Say what you will about Garrett McNamara, but how many of us can claim to have experienced real joy at the prospect of a pre-dawn raid at Nazare?

No way Jose, that is for goddamn sure, and most of us could say the same for Mavericks, Jaws, and Waimea, the waves of which McNamara has long plied his trade on.

The man who goes by the handle G-Mac is not cool - at least not in the mould of, say, Dane or Craig - but then he has an uncanny knack of getting shit done. He launches into Nazare covered in GoPros, he bombs Cortes Bank on a jet-propelled board delivering a three wave hold down to Greg Long, and he pilots US journo Anderson Cooper around on a jet ski.

And as the arbiters of cool frown, G-Mac writes another headline - or in this case a book. Yes, Hounds of the Sea: Wild Man. Wild Waves. Wild Wisdom is G-Mac's latest project and it's a loud, proud, guide to life. In other words, just what you expect.

Swellnet spoke to McNamara as he rested between giant swells on Oahu.

Swellnet: You came of age on the North Shore at a time when the joint must’ve been exploding with testosterone and danger, I guess the mid-eighties or thereabouts. What was that like?
Garrett McNamara: Oh yeah, I mean, that was when guys would get sent to the airport. Not to the beach, not to the parking but to the airport, like "You…off the Island", and that’s if they were lucky. That was when the place was west of the Wild Wild West [erupts in a maniacal laughter]. It was all, ‘locals rule’ and ‘Haoles go home’ you know?” [More laughter]

But, were you, you know, scared?
Well, I don’t know why, but somehow we fit in and we became friends with all the locals. It was a really, really heavy time for surfing on the North Shore and the toughest time in history to get a wave on the North Shore and we were right in the thick of it. There was a pecking order out there for sure and if no one was out, me and Liam [Garrett's younger brother] could get any wave we wanted, but when guys like Johnny Boy Gomes, Dane Kealoha, Junior, Perry Dane, Eddie Rothman, or the Ho brothers came out, you just wouldn’t go, even if you were in the spot. If they yelled at you to go though, you’d go because if you didn’t go, well good luck ever getting another shot like that.

Did that shape you in any way?
Sure, in some ways. It helped us be more hungry, aggressive, and committed and that can be good, in terms of getting waves here in Hawaii, but ultimately it’s better just to share.

What then was the trigger for you in terms of big waves?
I have to chalk it up to my mother and her just setting us free. Pretty much from the age of one, I was pretty much free to do anything: climb a tree, ride a bike, jump off a roof, we never got stopped and we just did the craziest stuff you could ever imagine and we didn't get that sense of fear instilled at an early age.

You’ve got kids, is that the same approach you have to parenthood?
It’s such a different time now, I’m worried to let my kids ride a bike down the road because somebody’s going to be on their cellphone and take ‘em out.

What’s the book all about then?
I figured if someone like me can follow their passions and live their dreams maybe I can provide some sort of path for anybody else to follow. It’s never too early or never too late to follow your passion and live your dreams. 

In essence, it’s a bit of a blueprint then?
That’s what I wanted the title to be actually [more laughter]

Didn’t Jay Zee or Kanye take that?
[Laughter] Maybe, I don’t know.

Have you had Ellen DeGeneres call?
The funny thing is, she called me in 2007 to come on her show but I was in Indonesia on a boat and I couldn’t get there. I think I still have her number though so maybe I should reach out, huh?

// L P MICHAELS