Patrick is currently Professor of French at Drury University (Springfield, Missouri) where he teaches a course on the history and culture of surfing for the University Honors Program (since 2000). His edited anthology of surf writing, Pacific Passages, developed from this course. In Summer, 2009 he taught a course on the history of surfing for the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His research interests include the history of surfing (especially pre-World War II), historiography, Hawaiian history and language, and the origin of contemporary surfing rituals. Because he grew up in California, he is also interested in California surf history. His main geographical areas of focus are Polynesia and California.
Patrick has served as a consultant or reader for various books on surfing—Tim DelaVega’s Images of America, Surfing in Hawai’i: 1778-1930 (Arcadia Press, 2011), the Surfing Heritage & Culture Center’s Oral Field History Guide, Matt Warshaw’s The History of Surfing (Chronicle Books, 2010) and The Encyclopedia of Surfing (Harcourt, 2003). He has also served as a peer-reviewer for articles on surfing for the Pacific Historical Review and American Anthropologist and provided new etymological and dating evidence to the Oxford English Dictionary for a number of surfing-related terms.
Publications:
Books:
Pacific Passages: An Anthology of Surf Writing (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008)
Available at http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p56599780824831554.aspx ● The Code: The Power of ‘I Will’ (Gibbs Smith, 2013) and Surfer’s Code: 12 Simple Lessons for
Riding through Life (Gibbs Smith, 2006)—in collaboration with Shaun Tomson.
Available at http://shauntomson.hostedbywebstore.com/