Summertime: Read these 3 surfing books

Heya, PhiloSurfer!

Summer holidays are finally here.

So, time has come to spend time slowly.

Slow cooking, slow napping, and slow reading.

Time is like a dough. It’s elastic. The slower you knead, to longer the it becomes.

This week, I want to recommend some offline, old-school, book readings.

Get rid of your phone.

Grab a copy of any of these books.

Get off your shoes, go beach, and start reading.

Here is my selection for you of:

3 Surfing Books That Will Make Your Life Better

Over the past 8 years, I have read 95 books on the subject of surfing.

Unfortunately, most of them weren’t as good as I expected. They could have easily been blog posts, or even newsletter emails.

Instead, I encourage you to give these 3 a read. Even if you don’t surf.

They’re well worth the time.

Book #1: Barbarian Days by William Finnegan

I first read this book in 2015. I’ve read it 5 more times since then.

And here’s why you’ll love it:

  • Basically, it’s the best surfing book ever written. In my opinion, of course. And in Barack Obama’s also.
  • It has the best definition of surfing I have read: “a consuming, physically exhausting, joy-drenched reason to live.”
  • This book will take you surfing from your sunbed to California in the 50s, Hawai in the 60s, Southern Pacific, Asia & Apartheid’s Southern Africa in the 70s, San Francisco in the 80s, Portugal in the 90s and, finally, to New York in the 2000s.
  • You can read it as a road movie. Or as a surfing life biography. Or even as a deep philosophical reflection of our reason to live.
  • The author, William Finnegan, is a regular writer at the New Yorker.
  • And last but not least, this memoir was the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

It is available in hardback, paperback, ebook & audiobook.

PS. If you read it in Spanish (Años salvajes – Libros del Asteroide), make sure you find a copy that’s at least from the 8th edition. I did the technical revision of the whole book (esp. surfing terms & jargon), and it was only implemented then. Your reading experience will be much better than the original translation.

PS2. It only took me 6 months of work!

Book #2: Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn

I recommended this 1984 book to Luis Solano, my surfing buddy & the Spanish publisher of Barbarian Days.

He remembered it, agreed to translate it and asked me again to improve the surfing technical translation.

Here’s why I think you’ll love it:

  • It’s the best of its kind: the surf noir genre, a combination of surf fiction, thriller & crime novel. Intriguing, wild & highly addictive (caution!).
  • It’s also a coming-of-age tale. A sort of surfing Catcher in the Rye but way more brutal.
  • You’ll be transported to Huntington Beach in the 80s—you’ll discover every corner in the underground as well as the surface of Surf City, USA.
  • This book somewhat inspired the original 1991’s movie Point Break, although it’s not mentioned in the film’s credits. It’s great to read it with the movie in mind!
  • And last but not least, this novel was the finalist of the National Book Awards 1984 for First Work Of Fiction.

It is available in hardback, paperback, ebook & audiobook.

PS. In Spanish, it came out last year under the title Huntington Beach (Libros del Asteroide).

Book #3: Breath by Tim Winton

Finally, I think everyone should read this book.

And here’s why I think you’ll love it:

  • It’s a coming-of-age novel, like Tapping the Source. Highly addictive, like Tapping the Source. But it’s a totally different story, all the same.
  • It’s an Australian author. A lot of local Aussie slang & surfing jargon.
  • You’ll surf Australian breaks along its lines.
  • You’ll be elevated by its very rich, direct & sometimes erotic prose.
  • It has an epic flare combined with a profound nostalgia that, still, doesn’t combine into a sad drama.
  • Friendship is the underlying topic: Pikelet & Lonnie; Loonie & Pikelet.
  • It has a very decent movie adaptation with the same title (do not watch it before finishing the reading!).

It is available in hardback, paperback & ebook.

PS. It’s not available in Spanish yet. But most probably, when it is, I will be the one who did the technical revision of the surfing sections.

Happy reading!

Ignacio Iturralde Signature

Additional recommendations:

None.

Just read the books above.

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