Longboarder's Start-Up: A Guide to Longboard Surfing (Start-Up Sports series) [Paperback]

Doug Werner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Start-Up Sports series | Publication Date: August 1, 1996

Design innovations and a new appreciation for the grace and poise of surfing a longer board has lifted the art of longboarding back into the limelight and more importantly, back into the minds of serious surfers who are looking to expand their wave riding experience. The first-half of this guide covers the basics of longboard equipment, wave selection, courtesy, and surfing technique through standing up. The second part gets into intermediate and advanced longboarding skills including: cross-stepping, trimming, turning, turning maneuvers, essential noseriding, and finally, some of the breathtaking tricks that the pros execute so flawlessly. The key points are brought home with a stripped down text and photos featuring some of the best longboard surfers on earth, including Ted Robinson, Colin McPhillips, Jeff Kramer and Mark Stewart.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Doug Werner is the author of several books in the Start-Up Sports series, including Bowler's Start-Up, Boxer's Start-Up, Golfer's Start-Up, and Snowboarder's Start-Up. He has been interviewed on CNN, and his books have appeared on ESPN. He lives in San Diego, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Tracks Publishing (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884654061
• ISBN-13: 978-1884654060
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, with one (serious) caveat, August 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Longboarder's Start-Up: A Guide to Longboard Surfing (Start-Up Sports series) (Paperback)

A good, no-nonsense book that should have beginning longboarders up and annoying shortboarders in no time flat. Werner covers the basics without any mystification, cutting through the crap and helping people understand just what that 747-sized piece of expoxy doing under their feet.

Two (I lied) quick caveats:

1) Werner's style isn't for everyone, however, replete as it is with somewhat self-conscious "wannas" and "gottas" and "doyas." You either nod along, or toss the book across the table.

2) For a beginner's book, it is somewhat strangely deficient in really getting inside how a board is trimmed. From Werner's point of view as a long-time surfer it may feel as straightforward and logical as he describes it, but from a beginner's point of view there are all sorts of painful subtleties that Werner glosses over. Too bad.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hope you already know how to surf..., June 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Longboarder's Start-Up: A Guide to Longboard Surfing (Start-Up Sports series) (Paperback)

This book is written by a shortboard surfer who has taken up longboarding. It is written from that perspective. This is not a good book for beginners.

I am a longboarder with 2 seasons of limited experience. From this book, I gained a knowledge longboard design and how to choose one to suit my needs. I also gained info on techniques to get past the breakers. I didn't get much else.

I was looking for a good explanation and diagrams of etiquete, good starting techniques. I found brief explanations, again, written from a surfer-to-surfer perspective. I found more detailed info free while surfing the web.

I also agree with another review that the language of the book is surfer lingo (dude) and seems out of place for an instructional book.

I'm selling it back. I'll look for a good instructional video.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some useful parts, but much less than it could be, January 27, 2002

By 

D. A Flory (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Longboarder's Start-Up: A Guide to Longboard Surfing (Start-Up Sports series) (Paperback)

As a longboarder, I found this book quite disappointing, and at times even insulting. Mr. Werner treats longboarding as an inferior form of surfing that only people unable to shortboard would bother with. He seems to feel that all longboarders secretly wish to be shortboarders, and he spends a lot of time discussing the ways in which one can do shortboard maneuvers on Bill Stewart's modified longboards.

The interviews with Bill Stewart are the worst part of the book. To listen to Mr. Stewart one would think that he invented the longboard, rather than just an interesting variant.

This book does have a number of useful tips and photographs, and is worth looking over at the library. However, it is critically flawed by the author's failure to present longboarding is an art form in its own right, rather than just the next best thing to shortboarding. Many supurb surfers prefer longboards, and feel as I do that classic longboard surfing has a lot more artistic and spiritual potential than does most shortboard surfing. Watching a great longboarder hang ten sends chills down my spine; I've never seen a shortboard maneuver that could compare.

If you are stoked on longboard surfing, I highly recommend watching videos of Joel Tudor and classic surf movies like *The Endless Summer* and *Big Wednesday*.