Reviews of ZEN on Honolulu Star Advertiser

ZEN and the art of Surfing

Review by Lyle E. Davis in The Paper, San Diego


Somewhere in high school I was taught that the hardest composition to write was the short story.

It’s true.

To tell a story and tell it both briefly and yet completely is a task few have mastered.

Greg Gutierrez has mastered the art.

When I was first presented this book to review I viewed it with jaundiced eye. “Zen and the art of Surfing?” I thought. “My readers are probably not the surfing crowd,” I thought. And they (you) may not be.

That does not detract from readers enjoying good writing and following adventures of those young hard-bodied creatures who go out on surfboards and do battle with the ocean and those majestic waves, as well as some of their inner demons.

Those of us who have kids or grandkids who surf may likely have picked up some of the terminology. We can say neat things like “gnarly,” “hang ten,” “totally rad,” and “awesome.” Those of us who don’t know the terminology (and the terminology has expanded since I learned those few words) can still relax and enjoy a good read by a master story teller. We can even figure out ‘surfer talk.’ Actually, there’s not all that much of it.

Some of the stories are true, others are fiction. One of the true stories is also one of the most moving - that being “Surfing to Ground Zero.”

Gutierrez makes great financial and time sacrifices to fly back to New York to volunteer for duty at Ground Zero. He wants to honor a surfer who also happened to be one of the firefighters who lost his life during the 9/11 tragedy. It is probably one of the longer short stories he has written in this book, but it surely is one of his best works.

Other stories, while fiction, I suspect are also autobiographical, built around his life and simply attaching someone else’s name to the lead character. Those stories tell of a solidly religious person (which Gutierrez is) who has grown up in the surfing life, not a child of privilege but one who has had to work for every cent he owns, had to sometimes fight his way out of trouble, and who went through college, got his teaching credential and today happily teaches young folks how to write.

It appears he has had a rather difficult life but made the best of it. He is proud of his profession of being a teacher, as well he should be. He should also be proud of his ability as a storyteller and writer. (The two are not always identical. I know storytellers who can’t write a lick, and I know writers who can’t tell a story very well).

I found myself pleasantly surprised at the short stories that would take no more than two, sometimes three pages . . . yet still told the complete story . . . and left me wanting to move right into the next story to see what else this marvelous writer had conjured up.

He’s good. I hope to read much more of him. Not necessarily surfing because I’m past my prime. I got my kids started surfing and now they are so good I won’t go into the water with them. They’d make their old man look silly. (Which, of course, he is).

But Gutierrez, being both an outstanding storyteller and writer, should explore other worlds to write about. Certainly, he should write some surfing stories and sell them to surfing magazines . . . write other surfing books . . . they’ll put money in the bank. But he should explore and write about other horizons. There is a marvelous world out there, full of adventure and surprises, and the world’s anxious readers are waiting for outstanding writers to tell them all about it.

His energy flows from his mind to the page . . . and he carries the reader right along with him. It’s almost as though you are surfing right alongside him . . . and sharing the joys and the tears that has felt and shed.

He’s a powerful writer and you owe it to yourself to check him out. If you don’t, you just shortchanged yourself.

Greg Gutierrez is a teacher at Chula Vista High School of Creative and Performing Arts, is a painter and sculptor, has a Master’s Degree in Education from San Diego State. “