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.
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.
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.
It does my heart (<--Professional Society of English Majors) good to hear that surfers actually read. Screw the stereotype.
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.
I guess it doesn't really fit with what you're really lookig for (to the OP), but Yvon Chouinard's (the founder of Patagonia) "Let My People Go Surfing" is an incredibly interesting read. Probably one of the best book's I've ever read.
so it seems warshaw is an opinionated subjective,shallow,factually incorrect hack,but he's all we've got,when without him leaves only the nat young stuff,which is like a million times worse
Well... I did qualify it with "best place for a large view of things." It is exhaustive and comprehensive. Nonetheless, the bar is set a little higher for books labeled dictionaries, encyclopedias and histories. Warshaw is a decent fellow based upon my personal experience. It is up to me to now send in some suggestions so they can be considered for future editions.
has anyone read Transcendental memories of a surf Rebel? the mike hynson bio book. i read a chapter in the surfers journal a couple months ago, the chapter about him smuggling drugs in boards, seemed interesting.
On a somewhat unrelated note, does anyone here write about their own experiences? I personally would most enjoy reading the stories of people to whom I can relate more closely. Greg Noll and Gerry Lopez have some amazing tales, but so do many of the people here. I can see why most of us would hesitate to share our stuff on here, but I would really enjoy that type of thing. Maybe a separate forum section dedicated to that specifically? Maybe it's a dead end, but to me it sounds cool enough to suggest...
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: The Kem Nunn books are surf noir classic. Tapping the Source is allegedly the originations of "Point Break." Tijuana Straits is an amazing read with some of the sickest characters imaginable. Dogs of Winter is my personal favorite of his books. This takes place deep in the red triangle and is a complex web of dark characters and redemption, with surfing as the anchor of the book. On another note, All for a Few Perfect Waves was a great read, yeah at points the reader is absolutely disgusted with Dora. The book itself is engaging and easy to read and provides insight into early Malibu and Dora's excellent adventure. Also enjoyed The Wave, In Search of Captain Zero and Eddie Would Go
that sounds like a really cool idea. i'm sure people would be hesitant to post, but once the ball got rolling there could be a bunch of awesome stories on there. they wouldn't have to be really creative and descriptive or anything, but i think everyone would enjoy reading stuff we could all relate to
On of my favorites, The Big Drop, a collection of stories from past and present on big wave riding. Best and most detailed written piece on the Death of Mark Foo is included in this one. http://www.amazon.com/Big-Drop-Classic-Wave-Surfing/dp/1560449179 I liked The Wave a lot. Thought Sean Tompson's book was pretty lame. Da Bull was a pretty good look at Greg Noll. The Mickey Dora one was really good as well.
