That Oceanic Feeling

by Fiona Capp (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $128.42

  For Fiona Capp, surfing had always been more than physical. It was a way of bringing together the life of the body and the life of the mind. But time took her in a different direction and she lost touch with the ocean. Approaching forty, she decided it was time to confront her fears and follow her dream of returning to the waves. So begins a personal journey that takes her from the wild, cold waters of Victoria, north to the tropics and then to Europe. As well as recovering a dormant part of herself, Capp discovers the spiritual hold the ocean has on her as an Australian, and as a human being. That Oceanic Feeling is about why we feel compelled to push ourselves out of our safety zones and venture into unknown waters.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $5.47

  As a young woman on Australia's southern coast, Fiona Capp had always loved to go surfing - a most supreme pleasure', in Captain Cook's early words. But then fifteen years went by, she had a child, and suddenly, approaching forty, she realised if she didn't do it again soon she probably never would...That Oceanic Feeling is part travelogue, part inner autobiography, part cultural exploration - about why we surf, and what surfing does to us. Fiona Capp traces the sport's origins back to the earliest Pacific peoples, and establishes when Enlightenment Europe first discovered its exhilarating appeal. She tells of her own re-acquaintance with the surf and her quest to become good enough to take on the fabled and terrifying wave Corsair. And in exploring surfing landscapes from Victoria, Australia to Hawaii, France and Cornwall, she asks why we feel compelled to push ourselves out of our safety zones and venture into unknown waters. That Oceanic Feeling is a beautifully written, original sports book to rival Haunts of the Black Masseur, about a sport hitherto sorely lacking profound literary exploration.