Good Surf Books

[cjtst11]

I 2nd Caught Inside and Saltwater Buddah. But, my favorite recently is Surf Science: An Introduction to Waves for Surfing. Some parts are a little bit technical but it does a great job of explainng swell and wave formation and swell interaction with land.

[rodndtube]

Thanks for all of the input. Some great options out there. I guess I should have been a little more clear. A book more on surf culture and maybe some of the old days, Like a big wednesday type story, that catches the lifestyle, and how things change with time n all. I dont know if there is a specific book out there like that but thats essentially what im looking for.

Along those lines I would suggest:
Blake, Tom. 1983. Hawaiian surfriders, 1935. [Redondo Beach, Calif.]: Mountain & Sea Pub.

St. Pierre, Brian. 1969. The fantastic plastic voyage; across the South Pacific with surfers and a camera. New York: Coward-McCann.

Torrens, Herb. 2003. Paraffin chronicles. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford.

Fiction, surf culture:
Nunn, Kem. Tapping the Source (based in Huntington Beach); The Dogs of Winter (based in the Pacific Northwest); and, Tijuana Straits (based along the border of Calif. and Mexico)

Not a novel but full of surfing history and culture from the past, excerpts from famous writings:
Moser, Patrick. 2008. Pacific passages: an anthology of surf writing. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.

Non-fiction, just a classic book about surfing ca. the early 1960s:
Kelly, John M. 1965. Surf and Sea. New York: A.S. Barnes.

And a more historical, research style one:
Finney, Ben R., and James D. Houston. 1966. Surfing, the sport of Hawaiian kings. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co.

[live aloha]

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

[njsurfer42]

Pipe Dreams by Kelly Slater is pretty interesting I'm in the middle of it right now. The only bad thing is that it stops when he has won only 6 world titles. So he might need a volume 2 to come out. However its still interesting.

he did. it's called "for the love". it's not nearly as good as pipe dreams.

[MATT JOHNSON]

If you can Finda a copy "You Should Have Been Here a Hour Ago" by Phil Edwards

[zach619]

Tijuana Straits (based along the border of Calif. and Mexico)

Nice book. Kinda crazy, but awesome...

And this isn't really a novel style book, but it was written about 20 years ago, before baja turned into a warzone again. But "The Surfers Guide to Baja" really doesn't have a story, but read it cover to cover and I guarantee you will be checking for flights somewhere around the world. Its a reminder or a simpler time. Its got awesome directions like "Take a left at the third cactus, or bear right at the giant rock under the tree"... filled with hand written maps and information about the little old lady in town show served food out of her home kitchen and all kinds of cool lttle bits of info. I used to use that book all the time and it still is the best guide out there.... Its just an asweome read that will get you stoked.

They also do "Surfer guide to Costa" etc... but the original baja one is golden.

[MDSurfer]

It does my heart (<--Professional Society of English Majors) good to hear that surfers actually read. Screw the stereotype.

[beachbreak]

the warshaw encyclopedia of surfing is good,though it is subjective,opinionated and pretty shalllow on some topics

[rodndtube]

the warshaw encyclopedia of surfing is good,though it is subjective,opinionated and pretty shalllow on some topics

Agree about that. And factually incorrect in many places, but it is still the best place for a large view of things. I still have not read my copy of Warshaw's newer tome, History of Surfing.

One more good one for the list is Jaime Lleras's Surfing.

[njsurfer42]

Agree about that. And factually incorrect in many places, but it is still the best place for a large view of things. I still have not read my copy of Warshaw's newer tome, History of Surfing.

like the encyclopedia, history is factually incorrect & shallow.