The Encyclopedia of Surfing
by Matt Warshaw
(Click here)
Book Summary Information
Author: Matt WarshawForeword: William Finnegan
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-11-07
ISBN: 0156032511
Number of pages: 816
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of The Encyclopedia of Surfing
Book Review: Serious Research on the sport of surfing
Summary: 5 Stars
Matt went to Berkeley, a top-notch school, and so his research skills are high-level. One of the contributing ghost writers, who didn't get credit on this work, Nathan, just wrote a great surfing screenplay titled "Bliss" you can read for free on [... But I digress, I've surfed since the sixties, read all the magazines and books, and was surprised to read things here I didn't know. Sometimes I laugh at the magazine writers of today as they get things wrong about the sport's early days. Matt's always spot on. Anyone with the surfing bug, the desire to become a Don Redondo -- wiseman, wiseguy, or shaman of the sport -- needs to read this book.
Summary of The Encyclopedia of Surfing
Now in paperback and updated to include forty new entries, this "leviathan of surf literature" (Surfing magazine) is a remarkable collection of expert knowledge, spine-tingling stories, and little-known trivia. With 1,500 alphabetical entries and 300 illustrations, The Encyclopedia of Surfing is the most comprehensive review of the people, places, events, equipment, vernacular, and lively history of this fascinating sport by "one of surfing's most knowledgeable historians" (San Francisco Chronicle).
Each year, the surf industry brings in $4.5 billion, and more than two-and-a-half million Americans, from California to Delaware, have caught the wave. The Encyclopedia of Surfing is a book that no surfer-or armchair adventurer-will be able to resist.
(20031001)Each year, the surf industry brings in $4.5 billion, and more than two-and-a-half million Americans, from California to Delaware, have caught the wave. The Encyclopedia of Surfing is a book that no surfer-or armchair adventurer-will be able to resist.
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
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