Crazy for the Storm audiobook

In this fast, engaging tale Norman Ollestad tells about how he survived a mountaintop plane crash as an 11-year-old, a crash that killed the pilot, his father and his father’s girlfriend, and how his relationship with his father, and the skills he had learned under his tutelage, had prepared him for his near-death ordeal. Norman Ollestad - image from Counterpoint PressOllestad tells of his upbringing, of his charismatic surfer/lawyer/coach father who drove him to peaks of physical performance he would never have reached un-pushed, and who brought him to joys he might never otherwise have enjoyed. He gives us a picture of growing up on the beach in Malibu, traveling in a very dangerous Mexico with his father, having to cope with the divorce of his parents and the conflict inherent in managing relationships with his parents’ new others’, and discovering newborn sexual feelings. And for good measure there is a sort-of car chase, gunshots, and ruminations on god. Once I started reading this book, I hated to put it down. It is a fast read, a page-turner. I quite enjoyed it.=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pagesInterviews ——Pursuitist - Exclusive interview with ‘Crazy for the Storm’ author Norman Ollestad——Duncan Entertainment - Norman Ollestad's CRAZY FOR THE STORM: A Memoir of Survival - a promo vid, with some really good images from the real event——Fuel TV - Norman Ollestad on FUEL TV - video

Raising a child this way? Abysmal attitudes. A bunch of irresponsible people who should not have been allowed to touch a child with a seven-foot pole. Beating, recklessly endangering a minor, emotinal trauma - we have it all inflicted on this child. What's even worse is that the author, the grown-up version of this child seems to be thinking it was all ok! I'm not gonna spoil it but this gives us a story of a whole lot more horrible childhood than even The Glass Castle. And that goes to say something!Q:He chased hurricanes and blizzards to touch the bliss of riding mighty waves and deep powder snow. An insatiable spirit, he was crazy for the storm. And it saved my life. (c)Q:The experience of skiing in a whiteout flickered across my mind. (c)Q:My dad had previously spoken about fighting through things to get to the good stuff or some such concept, and as he shook the salt water out of his curly brown hair, he talked more about people giving up and missing out on fantastic moments. (c)Q:It’s either Jacques or me, my dad said.She wouldn’t answer one way or the other. I refuse to choose, she said. A couple days later Dad moved out. (c)Q:Daddy, I said, pressing my palm to his back. ...He had taught me to ride big waves, had pulled me from tree wells and fished me out of suffocating powder. Now it was my turn to save him. (c)Q:If the police break the law then who arrests them? (c)Q:And I realized that no matter who you were, or what extraordinary accomplishments you made, Topanga Beach was always bigger than you. All that mattered there was surfing. It was the great equalizer. (c)Q:Inside I was jumping for joy but I was careful not to let him see because that would only encourage him and then he’d ask for more. (c)Q:My brain protested. A wall of water is threatening to collapse onto you. Bail out.A voice, some kind of knowing force, told me—it opens up. It wraps around. You will fit inside.Impossible. A mountain is toppling and you are under it and you need to dive out of harm’s way.No. It bends and you fit inside. (c)

Opening Line: “February 19,1979. At seven that morning my dad, his girlfriend Sandra and I took off from Santa Monica Airport headed for the mountains of Big Bear.”Set amid the wild uninhibited surf culture of Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970’s, Crazy For The Storm is a fascinating memoir that was hard to put down. It centers around 11 year old Norman Ollestad and the complicated relationship he had with his father. Demanding, charismatic and free-spirited, it is ultimately the thrill-seeking lifestyle and continual test of skills that Norman Senior puts his son through which are responsible for saving his life, when the chartered Cessna carrying them to a ski championship goes down in the California mountains killing everyone else on board. This devastated 11 year old must then descend the treacherous icy mountain alone. Relying on tools subconsciously learned from an early age and with the voice of his father echoing in his ears “Go for it Boy Wonder. You can do it.” “The fog undulated, as if breathing and it lifted off the snow for a moment. Fifteen feet across the slope the pilot’s shoes wandered in disparate directions. His legs twisted in the snow. The hem of his shirt folded back and his belly was pale. Am I still asleep?” Now obviously if I’m reading his memoir then I know that Norman survives but there is still a huge element of suspense maintained throughout this story. The initial scenes with the plane crash are so riveting that at first I was super annoyed when the author decided to start alternating chapters back and forth between his life leading up to the crash and the hours directly after, I wanted to stay at the crash site. I’ll admit though I soon became equally engrossed in Norman’s unusual upbringing in Topanga beach, with its hippie culture, surfing lifestyle and his Mothers alcoholic and often violent boyfriend. Plus you never knew what adventure his father was going to drag him on next. There are several chapters devoted to a road trip he took into Mexico to deliver a washing machine to his grandparents. With his father’s mantra “This is life Ollestead,” they end up broke, on the run from trigger happy Federales and finally hiding out in a village eating mangoes and surfing the perfect waves while they try to figure out how to get their car fixed.His father may have been a charmer but he had dubious ideas when it came to parenting (the cover photo shows Norman at about a year old strapped to his father’s back while he surfs) He often placed his son in danger to challenge him and Norman both resented and idolized him and in my opinion was more than a little afraid of him.While the writing is fantastic it does tend to get a little technical with the skiing and snow terms and I had a hard time visualizing the crash site (the slope -a curtain of ice) so that I never really had a clear picture of what he was facing. From what I understand it does however contain some very good “surf writing”.I’m a real fan of true-life survival stories but this turned out to be more than a tale of adventure. Powerful and unforgettable, at its heart this is the story about the complex bond between fathers and sons, nurturing and teaching and what we pass on to our children. Leaving me close to tears at the end as we watch a grown Norman teach his own son how to ski and face his fears. Cheers377jb4.5

