Rockaway: Surfing Headlong into a New Life – An Inspirational Memoir for Women on Reinvention and Inner Salvation

by Diane Cardwell

The inspirational story of one woman learning to surf and creating a new life in gritty, eccentric Rockaway Beach Unmoored by a failed marriage and disconnected from her high-octane life in the city, Diane Cardwell finds herself staring at a small group of surfers coasting through mellow waves toward shore—and senses something shift. Rockaway is the riveting, joyful story of one woman’s reinvention—beginning with Cardwell taking the A Train to Rockaway, a neglected spit of land dangling off New York City into the Atlantic Ocean. She finds a teacher, buys a tiny bungalow, and throws her not-overly-athletic self headlong into learning the inner workings and rhythms of waves and the muscle development and coordination needed to ride them. As Cardwell begins to find her balance in the water and out, superstorm Sandy hits, sending her into the maelstrom in search of safer ground. In the aftermath, the community comes together and rebuilds, rekindling its bacchanalian spirit as a historic surfing community, one with its own quirky codes and surf culture. And Cardwell’s surfing takes off as she finds a true home among her fellow passionate longboarders at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club, living out “the most joyful path through life.” Rockaway is a stirring story of inner salvation sought through a challenging physical pursuit—and of learning to accept the idea of a complete reset, no matter when in life it comes.  

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Sports, Biography, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, Autobiography

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 7, 2020

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir was just a joy to read.

Full disclosure: I live in the neighborhood where her story unfolds, I know many of the locals mentioned, and I'm sure I must have met her at some gathering or stoop at some point in the past ten years. But my affinity for Caldwell's story is not simply a matter of appreciating the way she captures this place and its people (she does both brilliantly). It's more about the way she captures the moment in every woman's life where she must decide whether "midlife" is a crisis, or an opportunity. I loved following her journey out to the edges of NYC and into the warm embrace of the surfing community here in Rockaway Beach. I loved learning the technical aspects of the sport (#notasurfer). I loved her decision to expand the just do it mantra to just to it... even if you suck.... for so much time in our lives is wasted in pursuit of perfection, so much enjoyment squandered when we think we are not good enough. Even more so, I loved her realization that we can change our minds about what things define us, and her embrace of the simple truth that it is better to work to live than to live to work.

So, yes, this is a book about Rockaway. And it's a book about surfing. But really, it's a coming-of-age story for grown ups. This grown up really loved all three threads of the story.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley and this is my unbiased opionion. I was not quite sure what to expect from this book but is was so rewarding. I learned so much about surfing probably like the author. It was more than that though. Cardwell's story is about believing in yourself and never being afraid to try something new. It's also a story about following your own path and finding new communities of like minded individuals. I also enjoyed the beach elements of the story and the resilient nature of human beings in the face of disaster; Hurricane Sandy. Very rewarding read and would recommend to teens and adults.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diane Cardwell and I have a few things in common. We both survived Superstorm Sandy, with vivid memories both painful and beautiful, from that time. We both have a bicoastal love - California and New York, with one as our home and another our sometimes-home. And we both discovered surfing in our forties, as single women looking to find meaning and joy in life, and an escape from the metro-boulot-dodo life. Although the author’s voice comes off as a bit pedantic - providing definitions for absolutely every term related to the ocean or surfing - there is a cozy hygge both to her journey as a surfer and to her nesting in Rockaway. She builds a home and a life full of and focused on simple, meaningful pleasures, and that is lovely to relate to. This book isn’t great literature but it is a sweet reminder of the truly meaningful pursuits of life.

[Dlmrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rockaway is where my husband Mike grew up(actually, more accurately, in the near by town of Broad Channel) and where he was a lifeguard, and where we opened our first Chiropractic practice, bought our first home, and where all our kids were born. I spent many a day walking with a stroller on the boardwalk, going to the most gorgeous beaches, and boating and swimming the waters of the ocean and Jamaica Bay. My husband's entire family still lives there. A small spit of land right in the heart of NYC with the most eclectic community feel you can ever get in the Big Apple. So....this book speaks of a special place to me.

