“[A] disarming memoir [that] seeks the stillness inside the chaos, the union inside duality.” (  BBC (from “Ten Best Beach Reads of 2017”))

“Evocative and unpretentious...wry but engaged...articulate and genuinely funny.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“Captivating.... Yogis finds wisdom everywhere [and] shows that the search for enlightenment, with its storms, lulls, and occasional thrills, is not much different from the search for the perfect wave.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“All Our Waves Are Water seeks profound lessons in the ocean.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Engaging... As he draws wisdom from Tibetan monks, fellow surfers, and a beloved journalism professor, Yogis infuses All Our Waves with a rich mix of spiritual quest and down-to-earth adventurism.” (San Jose Mercury News)

“Insightful, contemplative, and eloquently written, Yogis leaves us to realize that life isn’t about that elusive end goal of understanding humanity; it’s about the risks we’re willing to take in our journey to get there.” (Reza Aslan, author of No god but God and Zealot)

“Jaimal Yogis writes in a fun, engaging style, and the ideas he conveys are timeless, All Our Waves Are Water is a great pleasure.” (Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness )

“I’ll follow Jaimal Yogis into any ocean, walk whichever road with him, and read everything he writes. It always leads to growth.” (Wallace J. Nichols, New York Times bestselling author of Blue Mind)

“Spiritual questing, serious surfing, a little hip-hop, and a significant dose of deep, honest humanity—another perfect Jaimal Yogis book!” (Steven Kotler, author of West Of Jesusand The Rise of Superman)

“Jamal Yogis has done it again: reminded us that our humanity depends on our connection to nature and how much we are willing to risk. It’s good to know that there is another brother like him out there in the mountains and on the waves.” (Peter Heller, author of Kook: What Surfing Taught Me about Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave and Celine)

In this humorous, meditative memoir—a fusion of Barbarian Days and the journals of Thomas Merton—the author of Saltwater Buddha reflects on “stumbling toward enlightenment,” his continued search to find meaning in the world’s oceans as well as in the highs and lows of everyday life.

For Jaimal Yogis, the path to enlightenment is surfing. Whether riding grisly waves in the Pacific or navigating the waves of the heart and the mind, Yogis discovers that it is between water and air, between control and surrender, between the tangible and the intangible, where grace can be found. Born to a family of seekers, he left home at sixteen to surf in Hawaii and join a monastery—an adventure he chronicled in Saltwater Buddha. Now he’s in his early twenties, his heart is broken, and he’s lost his way. Hitting the road again, he lands in a monastery in Dharamsala, where he meets Sonam, a displaced Tibetan. 

To help his friend, Jaimal makes a cockamamie attempt to reunite him with his family in Tibet by way of America. Though he does not succeed, witnessing Sonam’s indomitable spirit in the face of failure offers Jaimal a deeper understanding of faith. When the two friends part, he cannot fathom the unlikely circumstances that will reunite them. 

All Our Waves Are Water follows Jaimal’s trek from the Himalayas to Indonesia; from a Franciscan friary in New York City to the dusty streets of Jerusalem; and finally to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. Along the way, Jaimal prays and surfs while trying to stay afloat through grad school and journalism jobs, mourning a lost love and seeking something that keeps eluding him, until he ultimately finds what he’s been looking for—that the perfect ride may well be the one we are on right now.