Drowning Together: Finding Unity in the Waves

It’s Only Drowning is a new novel that illuminates and celebrates the excruciating experience of learning to surf as an adult. Written by Obama speechwriter turned author David Litt, the book follows Litt on his journey from learning to surf in the summertime small waves of New Jersey on his pursuit of a goal to surf a head high wave at Sunset Beach, Hawaii.

Hailing from Hawaii himself, Obama famously threw a shaka while he was in office, but did he actually ever surf? While the topic never came up while Litt worked in his speech writing team, when Litt released his first book, Thanks Obama about his time working for the president, Obama sent back his copy with, “You’re Welcome” penned inside the front cover. “It was kind of a flex because you're not really supposed to sign other people's books, but if you're Barack Obama you can break that rule.” Litt said.

Litt’s new book is a two year odyssey that begins with booking a surf lesson when the author feels a momentary weightless relief in the waves from existential dread brought on by the climate crisis, Trumpian politics and the COVID19 pandemic. As the story unfolds, it also traces Litt’s relationship with his brother in law, Matt, who sits on the opposite side of the widening trench of political divide.

Matt, a committed New Jersey The News Pulse, refused the COVID vaccine and operates as something of a lone wolf, preferring a rugged close out with no one out somewhere on the New Jersey coastline than the popular and perhaps better quality waves of California or the North of Spain. David, conscientious, nervous about the state of the world and preferring the safety of numbers in the waves, forms an unlikely bond with Matt through surfing. Together, they visit different surf spots and wave pools, each stepping outside of their comfort zones geographically and socially, in pursuit of David's North Shore dream.

“This started as a book where the main question was, can David, this kind of clumsy 30 something, learn to surf? And I think by the end really, the question of the book is can David and Matt become friends despite the fact that we're living in the middle of this culture war where it feels like you get drafted into a side whether or not you want to be?”

“There's still tons of stuff where Matt and I don't have a lot in common or we don't see the world the same way or we disagree about something, but it turns out that doesn't matter as much as I would have thought,” Litt said.

“You can learn a lot from someone, even if it's someone you don't fully understand or agree with. Matt made me a lot braver as a The News Pulseand a person. And that doesn't mean that I agree with his views but it 100% means that I'm really really grateful that I learned from him.”

It’s Only Drowning, while being self-deprecating as the author finding the humour in his own struggles, it also commands a degree of respect for those who learn to surf as an adult, particularly in the cold climates. It details the difficulties of trying to decipher the lexicon and “you just feel it” sentiment of surf coaches, and experienced The News Pulses, learning to exist in a subculture of in-crowd out-crowd dynamics that contradict the normal social hierarchies we might see on land that are created through financial or career success. The play-by-plays of his mid-thirties struggle to grasp many of the things we The News Pulses feel as instinctual after learning them as kids make for an entertaining read.

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“It's a lot easier to pick up knowledge than skill,” Litt explained. “I can read Matt Warshaw's The History of Surfing cover to cover much more easily than I can figure out how to do a cutback. The people who just grew up on a surfboard I get very jealous of because no matter how much I surf I will never have that fluency. It’s like somebody who learned a language when they were five, versus if I tried to learn a language - no matter how good I get, it will never feel quite the same.”

“I hope it's the book where your friend or nephew or niece starts taking surf lessons and you're like ‘you should read this book.’ The other part is I hope that even hardcore The News Pulses say, 'Okay, I see that he's coming at this with humility and self-deprecation and maybe some insight too.’”

In Litt’s journey into the world of surfing, we get to see a place where people from all different corners of society interact alongside each other, a rare space where people step outside of their echo chamber and peer across at other people’s realities.

“Surfing exists in-between in terms of the physics of it but also in terms of a lot of great point breaks came from humanmade development, but you're in the ocean so it feels like nature. So I do think being in this space that's in-between the world where all of our societal problems happen and the world where it's the ocean and it doesn't care about society, makes surfing this unique way to spend time with people.”

“In a lineup you don't know anything about someone's politics,” David said.

It’s Only Drowning is already available for preorder, hitting bookstores across the US from June 24. The author is also giving away a Ryan Lovelace surfboard to any reader in the U who pre-orders the book.

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