We moved in 1996, long before the author's adventure. Still, when she writes I am transported to a place I knew very well, my husband even better. This is a fun and well researched little story of one woman's journey in finding herself after a divorce via surfing; a long time Rockaway pastime. She is tenacious and brave on many levels. My kids are well grown and their "baby Rockaway days" are long gone. Inspired me to reach for some of my own aspirations and find my own gig as I journey through menopause and beyond.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

After her divorce Diane Cardwell feels like she's floundering in her own life. On paper everything looked great, but she wasn't really happy. And now that she's divorced and in her forties she feels like she's starting over in middle age. Writing a story for The New York Times in Montauk, she sees surfers in the water and is transfixed. On a whim she decides to rent a house and take surfing lessons later in the summer. This one small decision changes Cardwell's life. She eventually ends up moving out to Rockaway full time and is just steps from the beach so she can surf as often as she can. She'd been in her Rockaway house for less than a year when Hurricane Sandy hits. Thankfully her house only has minimal damage and she is able to ride out the storm with friends, but the area is devastated. That is the moment when Rockaway really becomes home for Cardwell. She stays, despite having no electricity, to be close to her friends and keep working on the area and cleaning up the damage to her house. Surfing and living at the beach become part of her identity and she creates a new community of fellow surfers and beach dwellers in Rockaway. A very well-written reinvention memoir about how surfing led Diane Cardwell to a more fulfilling life.

A quote I liked:

"As we clattered through Queens, I felt a soreness settling into my body that I could tell wasn't from any kind of damage. Instead it was the hard-won, righteous soreness from going all-out chasing after something that I'd decided, entirely on my own, I wanted to do. I was proud of myself for not chickening out, for not, as usual, letting the fear of failure stop me." (p. 39)

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire the author’s determination and courage to create a new life for herself. Her descriptions of Rockaway and her experience living through hurricane Sandy were so well done. I know nothing about surfing, so her memoir was educational in that respect. However, some of the sections describing the techniques of surfing were a little too long and tedious, and that is why I rated the book 3 stars. Someone who is a surfer or a beginning surfer I believe would enjoy the parts about the waves, surf boards, weather patterns, etc. Overall it was an enjoyable and quick read. I received a free e-book copy from Goodreads.

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m really getting into memoirs lately and this one had such a feeling of excitement and discovery throughout all its pages. Living in Brooklyn and often making it out to the Rockaways every weekend, I felt such a draw to this storyline and loved every moment of it. Maybe I’ll move and take up surfing too

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because in a way it reminded me of how I had a yearning to move to Nantucket and did so in 1991, buying a little cottage like the author did. I admire the author for her bravery - a true Manhattanite packing up and moving to Rockaway and learning to surf as a middle-aged woman.

[Lauren Ginsberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 3.5 stars if possible. The story was fun (and sad, reliving the hurricane sandy part) for me as a surfer from Long Island (spent some time in that Montauk summer surf lesson hustle as well) who now resides on the west coast, but I wanted more of a peek into her inner world. I commend her efforts sticking with surfing, it's not for people who like to be good at things right away! I would recommend the book and I do think it's a good story.

[TJ Hoban · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautifully written

After reading this memoir I want to learn how to surf and explore the shores of Rockaway and behind. It’s really amazing how this woman integrated her own personal story through her newfound interest in surfing and changing her lifestyle along with how she combatted Hurricane Sandy and made the best out of this tragic situation. If you want to learn about something new and the history of beach community’s on Long Island through an acclaimed New York Times writer this book is for you!

