A late beginner in very big water

I learned to surf at forty. Then I surfed Cloudbreak.

Cloudbreak is a roughly twenty-foot wall of Pacific energy folding over shallow coral several miles off Fiji. It can break a board, hold a surfer underwater, or persuade a sensible adult to stay on the boat.

I got there through failure, mentors, breath training, rescue drills, and years of ugly feedback. That is how I take on hard problems.

See the work before the wave Read the mini book

Andrew Howard surfing a roughly twenty-foot wave at Cloudbreak in Fiji — **Cloudbreak, Fiji** The swell arrived from deep water and detonated over shallow reef. A rescue crew was nearby. My bladder remained unconvinced.

What the photograph leaves out

I was not fearless. I was organized.

My first trip to Todos Santos ended with four hours of fear and zero waves. On the boat home, I made a list: breath confidence, rescue skills, better equipment, better teachers, and a board built for the job.

The science in the book gave the list a theory. Adult brains still change. They respond well to smaller jumps, explicit feedback, and experience borrowed from people who already see the pattern.

Read the science thread

Big-wave rescue driver Abe picking Andrew up on a jet ski at Cloudbreak — **Abe arrived.**One of the best big-wave rescue drivers in the world, picking me up at Cloudbreak. I was extremely happy to see him.

Fail cleanly

The first attempt gave me a diagnosis, not a heroic story.

Find the experts

People with pattern recognition saw dangers I could not.

Train the pieces

Breath, rescue, equipment, paddle speed, and takeoffs.

Return to reality

The ocean kept moving. I arrived with less guessing.

Isla Todos Santos, Mexico

Vincente asked whether I wanted nice Todos or mean Todos. I chose nice.

Todos sits about twelve miles off Baja. There is no beach exit, no cell service, and a wave under the lighthouse called Killers.

The first time I went, I borrowed a board, wore no flotation, and caught nothing. Then I met Vincente, a Mexican big-wave surfer who taught me to stop aiming for the safe shoulder and point the board toward the teeth.

Two years later, I returned with a 10-foot-3-inch pink board, a static vest, an inflatable vest, breath training, rescue practice, and much better company. The wave stayed dangerous. I was finally prepared enough to learn from it.

Read Nice Todos / Mean Todos

Andrew Howard sitting on the Pink Padillac in front of the lighthouse at Isla Todos Santos after surfing Killers — **Back in the channel** The Pink Padillac is visible. The vest is inflated because I had used it. Both hands are celebrating the continued availability of oxygen.

Surfing With an Accent, abridged

The book follows two threads.

Read straight through for the full argument, or start with the thread that interests you.

The personal chapters

What happened in the water.

Todos Santos, Cloudbreak, breath-hold training, the wave pool, and the return.

Start with All Saints

The science chapters

Why late learning still works.

Critical periods, neuroplasticity, deliberate practice, and wicked worlds.

Start with Critical Periods

The route here

The pattern started before the waves.

I have spent most of my life choosing problems slightly beyond my current qualifications. Soccer made that feel normal. The rest of the story kept proving the point.

University of Michigan men's soccer team posing together outdoors — Michigan soccerBefore the companies and the big waves.

Michigan

Preparation made the improbable feel available.

I played soccer at Michigan and scored the game-winning goal in a national final. That was a useful experience and a dangerous lesson: enough work can make an unlikely thing happen.

Chicago

Then came the highly practical degree.

I studied philosophy and Asian Studies, a combination that qualified me perfectly to bartend at a Chicago nightclub. I did that for a while.

Personalized learning

Brain Hurricane and Wowzers.

I built two education companies around a stubborn idea: students learn differently, while schools are usually built to teach them in groups.

Now

Addie and the counselor shortage.

Too many students are not heard because counselors carry impossible loads. Addie gives students time to speak and gives counselors the context to do the human work.

Visit Addie

Surfing made the process easier to see: choose a real challenge, find people who know more, train the pieces, return after failure, and respect the consequence. I use the same method on dry land.

The life around the adventures

The waves are the adventures. Sara and Elliot are the life.

Sara was in New York. I was bartending in Chicago and discovering that a Michigan degree in philosophy and Asian studies mostly qualified me to make drinks and tell jokes about having a useless major. We did long distance, fell in love, and eventually moved west.

Now we live in Cardiff, a few blocks from the ocean, with most of Sara's family and most of mine within ten minutes. That is rare, and not remotely lost on us.

Travel stretches the family. Community anchors it. The point is to do both well.

Andrew, Sara, and Elliot together in Japan beneath autumn trees — Now **Japan, last fall. Same family. More years. Better stories.**

Andrew, Sara, and three-month-old Elliot together on the beach at Tavarua in Fiji at sunset — Then **Tavarua, Fiji. Elliot was three months old and already on the itinerary.**

Sara and Elliot together beside the sea in Greece during the summer — Also now **Greece, this summer. Sara and Elliot, still collecting passport stamps and perspective.**

Home is Cardiff

We built a life close to the beach and close to our people.

Sara spent seventeen years at Nike. She trained in nutrition and exercise physiology, has run multiple marathons including Boston, and later built Coconut Culture, a coconut-yogurt business that brought organic, plant-based food to our local farmers' markets.

She serves on the health council, volunteers in schools, and pays attention to local politics. Elliot is a ripping surfer, strong skier, serious soccer player, and excellent traveler. She has a gift for making a trip feel like an expedition instead of an itinerary.

I host the Cornish Gym at Swami's three mornings a week with a rotating cast of Cardiff dads. I serve as a trustee in the Cardiff School District. We like friends, long dinners, beach mornings, and being useful in the place that gave us this life.

Lucky to live by the beach. Luckier still to live this close to the people we love.

Cover of Surfing With an Accent by Andrew Howard

A midlife crisis with footnotes.

The full book

Surfing With an Accent

The personal chapters tell the story. The science chapters explain what I was trying to understand about learning late, fear, practice, and judgment. Together they ask the question behind the whole project: what remains possible after the convenient age has passed?

Personal chapters Fear, failure, Cloudbreak, and the return to Todos. Science chapters Critical periods, neuroplasticity, practice, and risk.

Start with the mini book if you want the clean version. Go to the Kindle edition for the original language, full scenes, research, sources, and every useful side road.

Read the mini book Buy the full book on Amazon

The wave lasted seconds. The work took years. That is the part I care about.