Such encounters with beauty are most intense in Barbarian Days at what Finnegan calls “the fear line.” Throughout the memoir, magical waves become, in an instant, mortally dangerous, as in Finnegan’s close brush on Madeira.

It felt like a runaway train, an eruption of magical realism, with that ocean-bottom light and the lacy white canopy. A hollow wave was roaring off into deeper water. The laws of physics appeared to have been relaxed. The wave felt like a test of faith, or a test of sanity, or an enormous, undeserved gift. Here he is on Tavarua, in Fiji, riding the last wave of the day: These emotions include discovery, fear, and “a dopamine rush that was both familiar and rare, that required nerve and experience.” There is hardship, deprivation, physical drubbing, injuries, and “near-drowning.”įinnegan also experiences the awe inspired by majestic waves. By contrast, the subject of a life spent surfing the iconic waves of the planet, such as Honolua, Tavarua, Kirra, Ocean Beach, and Jardim, gives Finnegan a canvas for the array of emotions elicited by encounters with violence-perhaps because surfing entails immersion in natural beauty. 'My memory of learning a spot, of coming to know and understand a wave is usually inseparable from the friend with whom I tried to climb its walls.If Barbarian Days eschews delving into this parallel, it is perhaps because for a reporter to dwell on personal emotions amidst the pervasive human suffering he witnesses would be obscene. Surfing is a secret garden, not easily entered.'

'But waves dance to an infinitely complex tune. The goal is to understand the purpose of riding them - what the waves are doing and especially what they're likely to do next,' Finnegan states. 'The science of surfers is not pure, obviously, but heavily applied. The movie, by award-winning director Darius Devas (Being Films), releases to the general public for the first time since premiering at Byron Bay Film Festival in October 2017.įinnegan's 'Barbarian Days' is a tribute to the writer's life-long obsession with surfing, capturing the mechanics of the activity in beautiful detail as well as exploring more mysterious, ineffable aspects of the sport. It is narrated by William Finnegan and features former US surfing champion, Rusty Miller. The film, titled 'William Finnegan - Barbarian Days,' features an excerpt from the best-selling novel, together with stunning visuals of Byron Bay surfers and coastline. A short film portrait of William Finnegan's Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction novel ' Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life' has launched online.

Barbarian days a surfing life