1. What’s it about?
In 1989, Andy Martin goes for a few months to Hawaii (where surfing was born hundreds of years ago) to report for The Times about a British surfer Martin Potter, known as Pottz, hopefully becoming a champion (he did). But “Walking on Water” is a lot more than that. There are mad surfers, wise shapers, Hawaiian history and incredible stories. There’s Captain Cook, Herman Melville, Jules Verne, Victor Hugo, Greek mythology and a great (great!) sense of humour.
2. What kind of sea is inside?
“The wave, a creature of the sea.”
3. What I loved?
The way Andy writes – like a smart professor and a fun teenage boy simultaneously. The fact that I laughed out loud on a train while reading it. And that dream chapter – it got me! Surfers will always amaze me. They are impossible.
4. What surprised me?
The thin line between surfing and religion.
5. What have I put into my pocket?
Lots of quotes on water-gazing and the sea.
“Hawaiians on the North Shore are the exegetes of the Pacific, expert in deciphering the ocean. They have given up reading texts and treat the water as their scripture, their Bible, their Koran, from which they are constantly teasing out ingenious interpretations of hidden, secret messages .. The sea is their kingdom, water their element.”
“I wanted to quote the ocean.”
And books I didn’t know Andy has written. “Beware Invisible Cows: My Search for the Soul of the Universe” for example.
6. Cool fact about the author?
Andy Martin is a surfer, writer and academic. He has written a book about Lee Child, world’s leading thriller writer, following him ‘everywhere’ for a year.
7. How did it arrive at the Sea Library?
Outdoors columnist on The Scotsman newspaper, Roger Cox, introduced me to Andy Martin’s books by donating “Stealing the Wave” (2007) five years ago. He hooked me.
Martin, Andy. Walking on Water, 1991. Minerva, 1992
Sea Library 
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