Adventurer, Author, and Storyteller Woodrow "Pack" Landfair is the owner of El Porto Surf Shop in El Porto, California. His latest book, Road Journals: 48 States. One Ride. reveals how he unexpectedly wound-up in El Porto, running a surf shop - with a guitar and harmonica around his neck.  

A former University of Texas baseball player, NCAA National Champion and Navy ROTC Midshipman, he pawned his College World Series ring - along with nearly all his possessions - to buy a used motorcycle and work his way across all 48 contiguous states after a back-injury forced him to abandon the future he had spent years working toward.

The journey eventually led him through the outskirts of show business, and on to El Porto - where he now runs the neighborhood surf shop, organizes the annual El Porto Surf Contest, and is the founder of Porto Surf Crew. The unplanned ride toward those unknown destinations became the foundation for the life he now writes about in the Road Journals and Surf Journals series..

"An engaging narrative that blends travelogue with thoughtful observations about life." 

-Kirkus Reviews

Road Journals: 48 States. One Ride.

(May 12, 2026, Harbinger Book Group)

Road Journals tells the story of a 30,000-mile motorcycle trip across the United States after the end of baseball and naval careers that never fully began - and the path that eventually led to El Porto, California.

Written week by week on the road, the book follows the people he met, the jobs he worked, the places he slept, and the uncertainty of trying to build a life without a plan.