Hound of the Sea
Page 24
I remembered, then. He was the Portuguese man who had approached me at the French bakery in Fort Lauderdale. The one who’d thanked me for helping his country.
“I’d been living in Florida for ten years and was so so unhappy, very miserable, actually,” he continued. “I wanted to be able to move back home to Portugal and work with a respectable company. After the blueprint, I put together my résumé and sent it out to every company in Portugal I could think of. I was surprised when numerous offers came back. I chose this place, and I was able to follow my dream of moving back to my country because of you.”
I smiled, speechless. Nothing could have made me happier.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author with his wife, Nicole, and a local participant at a Surfers Healing camp in Puerto Rico, where they had met a year earlier, April 8, 2011. (Nancy Hussy)
This book would not be what it is without the dedication of Karen Karbo. She took my vision and turned it into a reality. I’m forever grateful for the countless hours she put in and for her faith in my story. Also, thank you to Karen Rinaldi, Hannah Robinson, Victor Hendrickson, and the rest of the publishing team at HarperWave for believing in what I wanted to share with the world and for all the time and effort it took to make this book the best it could be.
Thank you to my friends who had a hand in helping throughout the long writing and editing process. To Khalil Rafati, who inspired me by having the courage to tell his own story in I Forgot to Die. He was also one of my dear friends who took the time to read the finished manuscript and offer his thoughts. To Alex Von Furstenberg for lending us his picturesque Malibu beach house, a calm spot where we could focus on adding the finishing touches to the story.
Thank you to Rick Salomon, one of the most generous and caring people I’ve met in my life, for believing in me even when I wasn’t making the best choices and inspiring me every day through your sobriety and kindness.
Thank you to Mark Bell for always being in my corner and only a phone call away for the serious and not so serious moments of life. I aspire to accomplish even half of what you have done in business. And to Michael Vlock for literally changing the way I live my life. You have helped me focus on what is really important—my family and having fun. Somehow you believed in me too and I am eternally grateful for that.
Thank you to all my friends who inspire me in one way or another to be either a better father, husband, or businessman. To not take myself so seriously and enjoy my blessings. To the Schlesingers for adopting my family and treating us like your own. The Redfords for being there for me during one of the most desperate times of my life. Stuart Parr and Allison Sarofim for their friendship and believing in me and helping with my current healing process. Reggie Barns and Jocylene Tracy, Michael Whalen, the Dawsons, the Farrers, and all the friends and families near and far, all over the world, who have taken me in during my adventures—I’m forever grateful. My Chile family, my Peru family, my Tahiti family, my Indonesia family, my Australia family, my California family, my Japan family, my Hawaiian Islands families, and many more.
I have been so blessed in my life with amazing people supporting me it makes me sick to think I have forgotten to mention anyone who deserves to be on these pages. I pray that if I have forgotten anyone, which surely I have, that they know how much they have impacted my life and that I love them.
Thank you to Izzy Paskowitz who has changed my life in more ways than one and has also enriched the lives of thousands of children and their families. He deserves a statue! It was because of Surfers Healing that I found an emotional outlet and place to share my passion and also where I met my wife. Without Izzy my life would be on a completely different path. He also inspired me by having the courage to tell his story through Scratching the Horizon: A Surfing Life.
Thank you to Deepak Chopra for writing The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success—it has had a profound impact on how I live my life daily. And to Kent Ewing for encouraging me to stay PCP and helping me sort the chatterbox in my head.
The town of Nazaré and the country of Portugal deserve an entire book of praise. Thank you to Lowell Hussey for helping me make the website that helped Dino Casimiro track me down, and to Dino for hitting SEND on his first email. He could have reached out to anyone and I thank the heavens above it was me. To the town of Nazaré for being a little hesitant but in the end welcoming me with open arms and making me part of the family. To the original team in Nazaré for having the heart to go after your dreams. To Mama Celeste for always believing in me and taking care of me like I was her own son. To everyone in Celeste’s family—Andre Botelho, Ana, Vovo Cila, Maria Ana, Gil, Ricardo, Catarina, Julio, and all the other amazing humans.
A big thanks has to go out to all the charities I work with. Volunteering is a funny thing to me, because although you are giving your time to others, you walk away feeling so good that it’s like a selfish thing. I love all the work I do with the Red Cross, the Marconi Foundation, Heal the Bay, Surfrider, and most especially Surfer’s Healing. It’s where I feel I can make a real difference in a family’s life by sharing my passion for the ocean and waves. I commend Izzy Paskowitz for his dedication to enriching the life of autistic children and their families.
