ROCKAWAY

A journalist’s account of how midlife disappointments fueled an unexpected journey into the world of surfing.

As she entered her 40s, Cardwell, a founder of Vibe magazine and former New York Times reporter, was the picture of success. She had a prestigious newspaper job and a handsome husband she adored. Sadly, just as she and her husband were trying to conceive, they divorced. Devastated, Cardwell spent the next three years mourning lost opportunities for motherhood and wondering whether she would ever “get to be the girl on someone's arm again.” Everything changed when a newspaper assignment took her to Montauk, where she observed a group of surfers—“a secret tribe of magical creatures”—frolicking in the surf. Transfixed, Cardwell suddenly decided she wanted to learn the sport. The impulse shocked her; she was far from athletic. Her first clumsy attempts at surfing made her realize that as much as “the mind was more than willing…the flesh was going to need a lot of work.” She began attending a surfing school in Rockaway Beach and going to the gym, and she quickly developed friendships with other surfers who gave her advice on everything from surfing equipment to how to read the ocean and its rhythms. Less than a year and a half later, the author bought a home there, bringing her closer to the people she had come to know and pulling her away from the Manhattan hustle she thought she could never do without. When Hurricane Sandy flooded her home and neighborhood in October 2012, Cardwell realized that despite the risks of living by the ocean in the age of climate change, she had finally found her tribe and a renewed zest for life. In this eloquent narrative, the author offers a moving portrait of a woman in search of herself as well as a joyful celebration of physicality, friendship, and the art of surfing.

A bighearted and uplifting memoir.