In this thrilling and candid memoir, world record-holding and controversial Big Wave surfer Garrett McNamara chronicles his emotional quest to ride the most formidable waves on earth.

Garrett McNamara—affectionately known as GMac—set the world record for the sport, surfing a seventy-eight-foot wave in Nazaré, Portugal in 2011, a record he smashed two years later at the same break. Propelled by the challenge and promise of bigger, more difficult waves, this adrenaline-fueled loner and polarizing figure travels the globe to ride the most dangerous swells the oceans have to offer, from calving glaciers to hurricane swells.

But what motivates McNamara to go to such extremes—to risk everything for one thrilling ride? Is riding giant waves the ultimate exercise in control or surrender?

Personal and emotional, readers will know GMac as never before, seeing for the first time the personal alongside the professional in an exciting, intimate look at what drives this inventive, iconoclastic man. Surfing awesome giants isn’t just thrill seeking, he explains—it’s about vanquishing fears and defeating obstacles past and present. Surfers and non-surfers alike will embrace McNamara’s story—as they have William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days—an its intimate look at the enigmatic pursuit of riding waves, big and small.

Hound of the Sea is a record of perseverance, passion, and healing. Thoughtful, suspenseful, and spiritually profound, McNamara reveals the beautiful soul of surfing through the eyes of one of its most daring and devoted disciples.

In his thrilling and candid memoir, big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara chronicles his unlikely and harrowing journey to ride the most formidable waves on earth.

Garrett McNamara set a world record when he surfed a seventy-eight-foot wave in Nazaré, Portugal, in 2011, a record he smashed three years later at the same break. Propelled by the challenge, McNamara travels the globe to ride the most dangerous waves, from giant barrels breaking on shallow, jagged reefs to massive, open ocean hurricane swells. But what motivates McNamara to go to such extremes? Is catching giant waves the ultimate exercise in control or surrender?

Through his compelling and emotional memoir, readers will get to know McNamara as never before, seeing the personal alongside the professional. Surfing awesome giants isn’t just thrill seeking, he explains—it’s about vanquishing fears and defeating obstacles past and present.

Thoughtful, suspenseful, and spiritually profound, Hound of the Sea is a testament to perseverance, passion, and healing.  McNamara  reveals the beautiful soul of surfing through the eyes of one of its most daring and devoted disciples.

“McNamara’s autobiography isn’t just for surfers, then; it’s for anyone who’s been looking for a way to overcome the insecurities and fears that are holding them back. An exciting, entertaining life story with an uplifting message.”