Before a surfing accident caused thirty-three-year-old Devon Raney to
lose all but 15 percent of his vision, he had already lived an
extraordinary life. Time and again he'd gone against the grain to
maximize time for his passions--surfing, skateboarding, and
snowboarding--bringing him into the direct path of colorful characters,
unexpected adventures, and even the occasional brush with death. Through
it all, Devon's commitment to outdoor adventure never wavered. If
anything, he learned to approach the other commitments he would make in
life--as a husband and as a father--with the same passion and dedication
he'd applied to board sports.
So when facing a devastating mid-life challenge, Devon once again went
against the grain -- sideways. Instead of retreating into a life made
smaller by the things he could no longer do--drive, build houses, read
to his young daughter--Devon resolved to keep his commitments to the
same passions that had defined and sustained him. Using his remaining
peripheral vision, he developed a style of tandem snowboarding, figured
out how to read the waves, and carried himself through his daily life in
such a way that few people other than his close friends and family were
aware of his vision loss.
Still Sideways makes the case for the sustaining power of nature for a
new generation of outdoor enthusiasts: the late Gen X / early millennial
generation that has one foot firmly in adulthood and the other foot
buckled into a binding. Readers will relate to Devon's stubborn refusal
to organize his life around convention and will be inspired by how his
dogged devotion to shredding brings him salvation, not comeuppance, when
it all hits the fan. A must-read for any mid-life adventurer, Still
Sideways intersperses a gripping narrative of Devon's incredible decade
and flashbacks of formative experiences from his youth and young
adulthood with humor, candor, and authenticity.
