What do you think?
Rate this book
Chasing Dean: Surfing America's Hurricane States
Exhilarating and funny, this memoir of a quest for the perfect wave includes a fascinating outsiders' view of America, as well as an account of a rich friendship Two childhood friends from small-town Wales meet in Miami for a summer road trip they've always dreamed of—to chase the swell of a hurricane all the way up the East Coast in search of once-in-a-lifetime surf. As they follow Hurricane Dean, they also embark on a hilarious journey of self-discovery and a travel experience like no other. Mixing the humor of Sideways with the extreme conditions of The Perfect Storm , this quirky travelogue is destined to become a cult classic.
- GenresNonfictionTravel
352 pages, Paperback
First published May 5, 2009
5 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Tom Anderson
9 books23 followersTom was born in Watford, London on the 15th May 1980. He lived with his parents in London until he saw the error of his ways only a couple of years later whereupon his family moved back to his father’s homeland of South Wales. It was inevitable that he would be drawn to the sea since his grandfather had been a top lifesaver and his father a successful competitive surfer ‘back in the day’.
Tom began surfing at the age of 11 and moved to the seaside town of Porthcawl at the age of 13. He saved up for his first custom surfboard at the age of 14 after doing a milk round for 27 weeks (=270 pounds!) working from midnight until five AM every Friday night, under the watchful eye of long-time Porthcawl Point local Gez McKay (who has since joined the police “’cause it gives you even more water time than a milk round”). By the age of 16 Tom had gained a place on the Welsh Junior Surfing team and British Junior Development Squad.
After finishing school Tom began to travel abroad as much as possible in search of better waves. During a degree in English at the University of Glamorgan, the Student Loans Company funded a large proportion of the travel which went on to form the basis of the Magic Carpet storyline.
He still had to get the odd job though and has done just about everything, including such ‘trades’ as golf caddy, caravan cleaner, bailiff, suit salesman, dishwasher, ice-cream bike operative, barman, line-feeder at a Sony factory, private investigator, canine dental machine repairman and obviously surf shop assistant.
His interests away from surfing include making so-called terminally ill cars last an extra 23,000 miles (and still counting, thank you Nissan!), watching the Welsh Football Team and Arsenal (be it at a dodgy foreign bar, in the stands of the Millennium Stadium or at Highbury/the Emirates Stadium), longboard-skateboarding, poker, basketball, reading and writing and scheming for other ways to fund more surf travel.
Tom began surfing at the age of 11 and moved to the seaside town of Porthcawl at the age of 13. He saved up for his first custom surfboard at the age of 14 after doing a milk round for 27 weeks (=270 pounds!) working from midnight until five AM every Friday night, under the watchful eye of long-time Porthcawl Point local Gez McKay (who has since joined the police “’cause it gives you even more water time than a milk round”). By the age of 16 Tom had gained a place on the Welsh Junior Surfing team and British Junior Development Squad.
After finishing school Tom began to travel abroad as much as possible in search of better waves. During a degree in English at the University of Glamorgan, the Student Loans Company funded a large proportion of the travel which went on to form the basis of the Magic Carpet storyline.
He still had to get the odd job though and has done just about everything, including such ‘trades’ as golf caddy, caravan cleaner, bailiff, suit salesman, dishwasher, ice-cream bike operative, barman, line-feeder at a Sony factory, private investigator, canine dental machine repairman and obviously surf shop assistant.
His interests away from surfing include making so-called terminally ill cars last an extra 23,000 miles (and still counting, thank you Nissan!), watching the Welsh Football Team and Arsenal (be it at a dodgy foreign bar, in the stands of the Millennium Stadium or at Highbury/the Emirates Stadium), longboard-skateboarding, poker, basketball, reading and writing and scheming for other ways to fund more surf travel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 17, 2019
A fun read, decent descriptions of surfing on the east coast of the states, good for learning about several spots, especially in the Northeast. Just a general, decent surf adventure story with a little bit of discussion about the political situation at the time, via Katrina and Iraq and your usual travelogue descriptions of various places they stayed and surfed while traveling up the East Coast. The location in terms of surf travel is unique, most books about surfing in America take place in California and Hawaii, although New York State features in several surf books I read because it is certainly a literature capital of the US to this day and there happens to be decent surf at Rockaway Beach and Montauk point gets some pretty big waves in the winter (see famous photo of coast guard cutter charging 20 ft waves). During the fall (when this takes place and also best season for surfing on East Coast as water temp is still hospitable and at least in NC, September is the day with the most ridable waves due of course to hurricane season) Long Island and New Jersey can get some play in the national surf magazines due to draining barrels from Hurricane Swell, most of the books surf action takes place in the North East starting in New Jersey as the swell from Hurricane Dean doesn't light up the coast till they get there. So if you are interested in reading about surfing in the southeast this isn't your book, spots are named but you won't hear anything about what they are like when they are working.
