Wave watchers around the world know that no two waves are the same. Yet each and every wave that rises, peaks, and crashes onto the beach is generated by a much larger force originating thousands of miles away. Surf journalist team Evan Slater and Peter Taras capture the essence of waves and the swells that produce them in this breathtaking collection of wave photography. Slater characterizes four distinct swells from different corners of the globe and traces their journeys throughout the year from storm to seashore. His reflective, informative essays amplify these powerful images of hundreds of waves frozen in time, beautiful, simple, universal, yet wholly unique—and the best thing to watch on the planet.
Swell: A Year of Waves
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Swell: A Year of Waves offers more than your typical coffee-table photo book as Slater 'puts a human face' on the world's most recognized wave machines across four different ocean zones." -- Eastern Surf
"Every day global swells journey thousands of miles to find our favorite shores and fall over.... In this stunning coffee table book Swell: A Year of Waves, Evan Slater and Peter Taras document the journey. Using four seasonal swell patterns, Evan and Peter illustrate this race, from a storm's first breath of wind to a wave's arrival on shore, where we wait in the lineup, excited to usher them across the finish line." -- Surfing
"Swell is a beautiful and interesting take on our fascination with waves.... Make room on your coffee table--this book is worthy of long-term display." -- Transworld Surf
"Swell: A Year of Waves is not only a gorgeously photographed guide to the best waves in the world but a lucid introduction to the science behind them.... Slater's plain-spoken prose shows deep respect for the elements, as do photographs that, at their best, seem to freeze the full power of the sea for study. Flipping the pages slowly, inspecting one wave after another, the reader can almost hear them splash against a nearby shore." -- The Wall Street Journal
"Every day global swells journey thousands of miles to find our favorite shores and fall over.... In this stunning coffee table book Swell: A Year of Waves, Evan Slater and Peter Taras document the journey. Using four seasonal swell patterns, Evan and Peter illustrate this race, from a storm's first breath of wind to a wave's arrival on shore, where we wait in the lineup, excited to usher them across the finish line." -- Surfing
"Swell is a beautiful and interesting take on our fascination with waves.... Make room on your coffee table--this book is worthy of long-term display." -- Transworld Surf
"Swell: A Year of Waves is not only a gorgeously photographed guide to the best waves in the world but a lucid introduction to the science behind them.... Slater's plain-spoken prose shows deep respect for the elements, as do photographs that, at their best, seem to freeze the full power of the sea for study. Flipping the pages slowly, inspecting one wave after another, the reader can almost hear them splash against a nearby shore." -- The Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Evan Slater is the former editor of Surfing magazine and a big wave surfer. He now works at Hurley and lives in Southern California with his wife and two children.
Peter Taras is the photo editor of Surfing magazine. When he's not picking images for his publication, he's shooting them. He lives in Encinitas, California, with his girlfriend.
Peter Taras is the photo editor of Surfing magazine. When he's not picking images for his publication, he's shooting them. He lives in Encinitas, California, with his girlfriend.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Here is something else I don't know a thing about: surfing. I have never tried it, even body surfing, and at this point I guess I am unlikely to. That doesn't keep me from enjoying waves; I don't get to the beach often, but I don't know anyone who is indifferent to the fascinating movement and sounds of swells of water approaching shore. The experts on surfing will admire at a higher level than I did _Swell: A Year of Waves_ (Chronicle Books), but this is a picture book that anyone ought to admire. It has a short text by Evan Slater, who is a big wave surfer and the former editor of _Surfing_ magazine. He starts his introduction, "For a long time, I considered myself an expert on waves," but then he describes going out deliberately to meet a wave breaking on an underwater shoal in the open ocean, and finding that whatever his expertise, it avails him nothing. He met a 45-foot avalanche of water that "was a force beyond my comprehension." So there is a lot he doesn't know about waves, and a lot scientists do not know. But we know something: "It's been only twenty-five years since predicting wave events became an inexact but semireliable science." Surfers, and others who are interested in waves, can get forecasts of what to expect and where, up to two weeks in advance. I suppose that such predictions are fraught with the same degree of error as any weather forecast, but there are general characteristics of waves at particular times in particular places. Four of those wave sites form the four sections of photographs here.
The photographs are the show. They are edited for the book by Peter Taras, who is the photo editor for _Surfing_ magazine. The photographers have been to all the four regions, and from the credits, it would seem that there is little overlap; perhaps each photographer is an expert from a particular region. There are 155 photos here, most in color, and every one is gorgeous. They display, of course, the power and the combination of order and chaos that one can see at any beach, but many of the waves here are giants. Some of the photos are abstracts of color and form that give little indication of even which way is up. Many are just of the blues, greens, whites, and golds of the piled masses of water without human or coastal context. Many display what looks like a symmetric, unremarkable wave but that's before you get a sense of the scale; keep looking and you will see the tiny figure of a surfer on a board dwarfed by the moving water.
This book would be a superb gift for the surfer in your life, who will long to get to every locale described here. For the rest of us, it is a collection of handsome and often dramatic photographs of one of the most complex and yet commonplace manifestations of movement in the natural world.
The photographs are the show. They are edited for the book by Peter Taras, who is the photo editor for _Surfing_ magazine. The photographers have been to all the four regions, and from the credits, it would seem that there is little overlap; perhaps each photographer is an expert from a particular region. There are 155 photos here, most in color, and every one is gorgeous. They display, of course, the power and the combination of order and chaos that one can see at any beach, but many of the waves here are giants. Some of the photos are abstracts of color and form that give little indication of even which way is up. Many are just of the blues, greens, whites, and golds of the piled masses of water without human or coastal context. Many display what looks like a symmetric, unremarkable wave but that's before you get a sense of the scale; keep looking and you will see the tiny figure of a surfer on a board dwarfed by the moving water.
This book would be a superb gift for the surfer in your life, who will long to get to every locale described here. For the rest of us, it is a collection of handsome and often dramatic photographs of one of the most complex and yet commonplace manifestations of movement in the natural world.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Kl Polovina
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
We bought this book as a coffee table book for our home in Nicaragua. There isn't anyone that comes to the house that doesn't love it! Because of the gorgeous cover everyone picks it up.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By mingie
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This magnificent book takes one on a trip through the world's oceans both in words and photos. One feels it is written from the soul.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
ocean waves
I was drawn to this book because of the cover picture. I was a little disappointed that the book was as small as it was, hoping for bigger photography. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kathy Almeida
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful
These photos are a feast for the eyes!
word9 word10 word11 word12. Enuf? Guess not. here are more and more. Apparently enough now.
word9 word10 word11 word12. Enuf? Guess not. here are more and more. Apparently enough now.
Published 3 months ago by A. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Definitely love this book - I would buy it again!! Makes a great gift for surfers or surf enthusiasts too.
Published 4 months ago by Vedrana
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gift
This was a beautiful gift for someone who is pasionate about surfing, and has traveled all over the world to surf.
He loved it.
He loved it.
Published 4 months ago by vicki Mullen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spectacular
I fell in love with the book after seeing it and tocuhing it in a Bookstore in San Francisco. I am this kind of person that needs to feel it and touch it. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Pedro Gambus