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly I'm in the minority since the reviews are all 5-star and I'm rating it 3-star. I love a local story (I'm a New Yorker and spent many happy sunny days in Rockaway). And I love a memoir. I enjoyed this book but didn't love it. The writing was good enough (I expected more from a NY Times writer). And the story was compelling but told with little emotion. And there were big gaps. Having lived thru Superstorm Sandy myself, I thought the telling was flat. That said, it's a good summer read and if you manage your expectations you'll probably enjoy it.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best parts of this book, for me, were in the last few chapters where Diane clearly articulated that her chase for achievement/recognition had stood in the way of finding happiness and a fulfilled life. That spoke to me - as well as the concept of accountability to a third party that helped her with focus and improving her abilities.

The writing itself at times I found a tad heavy on the 'mechanics' of waves and surfing but again, that is what the book is about. I also found her descriptions of interactions with others interestingly 'removed' and almost third person - as well as her constant comparison with others a reflection, sadly, of how she seemed to envision herself. Hopefully, as reflected in the last few chapters, that corner has been turned.

At the same time, I found that she articulated many of my own feelings about myself - never good enough, should have, could have, would have...so she has motivated me to seek to find my happiness in my own water.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book! Confession: I was born & raised in Rockaway and knew most every place she mentioned, which made it all the more special to me! In addition to an (then) outsider's view of my hometown, I enjoyed the story of her personal growth during a transitional time in her life.

I loved every page of this book. It ramped u[p my on & off urge to buy a place there!

Bravo Diane Cardwell!

[Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Rockaway: Surfing Headlong into a New Life" is a perfect book for our awkward summer of 2020.

It reminds us that you can change your life and change it for the better. More importantly, it teaches us to find joy in the process of learning and accomplishment, but to stop being too hard on ourselves and questing for perfection. You don't necessarily catch the perfect wave everyday, but every attempt is bliss. Highly recommended!

[Keaton Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really fun memoir I’d recommend to any New Yorker who surfs or loves the rockaways. I won this is a goodreads lottery and was so excited! Kerry Washington is producing and starring in the Netflix movie adaptation of this book so stayed tuned!

[Enchanted Prose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding happiness where you’d least expect to (Rockaway Beach, New York, 2010 – 2017): Inspiration can be found in surprising places. So you don’t have to be a surfer, an athlete, a sports enthusiast, or a beach person to think of former New York Times reporter Diane Cardwell’s memoir, Rockaway: Surfing Headlong into a New Life, as a motivational tool for all of us wanting to, or needing to, pick up the pieces of a life gone awry. Extraordinarily timely.

During the seven years Cardwell tips-her-toes in, then goes headstrong all in, to dramatically change her high-pressured New York City lifestyle into a more carefree surfing life on Long Island – a “roll-with-the-swells life” – she was a journalist who covered numerous beats: politics, business, the arts, entertainment, hospitality, the real estate industry.

Prior to 2010 – when her story begins after a reporting assignment in Montauk, at the tip of Long Island, that got her fantasizing about a life around beaches and surfers – she’d been the Times Bureau Chief to Mayor Bloomberg’s office; journalism fellow at Stanford University; and a founder of Vibe magazine, and other writerly endeavors.

So up until forty-five, she wasn’t that laid-back, riding the waves person. She’d grown up in a household where “achievement was the reigning narrative,” and yes, she’d achieved a great deal. Her transformation, a different kind of achievement, is a delight to read.

Inherent in that high-achiever focus was believing “failure would not be an option.” Which is what makes Cardwell’s story so powerful and inspiring. After she found herself learning how to live after a marriage that seemed destined not to fail ended in divorce and childless, finding herself terribly lonely, living alone for the first time in twenty-years, having felt she’d failed at achieving her dreams, she then undertook surfing. Which meant she then chose to take on failure after failure, disappointment after disappointment, to learn a sport that may look “simple” but is anything but.