January 23, 2012
I thought I was going to be reading a kind of modern day Endless Summer set on the East Coast, however what I really got was a lot of left wing bellyaching from someone who obviously believes everything he hears in the media. At first, I was merely amused by the European sheeple global warming nonsense....perhaps if the author had a background in science, he might know that climate change is natural and necessary to the Earth's renewal...the green movement is a scam to take government control and to make money. It's a great scam, BTW as there is no way for anyone to live long enough to see that it's bs.... but further in the story, his lack of knowledge of America was just annoying...particularly his hero-worship of the city of New Orleans, which he referred to as a bastian of hospitality and goodwill, completely ignoring the fact that prior to Katrina, it was the murder and rape capital of the US. The French quarter does a great job of promoting tourism, but the city has a serious crime problem, due to those "poor, unfortuante" welfare leeches he so sympathizes with. The author then proceeds to promote more of the anti-Bush lies about how the president ignored Katrina because he doesn't like black people as one moron commented at the time. No, Mr anderson, if you were familiar with American law, you would know that Bush couldn't help until the governor of Louisiana ASKED him to and that was delayed because of the state's own incompetence. Ask the mayor (who is black) why he used the money set aside to reinforce the leevees to build a sports stadium instead. Oh, right, he's got a D in front of his name, so it's someone else's fault. Lastly, the author complained a LOT about Americans thinking Wales was part of Britain. I wasn't aware it has succeeded from the UK, personally, but I noticed the author did the EXACT SAME THING here in America...he kept saying he was in NY when he was in NJ...which are two ENTIRELY SEPERATE PLACES....don't throw stones for something you do yourself, it REALLY makes you look petty. I couldn't finish this, simply because this smug, annoying individual really should have left his politics out of the story since he was so misinformed throughout.
December 11, 2013
Honestly? Yes, it was a refreshing change to read something else besides the usual literary fiction of war and the embattled souls caught in a crossfire of something or other. It was an acceptable change of scenery.
But what I couldn't stand was the endless jargon of surfing and hurricanes! No doubt it was a book on surfing and a plot which centred on the lives of two best buddies who made it their lifetime mission to follow Hurricane Dean (hence the book's title) as well as other hurricanes just to catch the best and biggest swells and "ride the waves", so to speak. For almost every two to three chapters, one of them would constantly follow the news online, to see which hurricane made the biggest impact on which town. I found it really challenging to try and read and understand what they were trying to say. Half the time, I would read only half a chapter and then continue the rest on another day when I didn't have such a harrowing time at work. Strangely though, it took me just a couple of days over a month to complete the book. Maybe I just couldn't wait until I've completed it so I could have possibly tried reading as fast as possible. I may have inadvertently missed out on a few things though.
But what I couldn't stand was the endless jargon of surfing and hurricanes! No doubt it was a book on surfing and a plot which centred on the lives of two best buddies who made it their lifetime mission to follow Hurricane Dean (hence the book's title) as well as other hurricanes just to catch the best and biggest swells and "ride the waves", so to speak. For almost every two to three chapters, one of them would constantly follow the news online, to see which hurricane made the biggest impact on which town. I found it really challenging to try and read and understand what they were trying to say. Half the time, I would read only half a chapter and then continue the rest on another day when I didn't have such a harrowing time at work. Strangely though, it took me just a couple of days over a month to complete the book. Maybe I just couldn't wait until I've completed it so I could have possibly tried reading as fast as possible. I may have inadvertently missed out on a few things though.
October 11, 2014
Anderson hooks up with a old school friend in America and they combine a road trip with surfing all the way up the eastern seaboard of America.
They deliberately time their trip for September, just in the main hurricane season, and start obsessively following the weather reports to see if there are any big hurricanes building. They visit New Orleans and see the devastation that Katrina left and meet with the people who are rebuilding the city and their lives.
There are a couple of non starters in the way of hurricanes, and then, Dean, the big one starts. It builds to a category 5, and the intensity of the storm sends the swell all the way up through Florida to Cape Cod. They start to get some really big day of surfing in.
It does take a while to get to the surfing, but this is a book as much about travel, as it is about surfing. Really enjoyed this, will look out his others.
They deliberately time their trip for September, just in the main hurricane season, and start obsessively following the weather reports to see if there are any big hurricanes building. They visit New Orleans and see the devastation that Katrina left and meet with the people who are rebuilding the city and their lives.
There are a couple of non starters in the way of hurricanes, and then, Dean, the big one starts. It builds to a category 5, and the intensity of the storm sends the swell all the way up through Florida to Cape Cod. They start to get some really big day of surfing in.
It does take a while to get to the surfing, but this is a book as much about travel, as it is about surfing. Really enjoyed this, will look out his others.
October 25, 2014
I loved this book, not for the subject, but for the writing. The description of their road trip chasing waves to surf, and their own inner journeys, is amazing.
'They' are Tom, the author, and his friend Dr Rhys. Surfers everywhere, while sympathizing with those who suffer from the disasters caused by hurricanes, know that, miles away, the energy of the storm causes some great surfing waves. The trick is to know where to find them. Tom and his friend are from Porthcawl in south Wales, where they grew up surfing.They set off on a mad adventure chasing the waves from hurricane Dean up the east coast of America.
I'm not a surfer, can't even swim, but I love the courage and the grace of those who do. If you want to read something a bit different, you'll love this book.
'They' are Tom, the author, and his friend Dr Rhys. Surfers everywhere, while sympathizing with those who suffer from the disasters caused by hurricanes, know that, miles away, the energy of the storm causes some great surfing waves. The trick is to know where to find them. Tom and his friend are from Porthcawl in south Wales, where they grew up surfing.They set off on a mad adventure chasing the waves from hurricane Dean up the east coast of America.
I'm not a surfer, can't even swim, but I love the courage and the grace of those who do. If you want to read something a bit different, you'll love this book.
October 24, 2013
Overall, I thought this book was put together well and was a good story. I personally didn't like the book because it was too much about different hurricanes, not just about Hurricane Dean. If you really like surfing and would be interested in people following storms to surf this book would be good for you.
March 8, 2011
unlike his other books, i found this filled with hurricane jargon and not much surfing.
March 21, 2012
A charming, hapless journey of Welsh surfers traversing the States in search of tasty waves caused by storms.
April 26, 2014
A thoroughly enjoyable read
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews