The Way of the Surfer: Living It 1935 to Tomorrow

The year 2002 will forever be remembered as the year the surfing sport-lifestyle broke through. Surf imagery and surfers were just about everywhere - huge Hollywood productions (Die Another Day, Blue Crush), major advertisement campaigns (Target, Toyota Corolla, Apple Computer, Acura, and Dewars), and much, much more. Surfing has become white hot and, with at least a few more major movies in the works (projects involving Tom Hanks and Sean Penn), there are no signs of it cooling off anytime soon. Beautifully illustrated with color-drenched photography of exotic surfing paradises around the world, legendary surf writer and former Surfer magazine editor-in-chief Drew Kampion's new book is a short history of surfing worldwide and a fascinating journey into the lives of thirteen of the most important surfers ever. Catering to the explosive new interest in all things surfing related, it is the first book to articulate why men and women of all ages are drawn to the sport and why, once there, so many make a lifestyle of it. From Surfer magazine founder John Severson, Australia's national hero Nat Young, and Hawaiian surf guru Gerry Lopez, to the most popular and accomplished surfers of today, Lisa Andersen and Kelly Slater, Kampion spends time with surfing's biggest stars, uncovering, for instance, what forty-year-old Lopez's state of mind was like during and after successfully riding a sixty-five-foot wave off of Maui.

"Surfing is the simple act of walking on water," writes Drew Kampion, and the history of surfing is "the sum total of all waves ever ridden." The Way of the Surfer brings together the people and the act of surfing using stories and pictures. As former editor of Surfer magazine, and a fixture on the scene himself, Kampion has been able to track many of the changes in surfing since it caught on in a big way with non-Polynesians. The book focuses on key figures from several eras of waveriding, beginning with Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian beach boy who brought the sport to the mainland. Kampion zooms through the post-war beach boom with profiles of such notables as moviemaker John Severson, board shaper Richard Brewer, and surfer Nat Young before moving on to the heady 1970s, when surfing took a decidedly mystical turn. From the drug-fueled explorations of Rolf Aurness to the "Buddha in the barrel" calm of Gerry Lopez, the tales of this era recall a time when surfing was still an outsider activity, with zealous adherents and strange philosophies. Kampion covers the go-go '80s with the rise of Tom Curren, the seemingly unstoppable champ, and Lisa Andersen, who surfed a path for women in the pros. An appropriate number of pages and pictures are devoted to Kelly Slater, whom Kampion calls "the best surfer in the world." Finally, the book finishes with a return to surfing's roots and a look at the spirited Hawaiian surfer Titus Kinimaka. The Way of the Surfer is an elegant and beautifully designed portrait of the styles and souls of surfers, a collection of words and pictures revealing the deeper meaning of "walking on water." --Therese Littleton