No matter how many teachers she sought out, first at Montauk’s Ditch Plains prime surfing spot, at Rockaway Beach, and after all the muscle-aching fitness training she had to do to develop the strength needed to paddle the waves (like standing up on the surfing board or pop up in “surf-speak,” a lingo that runs throughout that sounds like another language), she learned surfing is a formidable sport. It’s one thing to learn on sand, quite another in the ocean.

Rockaway shows us what happens when you set your mind, body, and heart to achieve what may seem impossible. The author went from being a “daytripper” to a full-time resident. She took her time making this all-important decision, but when she spotted a charming, century-old bungalow among three others overlooking a garden they shared in Rockaway, she fell instantly in love with it. Bought it despite much financial angst; then renovated, furnished, and adorned it with “sea glass decorations” without hemming-and-hawing.

To see the author and her surfboard, her bungalow and community garden, Rockaway beaches, streets, and shops, this article she recently contributed to the Times gives you a good picture, though the memoir’s expressive prose already does that.

Not surprising, the author writes with a reporter’s eye for detail and a water-lover’s heart, with the warmth and friendliness of someone you’d like to hang out. It’s hard to pick out one paragraph that doesn’t meet those descriptors, but for all who’ve never been to Rockaway, an outpost in the borough of Queens on Long Island, here’s how she describes the coastal area:

“If you imagine the entirety of Long Island as a giant fish, with Brooklyn and Queens as the head swooping underneath Manhattan and the Bronx toward Staten Island and New Jersey to the southwest, its body and tail would stretch one hundred miles northeast into the Atlantic. Montauk would sit at the southeastern tip of its tail, and the Rockaway Peninsula would form the bottom of its jaw, with Jamaica Bay filling its open mouth.”

Cardwell’s grit, perseverance, passion, courage, resilience, and authenticity led her to find the kind of belongingness she hadn’t felt before. The friends she knew and makes in this surfing community left her “dumbstruck.” “I felt as though I’d stumbled upon a secret tribe of magical creatures – fairies and nymphs frolicking in a hidden bay.”

If not for Cardwell’s inner strengths and the friendships and camaraderie of surfers she might not have survived an “extratropical” catastrophe: Hurricane Sandy. Expect to read about weather conditions, meteorological predictions, the science of waves and tides, as this reporter made sure she understood what she was dealing with.

Another aspect of the author’s childhood instrumental to her surfing story is that she spent happy summers on the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. So while Cardwell has fears and insecurities she doesn’t fear the ocean, though respects its power. Most of the time she’s in awe of it, although a Prologue opens the memoir with an event in 2013 when she realized she’d gone too far out, beyond the “outside.”

Cardwell’s gumption and discipline is impressive, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t stop questioning herself. “Why do I always have to be this way?” “What am I doing wrong?” And yet, when she experiences a fleeting moment riding a wave, she feels a “rush”: “a “powerful high – cosmic, euphoric, liberating, addictive.” Overcome by the beauty and freedom she feels.

As someone born and raised in Queens, whose parents were one of those daytrippers to Rockaway Beach, the memoir is nostalgic of days gone by, although this “frontier” started to change in the early 2000s.

Surfing boards have evolved into works of art. The beginner board is not pretty, designed for safety at the expense of fast. So you’re in for a treat when the author feels ready to buy a sexy, new, faster board. Expect lively descriptions of longboards and shortboards.

The residents of Rockaway Beach were considered “hipsters.” After Hurricane Sandy, they became “helpsters.” Rockaway pays tribute to some of the “toughest” people Cardwell says she’s known.

If you’re life feels stuck, Diane Cardwell shows us it doesn’t have to be that way. A phrase we’ve been hearing a lot lately about COVID-19. The message is that when we feel despair, Keep at it, Keep at it, Keep at it. Eventually, happier and freer days will come. For Cardwell, this meant discovering “a place where a lot of people constructed their lives around their lives . . . rather than trying to shoehorn a little happiness in between all the obligations.”

As America gropes its way through a flashing-red-light catastrophe on so many levels, Rockaway is a must read.

