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A review by ptothelo
The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey
4.0
Reading this book made me want to go back to Hawaii again. Barring that, at least watch Hawaii 5-0 on TV. The book focuses more on the surfers than on the science, which was fine with me. I'd seen Laird Hamilton on an episode of Iconoclast before and found him fascinating and this got more into his and other surfers' view about nature and the water and riding the waves. For some, when they are in the zone it's a spiritual experience and one of them says you can't see and feel those waves and not acknowledge that there is a power much greater than you. I imagine that the experience is the very definition of living in the moment and being one with the forces of nature.
The science was also intriguing. I have never really learned much about what goes on below the surface, with all it's ridges and canyons and faults. I've also never thought of ocean waves having the same properties as the waves physicists study. Given all the talk of tsunamis and climate change lately it seems like a good time to learn. The author makes the point that we rarely hear about the lost ships, from giant freighters to smaller ships. One scientist estimates that on average two large ships sink per week each year. But we never hear about them and their lost crew and lost cargo so no one is pushing them to build safer ships like we would if the same happened to a plane.
I feel like the take away message from both ends is that you can't really predict any of it and Mother Nature can always do the unexpected and throw something at you that is bigger and badder than anything you can dream up.
The science was also intriguing. I have never really learned much about what goes on below the surface, with all it's ridges and canyons and faults. I've also never thought of ocean waves having the same properties as the waves physicists study. Given all the talk of tsunamis and climate change lately it seems like a good time to learn. The author makes the point that we rarely hear about the lost ships, from giant freighters to smaller ships. One scientist estimates that on average two large ships sink per week each year. But we never hear about them and their lost crew and lost cargo so no one is pushing them to build safer ships like we would if the same happened to a plane.
I feel like the take away message from both ends is that you can't really predict any of it and Mother Nature can always do the unexpected and throw something at you that is bigger and badder than anything you can dream up.