Sweetness and Blood : How Surfing Spread From Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, with Some Unexpected Results

How did an obscure tribal sport from precolonial Hawaii—one that was nearly eliminated by Christian missionaries—jump oceans to California and Australia? And how did it become such a worldwide passion, even in places where the surf may be excellent but the society is highly conservative or superstitious about the sea? In Sweetness and Blood —a brilliantly written travel adventure—journalist (and surfer) Michael Scott Moore visits unlikely surfing destinations—Israel and the Gaza Strip, West Africa, Great Britain, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Cuba, and Morocco—to find out. Whether he is connecting eccentric surf legend Doc Paskowitz to the Arab-Israeli conflict, trying to deconstruct the terrorist bombing in a nightclub in Bali, or being chased by the German police while surfing a river break in Berlin, Moore masterfully weaves together politics, culture, history, and surfing to create a book like no other. How did an obscure tribal sport from precolonial Hawaii--one that was nearly eliminated by Christian missionaries--jump oceans to California and Australia? And how did it become such a worldwide passion, even in places where the surf may be excellent but the society is highly conservative or superstitious about the sea? In this brilliantly written travel adventure, journalist (and surfer) Michael Scott Moore visits unlikely surfing destinations--Israel and the Gaza Strip, West Africa, Great Britain, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Cuba, and Morocco--to find out. Whether he is connecting eccentric surf legend Doc Paskowitz to the Arab-Israeli conflict, trying to deconstruct the terrorist bombing in a nightclub in Bali, or being chased by the German police while surfing a river break in Berlin, Moore masterfully weaves together politics, culture, history, and surfing to create a book like no other PORTUGUESE HAS ALWAYS sounded to me like a softer, moresinister Spanish, and the Portuguese passengers on my plane fromLisbon to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe all looked likecompromised businessmen. There was the man with a graying headof flowing hair and stylish glasses who talked in a clever bray andwore a business blazer draped over both shoulders. There was thegame retiree in overlarge glasses and a candy-striped shirt whosmiled like an old rooster vacationing at Hefner’s estate. There werethe dark-browed Mediterraneans, grave with machismo, who woresquare-toed leather slippers that would mark them, in America, asgay. Later I would wait for them in a taxi to finish cigarettes in front ofthe Pestana São Tomé, one of the island’s luxury resort chains.-- Offers a folk history of surfing after World War II, while documenting the author's visits to such destinations as West Africa and Cuba, and describes the roles played by such contributors as Christian missionaries and colonials