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What's that sound coming from the beach? That's the rustle of pages turning, as would-be immortals look themselves up in
The Encyclopedia of Surfing, surfing's first comprehensive reference book.
The Encyclopedia of Surfing chronicles nearly every bit of wave-riding--its history, places, mythology, champions, tragedies, in-jokes, and minutiae. Author Matt Warshaw, former editor of
Surfer magazine, and his fellow researchers took three years to put together this prodigious tome. The most surprising thing about the book is its terrific readability. Though the 1,500 entries are organized in typical encyclopedic style, one after the other alphabetically, none of them--not a
single one--is completely boring. Not even the one on the technicalities of fin placement. In fact, the book is a trap, leading unsuspecting readers on a wandering journey from pioneer surfer Duke Kahanamoku to the development of hollow boards to the lifeguards who used them to lifeguard Eddie Aikau to his home in Waimea Bay to.... Suddenly, hours have gone by and there's still the huge entry on Gidget to read. Illustrated like a dictionary, this book has only one or two small black-and-white photos every couple of pages. A history of surfing introduces the entries; at the end, a bibliography, round-up of surf contest results, and lists of movies, magazines, and music provide the big finish. Though Warshaw's first three books (
SurfRiders,
Above the Roar, and
Maverick's) were entertaining looks at surfers and surfing, this one makes him the official Kahuna of surf lore. Surfing is a multi-billion-dollar industry, flinging hordes of people and buckets of money into the waves each year.
The Encyclopedia of Surfing is its new bible.
--Therese Littleton
From Publishers Weekly
This volume is a gift to surfers, both neophytes and pros. Warshaw, a former pro-surfer and editor of Surfer magazine, offers the sport's first all-encompassing encyclopedia. "Cheater five," "Malibu U," "Gidget"-if you can name it, Warshaw's included it in his exhaustive catalog. There are entries for each physical part of the wave (such as the lip, curl and trough); detailed discussions of surf movies, magazines and books; types of surfboards, including both physical descriptions and the philosophy of surfing each ("animosity between shortboarders and longboarders has been present to one degree or another since the 1970s"); and bios of pro surfers and board shapers. Warshaw doesn't gloss over the sport's ugly sides, and devotes several pages to such topics as "violence and surfing," "localism," "surf rage," and "sharks and surfing." He offers helpful information for each country, state or county where surfing is popular-from Oregon to Californian, Maine to Florida, and from the Great Lakes to Texas. This is an indispensable tome for any surfer.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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