Customer Reviews

Surf Book

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I surf a lot (4 times per week) all over San Diego and thought since it is called Surf Book and Joel Tudor is a great local surfer. I thought this book would have lots of surf pics, but it just has pics of classic surfers just bumming about, not even surfing or near a beach !!! To top it off it has pics of Jerry Lopez snowboarding...... I think out of 200 pages there must be about 5 pics of surfing. I RETURNED this book which cost me $41 I paid, and I got just $16 back. However I would rather have lost the money than have this TERRIBLE book... :o( Find another surf book.

no text to explain why these pictures are surf related. hardly any actual surfing pics at all.

Great cover shot and from previous reviews i thought it would
be full of some great obscure and different photos but alas no..
It is largely a book of portraits of surfing greats but not many of actual surf. i thought it would be like thomas campbells stuff but it wasnt.

A great embodiment of what surfing was.......Before it became the sold out, glamorous hollywood epic. This book embodies what surfing is about for those of us that skip the glossy advertisement ladened magazines with spoiled white californians selling goods made in sweatshops while they eat in and out burgers in Huntington. I grew up very near where Joel did (P.B.) and while it was twenty years prior still I think I understand his influences a bit and where he may have been heading with this. I would love to see some melancholy black and white surf stuff- lone surfers sitting outside the lineup and empty waves with pelicans reminiscent of Naki meets Skip at Coho- but I have no need to have everything spelled out to me like a little child, the ending wrapped up in a nice easy reader package.

All in all I can't wait for my copy to come (I've been sponging off of a friend as my daughter has already told me not to buy this as it may be an X-mas present.)

You target-market whiners that want Transworld surf type "journalism", keep eating up your Time-Warner generated demographically correct tripe. Surfing is as much about the trip to and from and the people you meet along the way- whether they surf or not- as it is about dropping in and the glide (Or I assume from your insipid reviews for you it's all about "smacking the lip and throwing buckets". Yawn.

You keep your tiny world view- I give this book a ten out of five.

(If you like this you might like any of the Surfer's Journal "Masters of Surf Photography" Books featuring Art Brewer, Jeff Divine, Ted Grambeau or Warren Bolster. (and yeah- sorry- there's a lot of portraits, Landscapes and National Geographis type stuff on there- but all National Geographic quality, too. I'd like to see one of those featuring Naki.)
Toby Gibson- Outer Islands, HI

Perhaps the best coffee table book of portraiture and short commentary of some of surfing's more interesting characters that I've ever come across.

Joel Tudor's copy is really enjoyable: brief, fundamental and insightful; the subjects all being either friends, mentors or acquaintances of his, you come away understanding that the book was written as a labor of love as opposed to an assignment.

Michael Halsband's photos are wonderful - very natural - not contrived or coerced. I discovered that the book took 6 years to produce, but it sticks together with a visual cohesiveness.

I know that there's a lot of surf-related books available these days. I had a hunch that this one was different and it is.

Well worth owning. A must for collectors of the genre. Buy it -- I did.

I have to say that I was initially disappointed that the book did not have as much actual surfing pictures in it. But after looking through it thoroughly, the book's photography and stories give you a view of many people that most of us would never get to know, especially those who do not surf. Luckily, the book is not a self-promoting book Joel Tudor (the author). Although I am a fan of Joel's surfing style, this book is about people and their personalities captured through images and stories.

I was greatly impressed by Joel Tudor's visual representation of surfing individuals. His beautiful, emotion charged shots convey a candid essence, so often over-looked in surf literature. You get the feeling that you are privvy to the private inner sanctum of the surf industry's past, present and future greats!
We thoroughly enjoyed the journey, Cinnamon & Rowan