Surf books

I like Allan weisbeckers stuff allot. I'm a huge jack kerouac fan, and weisbecker reminds me of him. If you haven't already, read his first book (cosmic banditos) and his last (can't you get along with anyone?). Read all 3 in order. When going through his first and second book they don't seem related. But his last is a memoir that really brings all 3 books together while telling is own story. The memoir is long and can get slow in parts, but of you enjoy reading and enjoyed in search of caption zero I highly recommend reading all 3 in order. By the time you finish you'll understand why I'm suggesting this.

Also I just read "saltwater buddha, a surfers quest to find zen on the sea" by Jaimal Yogis. It's a short book, nothing great. But it wasn't bad either. I enjoyed it. Deffinitly worth picking up if your looking for something to read

 

barbarian days
william finnegan

 

'Tapping the Source' Kem Nunn
'Surf Is Where You Find It' Gerry Lopez
'Kook' Peter Heller

*Keenly anticipated reading Finnegan's book. Disappointed. By about mid-read, it was a slog to finish what turned out to be more of an autobiography than a surfing read. Just a boring writer. IMHO. Gave the book away when done.

 

reading it now... fantastic

 

Just started this guy...

All for a Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora

 

Great read. Pretty much anything by Bill Finnegan. His short stories about growing up haole in Hawaii are great.

 

The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing by Peter Westwick (Author), Peter Neushul

Such a great read...research seemed pretty solid.

 

Yeah some areas went on a little much but I loved the start where he was a kid in the islands and the stories of Doc in San Francisco.

 

Cleavland Steamer...LOL

 

Agreed. The Doc stories were the better aspect of the book, but the Doc tales simultaneously felt like reading a rehash of the same stuff that I read from Finnegan in 'The New Yorker' over the years. Anyways, not a bad book, just didn't cotton to it.

Really enjoyed Weisbecker's books, same reasons as noted by BassMon2.

 

In addition to several already named, these are a couple of surfing literature gems:

-The History of Surfing (Matt Warshaw) -every surfer needs this book.
-Ghost Wave, The Discovery of Cortes Bank and the Biggest Wave on Earth (Chris Dixon)

 

Agree about the Finnegan book - felt like some of his New Yorker pieces just dragged out too far. Also felt like he went a little overboard about getting good waves, talking about looking into God's face and crying after a sketchy section. We get it man - surfing can be great. Don't tell us it's indescribable then try to describe the feeling of getting barreled.

 

Agreed.

It was overindulgent and should have been edited better. His sequel to "Barbarian Days", "Kings of Cool" is a good read, and they should have made a movie of it instead o the first one.

Weisbecker's "In Search of Captain Zero"was really cool, and well written. I'll have to check his other two out.

"The Dharma Bums" by Kerouac - not a surf book, but in the same vein.

 

I just got finished reading dharma bums for the 153rd time. Never gets old. Glad you brought that up. Always reminded me of a surf book, minus the surf. The book I mentioned in my first post by Yogis has the same vibe, but with surfing and not nearly as good as dharma bums

 

Can you please explain Cosmic Banditos to me? Maybe I am not intellectual enough or perhaps not on the right stuff, but man that was interesting.

 

Should be renamed "Brokeback Reef".

 

Jerry Lopez wrote a nice book; of all the surf books, it is "ok". The rest absolutely SUCK!! Written by morons, for morons.....and that does mean YOU!!!

 

lolz.....no, mang, I don't think I can