Customer Reviews

Zero Break: An Illustrated Collection of Surf Writing, 1777-2004

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I own a large library of surf books and have become a fan of the ones that I slow down to savor. This is one of those. Warsaw chose excellent stories in this collection; the variety is wonderful as is the changing pace of the reads and the subject matter varies nicely. This is one of my favorites.

excellent reading:informative, entertaining,interesting,due to the diversity of the collected articles that span generations, time,numerous points of view and emotions, well organized. I have purchased numerous copies as gifts to share with old surf buddies!

Everything from Jack London, Herman Melville (two top echelon American writers), to Mark Twain (perhaps America's foremost writer), to Rick Griffin (my old friend, RIP)! Perhaps the shiniest piece is David Resin's "Finding Mickey Dora" from that old California magazine (I still own that magazine). I'm not a big fan of Warsaw's anal anaylisis of the art of the liquid easel, but his collection of surf writing raises him to icon status in my eyes, as a Kahuna, worthy of fast company like Drew Kampion and John Severson. I would have included Mark Foo's (another old friend, RIP), article on facing destiny at Waimea Bay, an old SURFER article, "Great Writers of the Sea"(or words to that effect), with quotes by poets on our mother ocean, and of course, my 1978 article from SURF magazine on the hybrid surfboard. If you don't buy this book you'll be a retardess kukess for the duration of your short lifetime, a valley cowboy, aircraft worker, or worse! Hail, gremmies, groms, and pros, to the dead surfers! One last question, there's a book out there, I read it a decades ago, about an old kuk with a redwood board that surfs a big wave amid younger surfers with fantastic plastic new boards. It was a paperback. Does anyone know the title?

When I can't surf because I am away from the ocean or the waves are flat, I like to read surf inspired books, etc. This is one great compilation of such writings. The range and variety of works is great and I loved them all.

For all of the literate surfers out there (yes, they are legion!), this is an exceptionally enjoyable read. Great for an historical perspective on the art and sport of surfing as well as authentic insights on surfing from many perspectives. I have read additional material from the authors presented in this volume and am grateful to Matt Warshaw for the introduction.