A million thank-yous to my partner, Andrew Cotton, surfing for Queen and Country. He is the most humble man I have ever met, and without him coming into my life I wouldn’t have ridden some of my most magical and memorable waves. He is also responsible for putting me in the perfect spot on the historic record wave which single-handedly changed my life forever. Also to Hugo Vau and Kealii Mamala for being loyal and keeping us safe, and to Jorge Leal for capturing all the moments so we could share it with the world. Also to all my other tow partners and water safety support throughout the years: I have always said and still do to this day that you are only as good as your team. Thanks for being there.
To the people of Nazaré—the body boarders, firemen, lifeguards, and police. The women with seven skirts. Paulo Salvador, Pedro Pisco, Paulo Caldeira, Guti Martin, and Sergio. To everyone in Nazaré and Portugal who have welcomed us and gave us a second home, obrigado!
I’m thankful for all the surfboard shapers who have supported me through my life. There are so many of you that have dedicated your time and energy to perfecting the shapes of the boards we rely on to enjoy the waves and do our job. It’s a true art form and I am extremely grateful to all of you who have made a board for me. Roy Patterson believed in me in the beginning. Dick Brewer shaped a number of magical boards for me over the years and used to let me hang out in the shaping room. What most people don’t know is he is the Kevin Bacon of shaping—directly or indirectly every shaper in surfing learned from Dick Brewer, but he is too humble to ever tell you that. And now Carl Schaper, who has devoted his craft to perfecting all my shapes. And SPO, who put their heart and soul into making me the most perfect tow board for Nazaré that I have ever ridden.
Gratitude goes to all the photographers throughout my career who have spent countless hours on land or in the water to capture “the shot.” Without you guys we wouldn’t have a profession. So many of you have helped me over the years it wouldn’t be fair to try and list you all in fear of forgetting someone.
Deepest thanks goes to my mother and father for creating me and bringing me into this world and providing me with the experiences that have made me who I am today. To my mother for forcing us to move to Hawaii, where I found my lifelong passion. And for both my parents for supporting me in whatever I do. To my brother Liam for always standing by my side, and to my other brothers—Michael McNamara, Allan and Bill, Michael, BJ and Joel Welsh—for doing the same. To Liam and Brandee for creating my nephews, the amazing Makai, Landon, and Ledgen who are carrying on the McNamara surf legacy.
I never thought we would be where we are today, but thank you to Connie for sticking with me when it was nearly impossible and blessing my life with three incredible children—Ari, Titus, and Tiari. Thank you to my children for loving me even wi
th my flaws and for creating their own path through life.
For Rose and Carlos Macias for accepting me into their family as one of their own and loving me unconditionally. I know I can be a real pain sometimes, so I appreciate you seeing me for who I really am and not giving up on me.
And if the phrase Last but not least ever had any real meaning it would be now. My wife, Nicole McNamara. I guess she saw a diamond in the rough when she met me and for that I will be indebted to the universe for the rest of my life for blessing me with an angel to stand by my side. She inspires me every day to be a better man for her, our children, and the rest of the world. She doesn’t let very many people in, so those that get to truly know her are some of the luckiest people on earth. Thank you for keeping me sane and helping me to see what’s important and staying true to myself and helping me to see when my ego is taking over. Thanks for helping me find my life purpose and figuring out how to serve the world with it. I love you more than you will ever know.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GARRETT McNAMARA holds the Guinness record for surfing the world’s largest wave, in addition to his numerous first-place wins in professional competitions around the world. He is the first foreigner ever to be awarded the prestigious Vasco de Gama Medal of Honor from the Portuguese Navy. McNamara splits his time between Hawaiʻi, Portugal, and the rest of the world, where he explores with his family.
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CREDITS
Cover design by Gregg Kulick
Cover photograph © Tó Mané
COPYRIGHT
HOUND OF THE SEA. Copyright © 2016 by Garrett McNamara. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McNamara, Garrett, 1967- author. | Karbo, Karen, author.
Title: Hound of the sea: wild man, wild waves, wild wisdom / Garrett McNamara with Karen Karbo.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, [2016]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013921 (print) | LCCN 2016026264 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062343598 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780062343611 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: McNamara, Garrett, 1967-| Surfers—United States—Biography.
Classification: LCC GV838.M378 A3 2016 (print) | LCC GV838.M378 (ebook) | DDC
797.3/2092—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013921
EPub Edition November 2016 ISBN 9780062343611
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