Jaimal Yogis, author of “Saltwater Buddha: a surfer’s quest to find Zen on the sea,” will visit D.G. Wills Books on Saturday, Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. to discuss his autobiography. When Yogis was 16, his family moved to Sacramento from the island of Terceira off the coast of Portugal, where his father had been stationed in the military. His parents divorced and Yogis got caught up in the drug scene. One day, Yogis left a note on his pillow for his family — “I am somewhere in the world and I will call you when I get there” — and booked a one-way ticket to Maui. Yogis stopped drinking and taking drugs and learned to surf. He studied Buddhism, taught English to monks in the Himalayas and surfed in Mexico, Indonesia and Europe. “I didn’t find any ultimate truth or enlightenment but I became a writer along the way,” Yogis said in a video posted on his website, www.jaimalyogis.com. “I realized I had these great stories and probably the best thing I could do was share my writing. Anyone who has searched for truth will have a special connection to it.” Yogis, 29, has so far held 25 readings of “Saltwater Buddha” along the West Coast, at times reading with other renowned surfers and surf authors like world champion surfer Shaun Tomson of South Africa, who wrote “Surfer’s Code.” A friend recommended Yogis stop at D.G. Wills Books before he heads to Bali and Australia to continue the book tour. Yogis has also presented his work with the Berkeley-based band Nine Pound Shadow, although he doubts the band will make it to the D.G. Wills reading. Yogis may also lead a guided meditation at the Aug. 15 reading that, he said, “helps people get settled in.” D.G. Wills Books owner Dennis Wills was impressed with the numerous reviews of “Saltwater Buddha” and that Yogis holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from the University of Hawaii and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. “Since surfers are so seminal in this part of the country, it seemed entirely appropriate,” Wills said, adding his bookstore carries a selection of books in oceanography and marine biology. Wills uncharacteristically distributed fliers about the reading to area surf shops and expects longtime surfers who lived through the ’60s and ’70s to show up. Wills compared the idea of the young author’s penned odyssey to Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values” by Robert Pirsig. Wills’ eclectic bookshop is a trove of new and used scholarly books fastened together with wooden planks, a wooden floor and wooden shelves. Fascinating books and quirky objects — like a barber’s stool and a human skull — abound, so it’s easy to miss the three surfboards lying on the wooden rafters overhead that Wills said he positioned like a “school of porpoises.” Former La Jolla resident Hugh Duckworth, who now lives in Mexico, shaped the first two boards in lime green and sunset colors with fish eyes like the ones on Portuguese boats to see their way through the water. La Jolla architect Matthew Welsh, whose office is on Silverado Street, fashioned the third board into a mythic woman whose hallowed, formidable face sits above a sunset belly and oceanic body. D.G. Wills Books is located at 7461 Girard Ave. For information, call (858) 456-1800. Yogis will also read on Sunday, Aug. 16 from 3 to 6 p.m. at Readers Inc., 8219 La Mesa Blvd.
