Some surfers are articulate. Niran recommended this book because the author was one of his mother's students.

Enjoyable read that just takes you there with him. Good read during the winter months here in Jersey where now I'm too old to brave those winter surf sessions. This book helps me make it to spring when the Atlantic is just a little warmer.

An incredible, engaging story of becoming a member of a community and culture I hold near and dear to my being. That is of the Surfer.

An enigma to those who aren't inside this culture, yet deeply enthralling to all who observe the magic of gliding across the water.

I highly recommend to anyone who has ever wondered what it is like to be a surfer.

The timing for reading this one was eerily, and perfectly appropriate.
Loved.

i loved the authors writting style! it was a very descriptive style capturing all of his surroundings, both in and out of the water. although the title is misleading. the author does spend a year on the coast, but only the santa cruz area which is a very small part of the california coast. i would have loved to read his interactions on other parts of the coast.

Interestingly, while reading this book, I thought of three other books (all of which I enjoyed immensely) that have something in common with "Caught Inside."
1. Barbarian Days: a book about surfing (specifically a man's account of his surfing life)
2. Cold Mountain: a book with copious bucolic descriptions
3. Turn of the Screw: a book with the longest sentences (and the most parentheticals) I have ever read.

When you write a book about a topic in which few people are interested, replete with pastoral descriptions in baroque language, you should have some writing chops. When you do, you write one of the aforementioned books. When you don’t, you write something like “Caught Inside.”

I get why readers like this book. I did too. The author's descriptions of the California coast and its surf is, at times, transcendent. The historical elements are affecting, the wave tutorials stimulating, and the random trivia enlightening. I especially enjoyed the character Vince, whose display of surf machismo kept me entertained the whole way through. Duane's socio-cultural analysis of surf movies "Gidget" and "Endless Summer" is brilliant.

But it is the writing that is this narrative's weakness. Duane’s prose is written stream of consciousness with endless parentheticals and misplaced modifiers. Often, I would re-read passages and still misunderstand the author's intention. Because of this, it took me months to finish the book and this is in despite glossing over many pages.

"Caught Inside" has been touted by critics as “surfing’s Walden” and I wouldn't argue with that.

But however much the premise of this book recalls Walden, the writing will remind one that Duane is not Thoreau

In the acknowledgments the author thanks his mother for her love of language and his father for his love of story, both of which he uses copiously in this book.

You gotta know to know, y’know? Surfing is just like that mannn

this book took a while to get interesting, a few parts of the the story you can relate to whilst surfing.

The act of riding waves transcends sport or hobby for most surfers and almost all of them struggle with the justification of that obsessive passion. Dan Duane is the exception to that rule, a surfer and a writer who can combine the two into both a factually accurate description of all things surf and a beautifully poetic love letter to the California coast.
For the reader who happens to be a surfer this book should be required reading. It follows the authors willful progression from "weekend warrior" to more dedicated and avid wave-rider and he does it masterfully. Duane combines lessons in surf history and science with in depth character studies of his fellow surfers and descriptive passages of the California coast so evocative that the place itself becomes the true main character of the story.
For the nonsurfer Caught Inside is a solid if slightly intense study of a sport that is widely if not completely misunderstood by outsiders. Duane suffers from none of the lazy and unproductive stereotypes that surfers are burdened with and is an effective and intelligent ambassador.
Caught Inside is one of the best surf books I have ever read and one of my favorite overall books as well. It is a must read for surfers and would be enjoyable to anyone who loves the California coast or is curious about the reality of a life spent chasing waves.

Not just a surfer's must read, but also anyone who can appreciate the quiet life on the Pacific Coast. Santa Cruz exposed. The Walden of surf fiction.

Writing about something that’s bigger than life without gargantuan pathos is very hard, but this book does it. The writing must be good - there’s so much in it you can feel, picture and smell. The majority of surfers could never be as articulate about surfing as this gets. And though a lot of people are right evaluating surfers as a bunch of individualistic stuck-up assholes, this book nearly redeems this subspecies.