PS You can see more pictures of Diane Cardwell’s new life on her website: https://dianecardwell.com/.

Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)

[Immigration Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

When life knocks you down, you get up again.

This memoir is in part a story of personal growth (through introspection and a new avocation -- surfing); part travelogue, describing beach life in the Rockaways, in NYC; and part journal about learning to surf in the most urban setting imaginable. The author moved, post-divorce, from her "dream house" in Brooklyn (where she THOUGHT she was living her "dream life") to the beach and the beach lifestyle available in the Rockaways. Talk about starting anew.

A change of scenery, a new house, and a new circle of friends with similar interests -- surfing and the beach lifestyle -- is the change from which life is given the chance to spring eternal.

If you focus on the horizon, on the waves that are right here and right now, you find yourself living in the moment, grateful, that tomorrow will dawn and the future will come; that yesterday is the past; and that you can only, truly, exist in the present.

The book is fun, bittersweet, life affirming, truthful, and ultimately hopeful.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because I am a former New Yorker and subway fan-I have always been fascinated by Rockaway-reachable by subway, yet right on the Atlantic Ocean. I have taken that subway ride numerous times, and have even walked around Rockaway and went to the beach several times-so this book immediately drew me in by the title.

That said, it isn't really written for a straight guy-it is one of the long list of "middle age female writer, after a devastating divorce...finds herself by (fill in the blank)" type of books, which might be ok-if the author spoke about her emotions, and what moving to a Rockaway bungalow was really like. (positive and negative). Instead, the whole story reads like Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun (the movie-not the book). The author's Rockaway is an east coast version of Venice Beach-great people, always willing to party, and great weather all the time. The book even ends with her finding a partner. Even Hurricane Sandy seems somewhat like a party.

The author doesn't speak about crime (Rockaway is sort of known for it), the long commute by subway, living in a beach community (and surfing, if so), in a frigid New York winter, and of course Hurricane Sandy.

On the plus side, I did learn a lot about surfing.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great autobiography of a woman finding joy in life after a divorce and change in focus. She learns to surf as an adult and this is her journey. Well written and great descriptions of someone learning a new and challenging skill. Even though I am not a surfer (I’ve been twice?), I appreciate the relationship with the water and with taking on a new and difficult mental and physical challenge in midlife.
It’s a light read despite her struggles through relationship ending and Hurricane Sandy, it’s just not heavy. Even so, enjoyable and thoughtful. If you like surfing, I am thinking it will be even more appealing.

[Brandi Rae Fong]

I actually really enjoyed this; I'm roughly the same age now as Cardwell is in the book, and it was encouraging to see her thoughts and how she approached trying something new and challenging while still accepting her limitations of starting it later in life. I enjoy doing many things, but like her, I also know I'll never get to the skill level I would have if I had started when I was in my early 20s. Basically, I could relate, and it was nice.

[Reanin Mcroberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

wellwritten memoir, really enjoyed the descriptions of rockaway, living through hurricane sandy, and how surfing made the author feel

[Jean Huber Bookmama789 · Rating 5 out of 5]

🌊Who else loves reading memoirs?🌊

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Thank you to @houghtonmifflinharcourt @diane_cardwell and @netgalley for the ARC of Rockaway: Surfing Headlong Into A New Life by Diane Cardwell! This is such a beautiful memoir and a must read for anyone who loves the ocean/is interested in surfing.

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Synopsis from the publisher: Unmoored by a failed marriage and disconnected from her high-octane life in the city, Diane Cardwell finds herself staring at a small group of surfers coasting through mellow waves toward shore—and senses something shift. Rockaway is the riveting, joyful story of one woman’s reinvention—beginning with Cardwell taking the A Train to Rockaway, a neglected spit of land dangling off New York City into the Atlantic Ocean. She finds a teacher, buys a tiny bungalow, and throws her not-overly-athletic self headlong into learning the inner workings and rhythms of waves and the muscle development and coordination needed to ride them. As Cardwell begins to find her balance in the water and out, superstorm Sandy hits, sending her into the maelstrom in search of safer ground. In the aftermath, the community comes together and rebuilds, rekindling its bacchanalian spirit as a historic surfing community, one with its own quirky codes and surf culture. And Cardwell’s surfing takes off as she finds a true home among her fellow passionate longboarders at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club, living out “the most joyful path through life.”

