Scratching the Horizon presents a bitchin' love letter to sand and sea, and a spirited inside account of life with the "first family" of American surfing.
In 1956, Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz stepped away from a successful medical practice and began a lifelong surfing odyssey that grew to include his wife Juliette, and their nine children. Together, the Paskowitz clan lived a vagabonding bohemian existence, eschewing material possessions in favor of intangible riches like health and good cheer . . . all the while careening along the world's coastlines in search of the perfect wave.
In Scratching the Horizon, Izzy Paskowitz looks back at his unusual upbringing, and his lifelong passion for the sport that carries his family's stamp. As the fourth-oldest child in a family of inveterate surfers, rock stars, and beach bums, he is uniquely qualified to shine a light on a childhood that has come to symbolize the surfing credo, a reckless young adulthood that nearly cost him his sanity, and a maturing sense of self and purpose that allows him to lift others on the back of his experience.
As the father of a son with autism and the founder of "Surfers Healing," a foundation devoted to expanding the horizons of children with autism through surfing, Paskowitz has found a way to connect the surreal aspects of his childhood to the harsh realities of adulthood, and he shares these discoveries in this wickedly entertaining and transforming memoir.
IZZY PASKOWITZ has competed in, and won, dozens of longboard titles, including the 1988 Hang Ten World Championship. He and his wife, Danielle, own and operate the world-famous Paskowitz Surf Camp. They also run the nonprofit organization Surfers Healing, which offers free surfing day camps to hundreds of autistic children and their families each year. Paskowitz lives with his family in San Juan Capistrano, California. He is the author of Scratching the Horizon.
DANIEL PAISNER is the author or co-author of more than sixty books, including many New York Times bestsellers. As a ghostwriter, he has collaborated with such leading personalities as tennis great Serena Williams; football legend Ray Lewis; two-term Ohio governor John Kasich; Academy Award-winning actors Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Quinn; and, former world-champion longboard surfer Izzy Paskowitz. He is the winner of two NAACP Image Awards for his work with Shark Tank panelist and serial entrepreneur Daymond John. His novel A Single Happened Thing was named an Indies Finalist as best book of the year (literary fiction) by the editors of Foreword Reviews, and his previous novel, Mourning Wood, and a non-fiction account of the aftermath of the historic home run race of 1998―The Ball: Mark McGwire's 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream―both long out of print, were reissued in new digital and paperback editions.
