A high-speed glide through Florida surf culture and a deep dive into the lore of a classic surfing destination
Kirkus Best Indie Books of the Year 2025, Best Indie Books About America 2025
“A wonderfully colorful and inviting paean to Cocoa Beach surfing. . . . A surfing classic fit to sit beside John Long’s The Big Drop (1999) and William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days (2015).”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“Intimate and charged with life . . . Reiter’s conversations with and profiles of Florida surfers capture not just thrilling rides but ways of life and drifts of mind. . . . [A] rousing celebration of surfing Florida’s Space Coast over decades.”—Publishers Weekly, Editor’s Pick
“Goes far beyond simple research and delves not only into the fascinating history of the Space Coast’s surfing culture but into the very zeitgeist of the sport itself.”—Matt George, author of In Deep: The Collected Surf Writings
“Every so often a writer bubbles from the substrata fully formed, handily entering what fellow surf scribes call the ‘meat eater’s club.’ This new Dan Reiter offering serves as an Exhibit A.”—Scott Hulet, editor, The Surfer’s Journal
Not far from where the Apollo 11 rocket launched to the moon, surfers make their way to the shore in the night. Clutching their surfboards, they chase a familiar dream: more speed, more altitude, and going beyond the limits of what has been done before. For that, they want to be the first ones to catch the early morning waves.
In this book, Dan Reiter chronicles stories of the sport on Florida’s Space Coast, a region that has produced some of the world’s finest surf champions, Pipe masters, and surfboard builders. On this stretch of sand between Cape Canaveral and Sebastian Inlet, Florida’s surf history reaches back to the native Ais people of the Atlantic Coast and continues to the elites of today, including Kelly Slater, Caroline Marks, and CJ Hobgood. Reiter offers insights into the evolution of surfboard shaping and design, the distinctive culture of the East Coast surfboard industry, and the traits and traditions that make Florida surfing unique.
United by the background of Florida sun, soaring blue skies, and shifting sandbars, each one of this book’s eclectic chapters tells its own story of passion and pursuit. Weaving together history, personal experiences, and interviews with the greats, Reiter redefines surf literature and invites readers to share in the thrill of a rising swell.
