MICHAEL SCOTT MOORE / Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World...
Monday, August 2 2010 at 7:30 PM
While living in Germany,
travel adventurer, journalist,
and surfer Michael Scott Moore unexpectedly stumbled upon a vibrant German surf
scene. Surprised, he set out to uncover how an obscure tribal sport from
pre-colonial Hawaii (and associated mostly
with his home state of California)
managed to spread so far across the planet. Moore chronicles his quest to answer that
question in his new book Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, with Some Unexpected Consequences.
Moore’s journey
took him beyond Germany to some of the sport’s other unlikely destinations,
including the Gaza Strip, Northern England, Japan, Morocco, and more. In explaining
how surfing made its way across the globe, Moore masterfully weaves in the complicated
political and cultural histories that have played key roles in the spread of
the sport -- uncovering the sometimes “sweet,” sometimes “bloody” forces that
shaped both surf culture and that of the places it traveled. His exploration
goes far beyond surfer dudes and stereotypes -- it’s a thrilling, moving, and
revealing look at a subject we only think
we know.
Michael Scott
Moore is a novelist and journalist who has written on politics and travel
for publications such as The Atlantic, Slate, The
Financial Times, among others. He lives in Berlin, Germany.
