Now, Jen is ready to tackle those same Monsters with her twin sons Casey and Brock, who have become competitive surfers in a perilous sport. The founder of Breath of Life, a church and rescue mission that assists with natural disasters that no one else will touch, Brock has lived an adventurous and sometimes violent life. As the big-wave contest draws closer, a huge, late fall swell is headed toward the Pacific coastline.
Desperation Reef will be available on July 16th, Please enjoy the following excerpt! Jen Stonebreaker, that is, hollering over the whine of her jet ski, towing her husband into a wave taller than a four-story building. The class valedictorian.
A former Miss Laguna Beach. Welcome to Mavericks, a winter break in the cold waters just south of San Francisco, with occasionally gigantic waves, sometimes beautifully formed, but always potentially lethal. One of the scariest breaks on Earth. Ask any of the very few people who ride places like this. Not only the jagged, shallow rocks, but sharks, too, and water so cold you can barely feel your feet through neoprene boots. Riders not unlike the Stonebreakers, Jen now gunning her jet ski across the rising wave, looking for smooth water to deliver John into the steepening face of it, where he will toss the rope and—if all goes well and the gods are smiling—drop onto this wall and try to stay on his board, well ahead of the breaking barrel that, if it gets its chance, will crush him to the rocky bottom like a bathtub toy.
She feels the tremendous tonnage of water trying to suck her back onto the wave and over the falls. Steadies herself on the bucking machine, off to the side and safely out of the way of the monsters, where she can watch John do his thing. Jen hears the barrel roaring closed behind him. Like a freight train or a stretched-out thunderclap.
Look at him, she thinks. This is it. This is why we do it. Not love. Not sex. Not being a mother or a father. Not seeing God. Not mountains of money. Nothing can touch this speed, this perilous grace, this joy, this high.
