Surfing as a Metaphor

In each phase of Finnegan's life, surfing stands for something larger that is happening to him. When he first moves to Hawaii as a teenager, surfing is his way to break away from his family and head at daybreak to the sea. During the counterculture movement, he swaps his longboard for a shortboard, which was then revolutionizing the sport. And when he's abroad in the South Pacific, he begrudgingly uses a leash attached to his board, which has the practical purpose of preventing his board from getting lost and the symbolic purpose of keeping him tethered to something when he is out on his own in the world. Later, when he is living in New York, he used a shortboard, though a longboard might have been easier at his age, so he could quickly maneuver out of the city and get to surf spots.

Surfing...