Great Surfing Books

[njsurfer42]

Eddie Would Go

damn! i thought that was the title of eddie's bio, but i talked myself out of it!

Nat's Nat and That's That
Bustin Down the Door
Surfers Code
Force of Nature

all of these are fantastic reads & i highly recommend them. i would also add nat young's "surf rage" to the list.
i enjoyed kelly's first bio, "pipe dreams" & his second, "for the love" was interesting as well, but more photo-oriented.
drew kampion's "the lost coast" is a neat collection of short stoies & worth the read as well.

i would suggest just cruising down to your local free public library & typing "surfing" into one of the catalog computers. i'm sure there are dozens of books not listed here that are worth the time, & you'll prob. find a bunch of the ones listed there as well.

[rodndtube]

I agree that Weisbecker can tell a good story - 2 of 3 were interesting. However, I'd never buy another book of his on grounds completely separate from his storytelling ability.

Waves and Beaches is a classic. This is not an "easy reading" or picture story book. The book contains its fair share of mathematical formulas and grids but there is also plenty of information written in layman's language to understand the formation, transit and breaking of waves.

Torrens, H. (2003). Paraffin chronicles. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford. Memoir of a waverider from Newport Beach, CA, that also spent a fair amount of time in Hawaii, during the innovative 60s/70s. Read the bottom of page 7, the manifesto of surfing is respect,

"Respect is a part of the culture that comes with the territory. It's as much a part of surfing as it was a part of the caveman culture. Territory, respect, pecking order, all of which are only established by action. In my case, the action could be a 40-pound board slicing over my head. The "kick out" was not just a way to pull out of a wave, it was a surfing lesson. There are unwritten rules in surfing. The best waves are ridden by those who put themselves in a position to catch the swell at its peak. Those that elect to try and ride a safer part of the wave can get in the flight path of those swooping down from the more powerful section. That's a violation."

[SeaDaddy]

The Water's End by Christopher Hawkins: A blue-collar kid from coastal New Jersey that has nothing to loose and drops everything to make the long trek to Mainland Mexico in search of wave and adventure that he has been dreaming about his whole life.
Before I read this book I had watched the movie Siestas & Olas A Surfing Journey Through Mexico over and over and had the same dream. I few days after I graduated I packed up my Jeep and me and my buddy started the long drive from Wilmington, NC to Mazatlan then south into the unknown.
Surfing Long Beach Island by Caroline Unger: The evolution of surfing on the island from the 1930s to the 21st Century.
The Cruise Of The Snark by Jack London: (Just a good adventure read.) Jack London goes on a sailing adventure into the South Seas. From San Francisco to the first stop in Oahu where he saw the royal sport of kings.
I don't know for sure but he might of been one of the first mainlanders to wittiness surfing since this took place in circa 1906.?

[rodndtube]

<snip'd some>
The Cruise Of The Snark by Jack London: (Just a good adventure read.) Jack London goes on a sailing adventure into the South Seas. From San Francisco to the first stop in Oahu where he saw the royal sport of kings.
I don't know for sure but he might of been one of the first mainlanders to wittiness surfing since this took place in circa 1906.?

Jack London did some good stuff there. Before him is Mark Twain, who experienced a little surf lather. Check Roughing It, Part 8, Chapter LXXIII, at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3177/3177-h/p8.htm#ch73

[DaMook]

if you are hitting amazon, try a video called 'zen and zero.' trippy, philosophical and has a really cool soundtrack. 'zen' is the true story of a bunch of austrian expats who live in california who decide to follow allan weisbecker's captain zero path driving from the us down to pavones, cr.

haaaa, this wasnt a bad movie, but dont expect great surfing or perfect waves.Just regular Joes from Austria who surf, ya you heard me Austria, not Australia, meanwhile it sounds like Anthony Bourdain is narrator.

If you want to understand how big a set of Balls you need to surf BIG Hawaii, read The North Shore Chronicles, by Matt Warshaw. Darrick Doerner talks about angel dust and surfing Waimea Bay, and gives a nice chapter towards Mark FOo, before he died.

[DaMook]

The Water's End by Christopher Hawkins: A blue-collar kid from coastal New Jersey that has nothing to loose and drops everything to make the long trek to Mainland Mexico in search of wave and adventure that he has been dreaming about his whole life.
Before I read this book I had watched the movie Siestas & Olas A Surfing Journey Through Mexico over and over and had the same dream. I few days after I graduated I packed up my Jeep and me and my buddy started the long drive from Wilmington, NC to Mazatlan then south into the unknown.

whoaaa buddy don't be tame. what was the end of that story?

[live aloha]

I'm sure there are other good books about Eddie, but this is the only one I've read.

If it doesn't make you cry like a little wuss, you don't have a soul.

[johhnyutah]

"The Big Drop" by John Long is a pretty god read too. It's not a novel, but it's a collection of big-wave horror stories told by many of the most renowned big wave surfers, from the first paddle out at Waimea Bay, to towing in to Jaws. Who doesn't love a good, ol' fashion, fingerlicking, big-wave story?[/QUOTE]

John Long has a great way for telling some epic stories. another of his collection of short stories is called "Gorilla Monsoon" out of print, but if you see it it is highly entertaining.

One of my favorites is called "The Dogs of Winter" by Kem Nunn. Not strictly a surfing book but a dark, well-written novel about some crazy dark characters looking for some mysto- waves in northern cali. It's an amazing read that deals with interactions with native tribes and life's ups and downs... Check it out

[live aloha]

Yes, those Waimea stories in The Big Drop were just horrifying, gives me the creeps just thinking about it!

[MATT JOHNSON]

Reading All for a Few Perfect Waves By David Rensin now and i have to say it the best book I have ever had the privledge to read.

i blasted threw 125 pages in a cpl of hours and laughed my ass off.

Dora Lives i heard is another good read too