In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road
by Allan Weisbecker
List Price:
Our Price: $8.11
You Save: $6.84 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.96 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Allan WeisbeckerEdition: Paperback
Published: 2002-09-16
ISBN: 1585421774
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Tarcher
Book Reviews of In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road
Book Review: I don't even surf
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked up this book after having read the fictional "Cosmic Banditos". It's the mind-boggling road diary of Weisbecker's trip off the grid. He sells off his life, grabs his dog and surfboards, and heads out with no real direction other than 'south'. His funny, relaxed writing evokes a storytelling session around a campfire on the beach.
This is the kind of audacious drop-out from society that most of us will only dream about. After cringing at some of Weisbecker's more harrowing adventures, some of us will be glad we never took the leap. The story takes an uncomfortable turn when Captain zero is finally found, a turn which may cement your commitment to staying safely on the grid.
Summary of In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road
In 1966, Allan Weisbecker "made a Manhattan run from the landlocked suburbs" to take in a siren-song movie called The Endless Summer, a documentary that depicted the carefree life of two beach bums who roamed the world in quest of the perfect wave. Weisbecker was hooked, and he became a hardcore wave rider, a fixture on the Long Island surf scene. With a friend, Christopher, he also undertook illegal ways to finance his passion, transporting drugs from exotic countries, a business only briefly interrupted when Christopher went off to Vietnam. There he took fire and came home scarred; something in him changed, and one day he simply vanished.Weisbecker's book, a sort of gonzo detective story blended with travelogue and peppered with hang-10 jargon, does many things, all of them very well indeed. It offers up a vision of innocent times brought to ruin by war and drugs; it recounts his search for his lost friend, whose life had gone from bad to worse far away from home; and it affords a look inside the strange culture of surfing, whose masters "understood, in a visceral and soulful and inexpressible way, the machinations of the sea, and, by subtle inference, the universe at large."
Full of regret and exhilaration, Weisbecker's memoir is a fine chronicle of a dream gone sour and a friendship redeemed. --Gregory McNamee
In 1996, Allan Weisbecker sold his home and his possessions, loaded his dog and surfboards into his truck, and set off in search of his long-time surfing companion, Patrick, who had vanished into the depths of Central America. In this rollicking memoir of his quest from Mexico to Costa Rica to unravel the circumstances of Patrick's disappearance, Weisbecker intimately describes the people he befriended, the bandits he evaded, the waves he caught and lost en route to finding his friend.
In Search of Captain Zero is, according to Outside magazine, "A subtly affecting tale of friendship and duty. [It] deserves a spot on the microbus dashboard as a hell of a cautionary tale about finding paradise and smoking it away."
Authors Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Top 5 Choices When the Surf Is Flat
Riding Giants (Special Edition)Release date: 2005-01-04; DVD
Best price: $66.97
Maverick'sby Matt Warshaw
Chronicle Books; Published: 2003-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.84
Price in other shops:
Surf Science: An Introduction To Waves For Surfingby Tony Butt
University of Hawaii Press; Published: 2004-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
Surfings Greatest Misadventures: Dropping in on the UnexpectedCasagrande Press; Published: 2006-02-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.15
Price in other shops:
In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Roadby Allan Weisbecker
Tarcher; Published: 2002-09-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.10
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
All for a Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Doraby David Rensin
HarperEntertainment; Published: 2008-04-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.20
Price in other shops:
Thicker Than WaterRelease date: 2003-11-25; DVD
Best price: $8.83
Price in other shops:
West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Beliefby Steven Kotler
Bloomsbury USA; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
Tijuana Straits: A Novelby Kem Nunn
Scribner; Published: 2005-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.17
Price in other shops:
The Dogs of Winterby Kem Nunn
Scribner; Published: 1998-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.37
Price in other shops:
Caught Inside: A Surfer's Year on the California Coastby Daniel Duane
North Point Press; Published: 1997-04-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.34
Price in other shops:
Tapping the Sourceby Kem Nunn
Thunder's Mouth Press; Published: 2005-12-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.81
Price in other shops:
Zen & ZeroRyko Distribution; Release date: 2006-10-31; DVD
Best price: $13.90
Price in other shops:
Can't You Get Along With Anyone?: A Writer's Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer's Paradiseby Allan Weisbecker
Bandito Books; Published: 2007-09-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.78
Price in other shops:
Cosmic Banditosby A. C. Weisbecker
NAL Trade; Published: 2001-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops: