Frank Carlson Library

Bruce, a paramedic in Australia, looks back on the summer when he was fifteen and he and his friend Loonie became involved with Sando, a man with a mysterious past who, recognizing the boys' desire for bigger and better thrills, decides to teach them to surf.

On the wild, lonely coast of Western Australia, two thrillseeking and barely adolescent boys fall into the enigmatic thrall of veteran big-wave surfer Sando. Together they form an odd but elite trio. The grown man initiates the boys into a kind of Spartan ethos, a regimen of risk and challenge, where they test themselves in storm swells on remote and shark-infested reefs, pushing each other to the edges of endurance, courage, and sanity. But where...