** spoiler alert ** Crazy for the Storm is by man who was stranded alone on the side of an icey mountain when he was only 11 years old. The private plane he was on crashed, and all the adults--his dad, his dad's girlfriend, and the pilot died. He tells in excruciating detail what he went through to get to a meadow on the bottom of the mounatin alive. Those chapters alternate with chapters about his childhood on Topanga Beach. He lives with his mom and her abusive boyfriends and has scary, exciting adventures with his dad who pushes and pushes him to more daring accomplishments in skiing and surfing when he is very young.Usually when an author does alternating plot lines in alternating chapters, one is so much more compelling that the other that I end up skipping every other chapter to read just the story I want to read and then go back and read the rest--or not. Not this time. Norman's life, a combination of terror, exhileration, anger, and love for his dad was as interesting as the day he spent on the side of that mountain--that one day that felt like centuries.After the ordeal Norman has to go back and live with his mom and her boyfriend without his dad, with the guilt of not saving his dad and the girlfriend, who did live a little while. I was thinking--nobody got this kid any therapy? Even when he got angry, aggressive, and mean? Very strange. He was neglected as well as abused.At the end of the book he goes back and finds out what really happened that day, why the plane. I really enjoyed this and read it in about 2 days. Couldn't put it down.

Crazy For the Storm is a compelling memoir that reads just like a novel. The chapters alternate between his time on the mountain after the plane crash and his life leading up to that point. Norman Ollestad recounts his unusual upbringing and how he had to rely on his earlier experiences and lessons taught by his dad in order to survive on the mountain.I was astounded by the activities that Norman's father made him participate in at such a young age. He was surfing and downhill skiing at a very young age, and it wasn't just that he was participating in these activities, but that his father pushed him to try things that were challenging to the point of being dangerous. In the first few pages of the book there is a photo of Norman strapped to the back of his dad while his dad was surfing - he was only one year old.In one of my favorite sections, he recounts a road trip he took with his dad to Mexico. They have so many dangerous and exciting adventures on this trip that it made for great reading. (There were Federales with guns, a car chase and an idyllic time spent with some native Mexicans, just to give you a little preview.)At times it was hard to put this book down. I was always wondering what was going to happen next. What crazy adventure was Norman's dad going to take them on next? Or what about his mom's boyfriend? Was he going to stay nice or start drinking again? And then of course there's the breathtaking story of how Norman got down the mountain.I had read someone else's review of this book a while back and so I knew that there was a video on YouTube that showed footage from the news when Norman spoke to the media after he got off of the mountain. I made a point of not watching the video before I read the book because I didn't want to see any spoilers, but I can honestly say that I wish I would have watched it first because it really brings home just how young Norman was during the time period the book covers. I was shocked by how young and small he was because he had already had so many adventures and done so many crazy and dangerous things with his dad, and then survived the descent from the mountain. Because of his achievements and bravery on the mountain I had been picturing someone older in my head (even though his age was given in the book).There were a lot of descriptions of surfing and skiing in the book that used the technical terminology of each sport. I did not understand many of them, but it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.If you like reading memoirs about survival situations then I'm sure you will love Crazy For the Storm.

