A young Bill, cutting his teeth as an outsider in Hawaii.
Bill Finnegan is unique for having both a lifetime of incredible surf exploration and the writing chops of a successful author and political journalist. His New York Times best seller, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, is a beautiful book that offers priceless insight that may have eluded any other author lacking Bill’s knowledge of surfing. At the same time, the best surfers could not have articulated themselves so well despite their wealth of experience. Recently, I was luck enough to speak with Bill for the newest episode of the Surf Simply podcast.
Bill at Kirra in 1979.
Bill was one of the first people to surf Tavarua, and in the book we see the island, untouched, through his eyes. We join him on roller coaster of affairs with both the world’s most seductive waves and least friendly waves. The book then connects with Bill while he: is stranded in the jungle at Grajagan with gas in the water bottles; battling the pack at Kirra in the days of Rabbit Batholemnow; teaching in South Africa as apartheid boils over; surfing long, bleak winters and huge concrete-cold waves at Ocean Beach; unlocking the surf potential of a middle aged man in New York; learning how to keep learning from a ballet dancer; and paddling into waves beyond one’s ability under the shadow of the cliffs, and under the shadow of death in Medeira.
Bill surfing solid Padang Padang as a 63-year-old New Yorker in September 2015.
Despite these accolades, Bill is unassuming, friendly, and down to earth. He spoke with me candidly and engagingly about his experiences and what he has learned from them. We spoke about the role surfing should play in our lives, and how we should approach it to maximize the joy we get back.
Listen to the full interview on the iPhone’s Podcast app, on iTunes, or at SurfSimply.com/Podcast.
