It's Only Drowning

A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Search for Common Ground

By: David Litt

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Hardcover | 24 June 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 3.3

Hardcover

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After moving from Washington, DC, to the Jersey Shore, a former speechwriter for President Obama starts surfing at the age of thirty-five—the rough equivalent of beginning guitar lessons on your deathbed—and must turn for help to the only other surfer he knows: a tattooed, truck-driving, Joe Rogan superfan who happens to be his brother-in-law.

David Litt, the Yale-educated writer with a sensible fear of sharks, and Matt, the daredevil electrician with two motorcycles and a passion for death metal, had always coexisted from a comfortable distance as brothers-in-law. Yet in 2021, as David wallowed in existential dread while America’s crises piled up, he couldn’t help but notice that Matt was thriving. When he wasn’t making money rewiring New Jersey beach homes, Matt was riding waves at his favorite spots in the state.

Quietly, David started taking surfing lessons. For a few months, he suffered through wipeouts on waves the height of daffodils. But to his surprise, he soon became obsessed. And once he got a sense of the ways that fully committing to surfing could change him both in the water and on land, he set his sights on an unlikely goal: riding a big wave at Hawaii’s famously dangerous North Shore. To get there, he’d need Matt’s help.

At a moment when the fault lines of class, education, and culture threaten to tear our country apart, It’s Only Drowning is a blueprint for becoming braver at a time when it takes courage just to read the news, a love letter to surfing in the vein of William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days, and a poignant buddy comedy in the tradition of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.

Industry Reviews

“Reading It’s Only Drowning feels like those early mornings paddling out into an unpredictable swell—you don’t know what’s coming, but you feel alive just being out there. David's book is not just a surfing memoir— it's about the connections that keep us going.”
—LAIRD HAMILTON, legendary big-wave surfer and author of Force of Nature

“I have no connection to surf culture and I loved this book! It's witty, insightful, and will leave you feeling surprisingly optimistic about the future.”
—SAMI SAGE, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Democracy in Retrograde

“It's Only Drowning is delightful and an instant classic. David Litt has given us a coming-of-age story in the best sense—about a person, a passion, a friendship, and a moment in history. And the book is wickedly funny from beginning to end."
—JAMES FALLOWS, New York Times bestselling author of Our Towns

“David Litt has written a surfing memoir that’s about so much more than surfing. It's an insightful, hilarious, surprisingly moving story about the nature of friendship and the search for common ground, and I loved it.”
—JUDD APATOW, New York Times bestselling author of Sick in the Head

“So funny. So smart. If you’re a millennial panicking as you approach middle age, read this book!”
—ILANA GLAZER, cocreator of Broad City

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