From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up-Three scruffy surfer boys decide to cross Australia with their "rhino chaser" boards tied to the roof of an old Kingswood wagon, in search of the "big wave." The road trip takes readers over a bumpy plot involving the theft of a computer disk from a neo-Nazi group and a reappearing sinister hitchhiker who is sent to retrieve the disk from the beach bums. Numerous stops to fix their car provide opportunities to meet peripheral characters such as some German campers and "red-necked" Aborigines. The story is more engaging when the action revolves around surfing. One of the boys disappears in shark-infested waters but the ending suggests that he didn't die. The dynamic among the main characters is established at the outset but changes later on. Aldo is ruled by hormones, artistic Goog is weak, and Castro is the mediator between his two bickering mates. When Castro disappears, Goog gains a backbone and uses life's hard lessons to mature. Language is raw and filled with surfing slang. Action-filled passages that take readers out on the waves will appeal to real fans of the sport. As narrator, it is Goog's photographic eye that relays the beauty and danger of the sea. Unfortunately, wonderful imagery doesn't make up for a portrayal of surfers as a misogynistic lot who can't utter a sentence without using profanity.
Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NYCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Kliatt, July, 2003
"Brisk, realistic, and accessible novel . . . shows the politically incorrect—and vitally accurate—
Weltanschang of boyhood’s final fling."
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