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While I myself have never surfed, I consider myself lucky that I have grown up and always lived close enough to the ocean to have it as part of my life. Diane Cardwell’s memoir is an inspiring story of how it is never too late to pursue your passions, and of the healing power of the ocean. Diane’s descriptions of Rockaway Beach and other parts of NYC made me so sad and yet hopeful that soon the city will be back to the way it was before the pandemic. I miss the unique energy that only exists in New York and look forward to the day I can visit again. Whether you yourself are a surfer, love NYC, or just love inspiring stories, I highly recommend Cardwell’s memoir.

[Kathryne Baldwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as a winner of a GoodReads Giveaway and leaving my honest opinion. I took a surf lesson when I went to Hawaii a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed myself. That being said, I could tell I did not have the arm strength that would be necessary to want to get involved in this further. But, I could absolutely see how someone could fall in love with it. I was drawn to this book when I saw surfing as the central theme. (I also felt better when the author mentioned she had to spend time building up arm strength.)

I took stars off because of the pits and valleys of the story. I wanted to know more about surfing: the technique, the lingo, how waves form. I got some of that here, but, the author glossed over a lot of that information as well. The author does not get seriously into surfing until 30-40% of the way through the book, so, the first section was a slog to get through. There were also a lot of lulls in between the action. We learn about different lunch spots in the area, real estate options on the beach, and interior decorating. I did not find this information engaging.

I did find the latter 30% of the book about Hurricane Sandy to be very interesting. I live in California, so, all I heard about the Hurricane was news headlines. This type of information has a way of overgeneralizing a disaster. The individual human stories were gripping. Having never lived in an area where natural disasters regularly occurred, the detailed account of instant, serious flooding and gale force winds that dislodged a huge section of boardwalk...really just sort of rocked my world.

Bottom line: There were pieces of this book that I really liked and pieces that I could have done without.

[Helen Marquis · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Diane Cardwell's marriage falls apart and life in NYC loses its lustre, she find a renewed sense of life and purpose taking up surfing in the chilly waters off Long Island. Rockaway is a testament to perseverance, determination and ultimately success as Cardwell develops a quasi obsession with the sport which takes her to the beaches of Costa Rica and California, and ultimately sees her invest the proceeds from the sale of her marital home into a bijou property in Rockaway, so she can dedicate the necessary amount of time and energy to the waves.
There's an interesting "subplot" as she decides to shelter in place when Hurricane Sandy hits, and she finds her relationship with the ocean taking on a deeper meaning, as she truly integrates herself into the local community in the days and weeks following the storm's brutal treatment of her new home town.
It's a fascinating look at how someone's life can change dramatically for the better, and how what feels like a solid path in life may crumble away to reveal something even more fulfilling, even if it doesn't feel that way in the first tentative steps down the new path.
Cardwell is an engaging narrator, and doesn't fall into the "poor me" traps of other life pivot accounts that I've read previously. I love her drive, her dedication, her lack of sugar coating (learning to surf is HARD) and that happy endings, while often hard-earned, are a great pay off at the end.

[BookBlanketFort · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m fascinated by surfing and have wanted to learn for ages. I picked up this memoir hoping to read all about Cardwell’s life as a beginner surfer.

This memoir wasn’t for me. It tries to fulfill 3 aims: 1) describe recovering from a divorce and coming to terms with not having the house and family of her dreams; 2) introduce readers to the town of Rockaway, a misunderstood New York Beach Town; 3) describe learning how to surf and how it relates to 1 and 2.

