Customer Reviews

The Lost Coast

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

loooooooove this book. it's a collection of short stories by different authors, many were originally published in surf mags in the 70's and more recent as well. i enjoyed the variety in writing styles and all the different perspectives on life and oceanic experiences. my favorites were "A wave in search of the perfect surfer," which is told from the perspective of the wave and speaks to the intimacy of connection between wave and surfer and "the lost coast," a surf journalist's sketchy adventure to the perfect but treacherous waves of the lost coast. great read, it definitely made me want to get in the water.

The Lost Coast offers up a great selection of short stories. There is straight-ahead fiction here: Kampion's evocations of pre-shortboard-era California sessions are particulary vivid and imbued with the spirit of coming-of-age stoke. But there is much more. The styles and forms range to allegory, dystopian future ("Eyesight"), and creation myth. Kampion takes risks, and pulls them off. "Heart of Stone" centers on the creation and use of a traditional Hawaiian koa olo, spanning three generations at the turn of the 18th to the 19th centuries. "A Wave in Search of the Perfect Surfer" depicts the life of a North Pacific swell from the wave's point of view. Good stuff.

Nat Young said it best:

"Drew Kampion is the only American surf writer who kept my interest during the period when I was World Champion-what everyone else was saying made me just want to look at the pictures. Drew's writing has always been an excellent barometer on the state of our tribe." - Nat Young, 1966 World Champion

Although his new one, "Greg Noll", is a doozey and a must-read, and "Stoked!" is the definitive historical record, "The Lost Coast" remains my favorite Kampion surf-book. Pick it up, go to virtually any of the stories, and you'll get a literate, occasionally profound take on The Life.

Not a bad book. Consisting of a variety of "surfer's yarns" ranging from the ludicrious to the doubt-right dangerous. Each "yarn" is short & sharp, but some of them are a bit of a bore or just to in-depth to really enjoy. It is the type of book you can leave in the glovebox of the car and pull out to read while you're stopped off having a bite to eat between surf sessions.

i felt a bit like the guy who doesn't do the acid at the party .

some great insightful and wise stories

and some trippy 'smoked to much weed with those mushies' stories.

i love kampion's style

just this one not quite my taste

if your a voddo child of the 60's you'll love it

peace

Drew Kampion is the pre-eminent surfing writer. As editor of Surfer Magazine in the tumultuous late '60s and contributing editor to Surfing Magazine in the '70s and '80s, Kampion was responsible for lyrical, truthful and decidedly insightful nonfiction and fiction writing in both magazines. No one can evoke the feeling of sliding down a green wall of water, or illustrate the lifestyle as Kampion can. He is the author of several books, including Stoked!, Waves and The Way of the Surfer. In Lost Coast Drew collects fiction pieces from previously published magazines and presents them with woodcut-like illustrations that enhance the volume. There is no one writing about surfing today who can draw on the past, look ahead to the future and offer the reader the exquisite joy of walking on water as Drew Kampion can. He is an enormous talent, not simply a "surfing writer."

I picked up Lost Coast because the cover looked interesting - and basically couldn't put it down. This is an amazing collection of surf stories. You really feel as though you're out in the impact zone, trying to paddle into a huge, advancing wave - or paddle away from a killer whale that has decided to eat you for breakfast!

If you like the ocean, like cool adventure stories, like to explore new and exotic places through the written word, you'll defintely enjoy this book.

This is one of the few books in my lifetime, that I have not finished reading. I simply could not suffer another drug-trip description of the sort that fledgling writers in college creative-writing classes pander about. It was shocking that so many of these stories where even published!

I forced myself to keep reading, mainly through a love of surfing and the fact that I was camped in Baja with nothing else to do in the morning. I should have saved my money and spent it on wax instead. Finally, I relinquished my pride and put the book down.