live a surfer's life revolving around the beach, wind, swells and tides. It's extremely accurate.

This book offers the side of surfing that no one ever talks about; The "spiritual commune with nature". There is a powerful comradiere one experiences when you are surfing. The power of nature in all its forms can challenge you, but also reminds you of how alive you really are. The No-Cal surfing experience is simply awesome. Daniel Duane has put into words an experience that we all feel in a moment; when the sun is setting, the winds are off-shore, the wildlife is all around you and a beautiful wave, which has travelled for thousands of miles, has come for you. This book reminds us verbally of what we all feel in our heart. Read this book and then go back to where it all began for you...