I like raw, honest memoirs. In this memoir, the author held us at an arm’s length. I wish she had described terrifying wipeouts and how she recovered from them. I wish she had described how to read the waves. I wish she had gone into detail about each surf session and how they differed. If you aren’t so focused on the surfing element of the memoir, then it might be fine for you.

The memoir also included too many extraneous details, such as spending time with various friends. While this may have been meaningful to the author, it made the read sort of a slog. In the end, the author was able to create a new and independent life focused on surfing following a divorce. That was a hopeful and beautiful outcome. I just didn’t love the way she took us on the journey.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like five stars for the message and three stars for the pacing and throughline of the narrative. It was well-written and kept me engaged, but felt uneven.

There were many other people mentioned, but few re-appeared, so it felt like a parade of names that I gradually learned I had no motivation to even try to keep track of.

All at the same time, it was about remaking herself after her divorce, her appraisal of the looks of many men, descriptions of interactions with men/ people from “we hung out a few times” on up, a description of overcoming fear of failure and finding herself with surfing and the Rockaway community (the part I liked best), a beat-by-beat description of the weather systems leading to Sandy and what that aftermath was like...

There were a lot of details that didn’t need to be there and that seemed to fight with the flow of surf vignettes that really anchored the book. At the same time I enjoyed cheering her on in her journey to become a confident surfer.

Had I been the editor, I might have made the book just a wee bit shorter and more focused, but I still enjoyed what I got.

[Kristie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been avidly reading surfing memoirs for 6 years, ever since a friend suggested one to me as a way to help me think about different approaches to anxiety. Surfers have to be present -- if their mind wanders, they risk injury or death -- they don't have time for anxiety. But more than that, every surfing memoir has at least one description of a perfect ride. Those rides are necessarily present, complete in themselves, and deeply joyful. Perfect rides are what keep me coming back to this genre.

I feel like Rockaway was written specifically for me. A surfing memoir written by a woman navigating the transition from being married to being single, confronting all the unfulfilled dreams she's leaving behind, even as she finds new dreams and builds a new community for herself. She learns to surf in her 40s and discovers that she can do more than she ever imagined. One thing I love about this book is that Cardwell doesn't surf big waves or become a world renowned competitor. She's not fighting it out in the lineup or breaking records. She surfs for herself, because she loves it. She builds her skills and confidence just for her own self. It's a beautiful and inspiring book.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much more than I expected I might. Diane maintains a good balance with sharing her personal experience with becoming a surfer with current events and historical information about Rockaway, New York. I was a little concerned at one moment that this would be too much of a "I'm a divorced woman who doesn't know what to do next" story, but happily, she did not dwell too much on that aspect of her life. Although it is clear that she had quite the personal struggle adapting to a single life that had never been her goal/vision, that is not what this book is ultimately about. It's about learning to surf, learning the culture, the waves, the history behind the sport in the area she lives in. It's about being a woman, and how gender does make a difference in individual sports where men and women both use the same space. It's about finding commitment to do something you really want to do - and that really hit home for me. I am not a surfer and I'm not particularly interested in the sport, but that commitment part should be relevant to anyone.

Really, really enjoyed it.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read about the transition from being a NYC writer to a Rockaway surfer, and I liked the historical and present info about Rockaway, a place I'd never heard of. I was a keen body surfer growing up on a fantastic beach in Australia, but I didn't envy the surfboarders, as I saw many wipeouts, close encounters with sharks, smashed boards on rocks (this was before the leash or tether), and knew I didn't have the upper body strength so necessary for this sport. Along comes Diane, divorced and in her 40's, and decides her new passion is surfing ...in the freezing Atlantic!. This was something you'd learn as a teen, but she does it, and I so admired her tenacity for making every venture an adventure, whether she failed or succeeded. Just wished there was more about Diane, as I never really connected to her, and expected a memoir to give me options of like or dislike, but am just ambivalent.