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I am just finishing this book. I realize it has been around for a while. Great stories, definitely sparks the jonez for life on the road...but is it just me or is possibly the most arrogant memoir ever penned? I realize Allan Weisbecker is a hard man. I get it. Running drugs in the 70's, big waves, it seemed like for every cool story he adds a line or two reminding the reader how big his balls are.
I didn't read it like that. I read about a guy who, in the end, was pretty torn about one of his best friends turning to a bag of worms through drug addiction.
Doesn't he deserve to boast a bit? He made an epic journey. Fair enough, the Morrocco river mouth wave rescue was bit out there, but that's about all.
To describe waves without annoying avid surfers is a dark art. He commands the dark art in my opinion. I gave the book to a good surfer mate and told him to give it a chance. He surfs daily and opened with " I hate writers telling me what awave is like" by the end of the book he was phoning to say how solid it was. I reckon this is repeated around the surfing world.
You have to admit, running a drug boat into a garden lawn is pretty funny no?!
no doubt. I agree. the guy has lived a crazy life. and I have tore through the book because the stories are incredible (like running a drug boat aground on some couple's front yard) my point is only that you gain more admiration for guys who have clearly lived epic lives if they are not constantly reminding you how they have lived epic lives.
I thought the book was good. It was handed down to me by a surfing buddy, and i have since handed it on. Good stories, kind of a bummer of an ending. Drugs are scary.
One of my favs. Found it by accident in the travel section of the bookstore about 10 years ago.
I don't think it is boasting if it is true. I know plenty of folks from Montauk. They are all a bit over the top like Allan.
The coolest thing was, for a while, I was on his e-mail update list. He would send correspondence from Costa Rica, updating on his life, and selling land down there. Those things stopped coming back around 2001. Not sure if he tired of it, decided to not write anymore, or he just lost all the e-mail addys he had stored up.
I think I'll check his website to see if he still does those.
I can see what you are saying, but his book is biographical. If his life has been epic, his book will be a constant reminder of the epic events in his life...and so on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Harv
Howard Marks..."Mr Nice".... now there is a one super charged ego of a drug running toss pot if ever there was one.
IMVHO
Zero>Banditos>CYGAWA? But they're all worthwhile.
Warthog, he still sends email updates all the time but is no longer in Pavones (the subject of his move covered extensively and bizarrly in CYGAWA?).
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Recently enjoyed In Search of Captain Zero
Is CYGAWA a good read and worth getting hold of; and does Zero re-appear?