Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is a family surf destination in the memoir, and its significance rests on a double presence: it offers the children a gentle day in the water while bringing the narrator into sharp contact with memories of Nic. The surf and the drive home turn the coast into a place where family life continues around an absence that remains vivid.

The surf at Pleasure Point

On a quiet summer day, the family surfs at the hook at Pleasure Point. The waves are small enough that most of the hardcore local surfers have stayed home, leaving silky, gently peeling sets suited to the children. The water is clear and warm. From his board, the narrator surveys the mental grid he uses to locate Nic in his thoughts, reaching the squares where Nic resides; the two of them spent much time surfing there together.

The scene holds recreation and recollection in the same frame. The children can enjoy the forgiving waves, but for the narrator the familiar break is also a route back to shared time with his older son. The place does not erase the distance between them; its familiarity makes that distance perceptible.

The coastal drive home

On the drive home up the coast, Jasper chooses Beck’s Midnite Vultures, the favorite musician of the moment for both Jasper and Nic when each was younger. The car is sandy, the family is sandy and salty from surfing, and sea air comes through the open windows as Jasper and the narrator sing along. Daisy complains that they should turn the music down.

The ordinary details of the ride—Jasper’s choice of music, the open windows, and his and the narrator’s singing—connect the present outing with Nic’s childhood. Looking out at the blue ocean, the narrator feels Nic strongly. Santa Cruz thus carries memory beyond the surf itself: the return journey makes the family’s shared past audible and palpable amid a day that belongs to the children still at home.

Narrative significance

Santa Cruz is presented through a compact sequence of outdoor activity, inward recollection, and family routine. The narrator’s mental grid gives his longing a structure: while physically among the family, he deliberately reaches the place in his thoughts where Nic remains. The music on the drive then bridges memory and the present, linking Jasper to his older brother through a shared youthful favorite without making the brothers’ circumstances identical.

The location’s emotional force comes from that contrast. Warm water and small waves make the outing accessible and calm, while the narrator’s memories keep Nic present in a scene from which he is physically absent. Santa Cruz is therefore both a real family destination and a recurring point of emotional return.