In the late ’70s, Finnegan and a friend were among the first to stumble onto a perfect, endless left at a remote island in Fiji called Tavarua, after many months of fruitless wandering around the South Pacific.
My enchantment would take me where it would.” He adds: “Chasing waves in a dedicated way was both profoundly egocentric and selfless, dynamic and ascetic, radical in its rejection of the values of duty and conventional achievement.”Īnd yet, Finnegan writes: “I did not consider, even passingly, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. The book’s title, in fact, comes from Finnegan’s dawning realization as a teenager that a total commitment to surfing would lead “toward a scratched-out frontier where we would live as latter-day barbarians.”
But far beyond being simply a collection of wave-bound war stories, “Barbarian Days” traces the evolution of surfing from underground passion (“Gidget” notwithstanding) through the explosion in popularity catalyzed by the late-1960s shortboard revolution.įinnegan also chronicles in often painfully personal terms the toll on relationships - with family, friends and lovers - that came with the moments of bliss his surf obsession brought him.
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