The year 2002 will forever be remembered as the year the surfing sport-lifestyle broke through. Surf imagery and surfers were just about everywhere - huge Hollywood productions (Die Another Day, Blue Crush), major advertisement campaigns (Target, Toyota Corolla, Apple Computer, Acura, and Dewars), and much, much more. Surfing has become white hot and, with at least a few more major movies in the works (projects involving Tom Hanks and Sean Penn), there are no signs of it cooling off anytime soon. Beautifully illustrated with color-drenched photography of exotic surfing paradises around the world, legendary surf writer and former Surfer magazine editor-in-chief Drew Kampion's new book is a short history of surfing worldwide and a fascinating journey into the lives of thirteen of the most important surfers ever. Catering to the explosive new interest in all things surfing related, it is the first book to articulate why men and women of all ages are drawn to the sport and why, once there, so many make a lifestyle of it. From Surfer magazine founder John Severson, Australia's national hero Nat Young, and Hawaiian surf guru Gerry Lopez, to the most popular and accomplished surfers of today, Lisa Andersen and Kelly Slater, Kampion spends time with surfing's biggest stars, uncovering, for instance, what forty-year-old Lopez's state of mind was like during and after successfully riding a sixty-five-foot wave off of Maui.
Drew Kampion is a former editor of SURFER (1968-72), SURFING (1973-82), WIND SURF (1982-89), and WIND TRACKS (1996-99) magazines. He was Editorial Director for the Patagonia clothing company (1990-91) and Associate Editor for NEW AGE JOURNAL (1992). He founded, published, and edited the ISLAND INDEPENDENT (1993-96), an award-winning "bioregional magazine in newsprint," serving the "maritime rainshadow" islands of Washington State. For his work with the INDEPENDENT, he received first prize for editing a periodical with a circulation under 50,000.
More recently, Kampion was the American Editor of the international periodical, THE SURFER'S PATH, world's first "green" surf magazine from 2002-2009. His episodic parody, THE TEACHINGS OF DON REDONDO: A SURFER'S WAY OF KNOWLEDGE (as illustrated by artist Tom Threinen) was a regular feature of the magazine.
Kampion is the author of THE BOOK OF WAVES (1989), THE ART OF CHRISTIAN RIESE LASSEN (1991), STOKED: A HISTORY OF SURF CULTURE (1997, revised 2003), THE WAY OF THE SURFER (2003), THE LOST COAST (2004), WAVES: FROM SURFING TO TSUNAMI (2005), DORA LIVES: THE AUTHORIZED STORY OF MIKI DORA (2005), and GREG NOLL: THE ART OF THE SURFBOARD (2007). He was also editor of THE STORMRIDER GUIDE: NORTH AMERICA (2002).
He is currently assisting Fernando Aguerre with his autobiography, SURF, SEX & SANDALS: THE LATIN ART OF MIXING BUSINESS WITH PLEASURE and has begun work on the story of Jack O'Neill, the inventor of the modern surfing wetsuit.
Married with two children, he lives on an island in Washington State.
