Durban surfer launches book of ocean adventures

DURBAN surfer and ocean adventurer John McCarthy launched a new book The Sexy Ugly Beautifuls this month, which is set to heat up South Africa’s adventure writing scene.

The Sexy Ugly Beautifuls is a rock ‘n roll collection of ocean infused adventures, so named after the colourful characters and exotic destinations John discovered in his global quest to ride the perfect wave.

These stories share John’s unique journey from youthful bodysurfer in South Africa to the thundering tubes of Hawaii’s North Shore and on into the wilderness of Namibia and Mozambique.

Speaking to Berea Mail about the book, John described it as a collection of short stories and anecdotes.

“Initially I was just recording my adventures and observations along the way and wasn’t consciously leading towards a collection in a book. About ten years ago I thought ‘hang on maybe this could work as a book.’ So while I’ve been engaged in documenting the stories for the past two decades, only half of that time it has been with the idea of a book in mind,” he said.

John said he ‘absolutely loved’ the process of putting the book together. He said the real work began when he thought the book was finished and started working with an editor.

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“I had a bloated manuscript that weighed in at a hefty 150 000 words. The editor pointed out the duplication, both in the content and descriptions and so I went to work cutting back. With the help of an extended editorial team I cut as much as I could to reduce it to a lean and mean, and hopefully pacy, fun to read 90 000 words over 50 different stories. The stories are arranged chronologically, but it is not an autobiography, so each story stands alone as its own adventure,” he said.

John loves the ocean and surfing and said surfing has given him a ‘true north’ since he started 38 years ago at the age of nine.

He has surfed provincially, professionally and was part of the SA team to win the inaugural SA Masters World Title in Puerto Rico.

He has published surfing magazines such as Zigzag, Saltwater GIRL, theBOMBsurf and www.thgreenersurfer.com and has worked as a surf consultant to many film producers notably Blue Crush 2, which was filmed in Durban.

John now builds his own more environmentally responsible surfboards and guides surfing yoga and freediving wilderness adventures.

He was the subject of a short film entitled Sea Change’which won several Louries in SA and was shown at the Santa Cruz Film festival in California last year.

He is also the architect behind the Swim Free Confidence Underwater Course which focuses on helping people develop ocean safety skills.

“In this crazy journey of surfing I have found many perfect waves and met so many interesting people and had the most awesome adventures. I’ve tried to write the book in such a way that you don’t need to be a surfer to be entertained by it, but if you are a surfer, the content is authentic. This is my debut into book writing and there is another project on the go, this time a novel. It is early days in the writing, but I’ve been living with some of the characters and the plot in my head for a while now. I promised myself I couldn’t start writing the next one until this one was done. With the completion of The Sexy Ugly Beautifuls I’m a free man now and literally in the process of diving into the next project as we speak,” he said.

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John said he had learned a lot through writing this first book and will be approaching the second one in a very different way.

“For starters it’s not going to take me 20 years to write this one! Hopefully we’ll be having this chat again this time next year with the completed second book the subject. The title of my first book comes from all the interesting and wonderful people I met travelling around the world looking for the perfect wave. For now though I hope you have as much fun meeting them as I did,” he said.

A limited edition, first release copy of the book will be available for sale until 15 November exclusively on www.thesexyuglybeautifuls.com.

Mainstream and ebook versions will be available from January 2019.

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