I just read "Chasing Dean", by Tom Anderson...A good book about two guys from Wales chasing hurricane swells on the East Coast. Anyone have any good suggestions?

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Who needs a better life?

The search for captain zero

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poopsuit

I second "The search for Captain Zero". The author is way out there but the book is great and gets you surf stoked.  You can also try "Good things love water" by Chris Ahrens.  He has a handful of books that are pretty good.  Mostly filled with short surf stories from the 60's

Since you liked "Chasing Dean", consider Anderson's other surf book, "Riding The Magic Carpet" where he travels to some rugged and exotic locations in a quest to ride the waves of his dreams. Written in the same style as Dean. Another suggestion is "Dawn Patrol" by Don Winslow, great fiction set in SoCal that captures the essence of the culture. Hard to put down after you start reading.

"Caught Inside" by Daniel Duane is something of a classic.  Worth it for the tale of the UC Santa Cruz math instructor who forgets to hold an exam because the surf's good.  Also, "North Shore Chronicles: Big-wave surfing in Hawaii" by Bruce Jenkins, a sports writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.  That's him, below, with the white hair at a bodysurfing event.  

Difficult to get hold of except for people (or libraries?) that have subscriptions to The New Yorker:  William Finnegan's "Playing Doc's Games"

There's lots of great photo books.  Matt Warshaw's "Photo: Stoner" from Chronicle Books (Warshaw, like Jenkins is a San Franciscan) or "Photo: Grannis" by Brad Barrett (The Surfer's Journal) get into the deep past.  

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Tapping-Source-Kem-Nunn/dp/156025808X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349542424&sr=8-1&keywords=kem+nunn

Pretty depressing but good.

And it pretty much confirmed the socal surf scene I experienced when I was out there.

I read a book a while back called "West of Jesus: Surfing, Science and the Origin of Belief" and really enjoyed it.

About the book:

A spiritual and scientific surf quest, West of Jesus tracks a contemporary surfing myth and looks at the neuroscience that connects spirituality and high risk sport.

After spending two years in bed with Lyme disease, Steven Kotler had lost everything: his health, his job, his girl, and, he was beginning to suspect, his mind. Kotler, not a religious man, suddenly found himself drawn to the sport of surfing as if it were the cornerstone of a new faith. Why, he wondered, when there was nothing left to believe in, could he begin to believe in something as unlikely as surfing. What was belief anyway? How did it work in the body, the brain, our culture, and human history?

Into this mix came a strange story. In 2003, on a surf trip through Mexico, Kotler heard of "the conductor," a mythical surfer who could control the weather. He'd heard this same tale eight years earlier, in Indonesia, but this time something clicked. With the help of everyone from rebel surfers to rocket scientists, Kotler undertakes a three year globetrotting quest for the origins of this legend. The results are a startling mix of big waves and bigger ideas: a surfer's journey into the biological underpinnings of belief itself.

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"measure twice, cut once"

Men who ride a mountains... A Classic.. 

The kooks guide to surfing' written by Former ASP east champion, and writer of K Slaters autobiography.

"In Search of Captain Zero" and "Cosmic Banditos" are two of the best books I have ever read.  A little in depth and "out there" at times but nonetheless amazing reads that will make you wish there was more.  

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When you're an ape you're an ape, all the way, from your first cigarette to your last dyin' day...

Cape Apes

Pipe dreams! Kelly's book actually an awesome book!

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:beer;Life was good today!

Fierce Heart - The Story of Mahkaha and the soul of Hawaiian Serfing.
Let's Go Let's Go - the biography of Lorrin "Whity" Harrison.
MP - The life of Micheal Peterson
Fear-Less-Ness The story of Lisa Anderson.

Some of my favorites.


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Be Joyful because you have Hope, be Patient when trouble comes, Pray at all times. Romans 12:12

In Search of Captain Zero is one of my favorite all time books, hands down...As is Caught Inside...I also just read, Child of the storm, the story of Chris O'Rourke, California surfer in the 1970's, former Windansea enforcer who dies from Hodgkins Disease...I will check out the titles you guys suggested...

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Who needs a better life?

Just got the Dewey Weber book: Little Man on Wheels

Still reading it. Maybe I'll post a review later.

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Wooden Boards for Iron Men

The Dogs of Winter by Kem Nunn. Epic read.

If you'd like a slow intro to Hawaiian culture, "Hawaiian Surfing: Traditions From the Past" by John R.K. Clark.  It's based on an online archive of Hawaiian-language newspapers.  Hawaiians wrote, and read, enthusiastically in their own language.  Clark (with 16-min. video) at Hawaii Book Blog.

Isaiah Helekunihi Walker's "Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawai'i" is, basically his earnest doctoral dissertation (he's an assistant prof at BYU-Hawai'i), but it does a good job of showing Hawaiians pushing back against racist whites.  

Fred Van Dyke, "Surfing Huge Waves With Ease".  Short, unique.

Paul A. Kosten, "The Progressive Art of Bodysurfing: A Style Manual"  See Press of Atlantic City.  It's a Jersey book.

Orrin Pilkey et al., "The World's Beaches: A global guide to the science of the shoreline".  University of California Press.  This book makes great use of color photos, lots of them, from all over.  Its publication seems to have been heavily subsidized by a grant from a foundation.  A great book for the traveler.

Rob Brander, "Dr Rip's Essential Beach Book: Everything You Need to Know About Surf, Sand and Rips".  This is Australian, from University of New South Wales Press, and thanks to the strong Austalian dollar, it's expensive at some $35.  Lots of pictures, 238 pages.  If your cousin in Indiana is going to Australia for a month, you want to make sure she reads this book before stepping off the plane.  Might also fascinate your 11-year-old.  Here's Brander's website.  

"Surfing Illustrated: A Visual Guide to Wave Riding" by John Robinson is cheap and a great example of why we should draw more and write less.  Robinson's simple drawings do most of the work, with just enough text to provide support.  It demonstrates most of the things that can go wrong.  Info.

"Surf Survival: The Surfer's Health Handbook" by Andrew Nathanson, Clayton Everline, Mark Renneker.  My copy might be in Nicaragua.  It's a serious book.  Dr. Renneker is the focus of "Playing Doc's Games", which was written shortly before Renneker got introduced to Mavericks.  He was already 50 or so years old, I think.

All for a Few Perfect Waves..  The Life and Legend of Miki Dora.  Killer Read!!

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We're all here, cause we're not all there!!

^+1.  That one was hard to put down.

In Search of Cpt. Zero, and Pipe Dreams are 2 of the best books I have ever read. Caught inside was good, but it was a little boring at times, to me anyways. I am going to get a few of the others mentioned here, as I have not read a good one in a while.

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RUSS-D'S PHOTOGRAPHY
Suncoast Surfrider

cosmic banditos

 

Eddie would go