Book excerpt: What makes for a surfing life? With a blaze of groundbreaking performances and a swag of titles claimed from all over the world to his name, Australian world champion surfer Nat Young might know. His seventieth birthday inspired some reflection on exactly that, and on the waves and characters that have marked his remarkable life – Miki Dora and Midget Farrelly to name a few. But surfing for Nat Young – and so many like-minded surfers – has never been about winning, never been about the sport. It’s a calling, an endless quest, a philosophy, a religion. Most of all, surfing is a way of life that has underpinned his other identities as board shaper, film producer, writer, raconteur, conservationist, activist, pilot, husband, father. Candid and wryly observed, Church of the Open Sky explores what it means to be a surfer, with a collection of true stories of Nat’s surfing life – and the friends, foes and heroes he’s met along the way.