THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SURFING

Paperback: 816 pages
Editore: Harvest Books (November 7, 2005)
Lingua: Inglese

Dimensioni libro: 10.2 x 8 x 1.6 inches

Warshaw, 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. 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.

This massive book (800 pages plus) covers everyhing about this great sport. But what is most amazing, is that the writing is so excellent--all of the characters, surf breaks, technology, competitions, movies, music, really come alive under Warshaw's unique eye. All the facts are there in excrutiating detail, but the way they are presented makes reading the book addictive. This has got to be the new bible for the sport.