Sarah and the Big Wave

This stunning nonfiction picture book tells the inspiring story of Sarah Gerhardt, one of the first female big-wave surfers.

Have you ever seen a big wave? One that’s twenty, thirty, forty, even fifty feet tall? Here’s a better question: Would you ever surf a big wave? Sarah Gerhardt did―and this is her story.

Sarah and the Big Wave, a tale of perseverance and indomitable spirit, is about the first woman to ride the waves at Mavericks, one of the biggest and most dangerous surf breaks in the world.

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the author of American Chinatown, winner of the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Her latest book, Why We Swim, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of 2020; it is currently being translated into ten languages. She lives, swims, and surfs in the Bay Area. Her new book, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters, will be published in April 2025.

Sarah Gerhardt was the first woman to drop in at Mavericks, the monster break off the Northern California coast. Growing up in San Luis Obispo, California, she and her sister cared for their mother, who suffered from severe muscular dystrophy, while their father was at sea for months at a time as a merchant marine. Gerhardt’s dad gave her a surfboard and wetsuit for her 13th birthday and she found refuge in the ocean. On a trip to Hawaii in college, she fell in with a crew of surfers that included big-wave icon Ken Bradshaw, and quickly found herself tackling bigger and bigger waves. Sarah is now a mother and Professor at Cabrillo College. Shel holds a PHD in Chemistry