Kook Essay

LoMonaco, Maddie
Period 1
Part 4

In the split second it took to attempt the most crucial move in surfing—from passenger-prone to standing and in control—two thoughts flashed: Anything is possible. And: What the hell am I doing here? (P.2)

Kook by Peter Heller, is a memoir he wrote about how he come to discover his love and passion for surfing . One of the paragraphs that give the most insight to the reader is the last paragraph of the first chapter. In this one particular chapter all the small moments that he talking about he is foreshadowing to the bigger moments that he had later on in his surfing career. While ‘reading between the lines’ the reader can see the tone and purpose that Heller is trying to portray. At the beginning of the first sentence he says “In the split second it took to attempt the most crucial move in surfing….” Here he is giving insight to what the climax of his surfing career felt like. Those split seconds that he is talking about took him not physically but mentally a took while to finally figure it out what surfing is really about—that adrenaline ‘high’ that you get after catching one of the best waves of your life! The next part talks about his transition from traveling across the country in search of an office job to finally taking control of his life. He represents that in how he is waiting for a wave but not looking for one to finally taking control of his life by “…standing [on the surfboard] and in control.” When he was up on that wave, it’s a symbol of him standing up against his old and boring ways of life. When he had caught that wave he then writes about the two thought that he had: “anything is possible” and “What the hell am I doing here”. The first thought he is referring to the moment that he had been working for his entire surfing career, when he got in the tube of the wave. The second thought that he had is referring to when he got sent to the E.R after a terrible surfing accident after getting in the barrel of the wave for the first time.