I find myself disliking the subject of most memoirs, the author. This generally means that I don't typicallay read them ... why hang out with some self indulgent, egocentric, narcissist for hours and hours while they talk about their favorite subject: themselves? I didn't like hanging out with jeanette Walls, I really didn't like hanging out with Elizabeth Gilbert and, most recently, I ultimately didn't like the author of Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven because, of course, the book concludes with her becoming absolutely fabulous as a result of her traumatic trip to China with a psycho paranoid college buddy. Despite this, I found Crazy for the Storm to be fascinating, and it wasn't because it's primary subject, the author, lived to tell about it. The author's father, and in sharp contrast his mother, are the stars of the show. The book feels as if it was written by an adult child, who can't help but subconsciously vilify and deify them with his narrative voice. Its what the author doesn't come out and say, possibly can't even articulate, that is the most haunting part of this story.

Man, people are pretty harsh about this book! But I get it. The way Ollestad switches back and forth each chapter between the plane crash and the year or so leading up to it definitely take some getting used to. I actually found both parts of his story really interesting though, and I feel like the final chapters about the aftermath of the crash really tie everything together. In the end, I don't even really feel like this is a book about a kid who is the sole survivor of a plane crash, but it's more the story of a kid's relationship with his dad, and how it changes after losing his father in a plane crash that he himself survives, and after he becomes a father himself. And I feel like you really get to know his father well through the parts of the story that happen before the crash and it wouldn't be nearly as powerful a book without them.Anyway, I liked it. So there.

Actual Rating: 4.5 starsDang. This was required reading, and I'm tempted to give this five stars but I don't want to jump the gun, I guess I'll decide later. This was an amazing memoir. Touching, complex, beautiful, and thrilling, it centers around an imperfect but passionate relationship between a father and his son. It's about pushing on when things seem hopeless, adapting to life when things seem to go off-course. The writing was raw and beautiful, the atmosphere of this book was so tangible I felt I was there with Norman. Crazy for the Storm is a poignant memoir I'd highly recommend.

Surprisingly worthwhile, and clearly not for everyone, this book grew on me, warts and all. First and foremost, an epic survivor's tale, it details a tragic father-son relationship in an other-wordly surfing culture (which I simply cannot relate to) with forays into skiing and travel (with which I'm far more familiar, but which bear no resemblance to any of my (far more mundane) experiences). The remarkable (and seemingly squandered) talent of both father and son pervade the yarn. I picked this up in the airport jack-of-all-trades store with low expectations; then I couldn't put it down. I don't disagree with the (many) critics that concluded that the writing lacks flair, beauty, or even sophistication; and I believe a good editor could have propelled this book into classic status. But the story is both unique and, in parts, incredible (in the truest sense of the word). The author's childhood experience, which he narrated many decades later, is frightening, inspirational, depressing, and, all to often, inexplicable. Parenting in complicated business, and the father-son bond prompts any number of pathologies, but the author describes a relationship that teters between creatively supportive and criminally abusive - somehow leading him to (at least in the short term) one redemptive moment. Kudos to the author for not sugar-coating the realities of his painfully dysfunctional family. I'm sure there was catharsis in writing the book. Unfortunately, I was left wondering how the author traversed the undiscussed decades that, apparently, led him to some type of normal, stable existence today. Overall, however, well worth the time invested....

Obviously, if you read a memoir by a plane crash survivor there’s no suspense as to whether or not he survived but what Ollestad does so well is alternate short, concisely written chapters about key moments in his life leading up to this with the scenario he is faced with on the mountain. He really gets inside the mentality that was needed to believe that he could survive and how this was instilled in him, often in ways that he wasn’t so happy about at the time, by his dad who pushed him to excel at ski racing, hockey and surfing. His father first took him surfing in a sling on his back when “Little” Norm was a toddler! Apparently the writing has been compared to Hemingway (an author I'm not overly fond of, probably because we had to read him in school) but I think the comparison has to do with the spare prose. Not a word is wasted and the narrative doesn't let up once he comes down off the mountain. Because then he has to deal with his anger & grief over losing his father in the crash and trying to figure out how to go on without this very central, charismatic man who sometimes pushed him beyond endurance.

Wow! This is a tale of a boy and his larger than life father. Prodded to surf,ski and to face fear , young Norman reveres and resents his wild father. Doing impossible things really is just doing hard things and finding the joy in overcoming is the pay off. Everything he knew was tested when a small plane carrying the pilot, 11 year old Norman , his Dad and Sandy a girlfriend crashed into a 8,600 foot ice covered mountain. Incredible ! Astounding!

This book is captivating. The main narrative follows a horrendous plane crash where an 11-year-old boy struggles down an ice-capped mountain. Interspersed with this true-life adventure are memories from his earlier days as he marshals the strength and knowledge to survive. It's a strong coming-of-age story with powerful moments.