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Monthly Archives: April 2009

High Surf by Tim Baker

There’s an exquisite exhilaration in finding a writer you can really learn something from. We spend so much time reading information that’s devoid of wisdom. We’re information junkies. Information is important, but wisdom is more important – and also more rare. I was blessed to come into contact with Tim Baker’s High Surf recently, a [...]

Saltwater Waves — Not Plastic Ones

I helped my friend Heidi Quante, an environmental consultant and strategist, spread the word about this cool video and she sent me this email yesterday, which I think is really cool. Let’s keep spreading the word!!!
“Dear Jaimal,
I just wanted to pass on that the Bay vs. Bag video and all the articles accompanying this video, [...]

Dreaming the Surf Nation(s)

Getting fired up for the Saltwater Buddha book tour (which I’m planning on taking through Europe) I started flipping through Alex Wade’s stellar book Surf Nation: In Search of the Fast Lefts and Hollow Rights of Britain and Ireland. It has long been a dream for me to surf the cold waters up in those [...]

Saltwater Buddha in Monterey Herald

Talented writer, surfer, photographer, and climber Bruce Willey got close to the essence of Saltwater Buddha in his Monterey Herald Review that was published on Sunday.
Waves of Enlightenment
By Bruce Willey
“Any self-respecting surfer who’s paddled out into the ocean’s fury and caught a wave knows that Zen and surfing are inseparable. It’s just that [...]

daily journal


daily journals


Why Lawyers Should Surf

I’m not a lawyer (and I never will be) but I’m thoroughly enjoying Why Lawyers Should Surf. Tim Kevan, a British surfer, lawyer, and now a novelist, gets just about as close as any writers past to nailing the ineffable nature of surfing, not just with his own deft descriptions, but by referencing great thinkers [...]

Saltwater Buddha Makes the Front Page of the Chron

I was very honored that the San Francisco Chronicle featured Saltwater Buddha on the front page. Read the full article by the eloquent Louise Rafkin here.
And here’s the short excerpt:
"On this particular day, the waves were like endless frothy
barricades. I’d been paddling for twenty minutes and I still wasn’t
outside. I pushed and pumped and [...]

Daily Journal


Saltwater Excerpt in Shambhala Sun

ShambhalaSun.com posted the first excerpt of Saltwater Buddha today. Here’s what they wrote:
With all that talk about “balance” — not to mention films with titles like Zen and Zero, or a kazillion other occurrences of Zen and surfing colliding (whether for dubious reasons or not) — it’s tempting to make tenuous connections [...]

The New Marine Mammal Center

For a San Francisco Magazine story, I had the luck to get to visit the new Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands before it unveils its new $32 million dollar green building. The place is insane: solar panels, internal water-filtration that lets them reuse all the water the seals bathe in, recyclable everything, [...]