Catch a wave -- and these books

In 1962, in “Surfin’ Safari,” the Beach Boys sang about riding waves “from Hawaii to the shores of Peru.” To a skinny, bespectacled 12-year-old in wintry northeastern New Jersey, the idyllic images conjured by the band’s ebullient surf travelogue and a flood of other songs extolling the California sun/surfing/skateboarding lifestyle seemed both fantastically seductive and sadly out of reach. But two years later, relocated by the aerospace industry boom, my family and I arrived in Los Angeles on the kind of perfectly clear, blue-sky winter day, complete with sashaying palms, that I’d seen only in Disney movies. The words of a still-snowbound ex-girlfriend were ringing in my ears: “Wow! You’ll be able to go surfing!”

She was right. Now I could surf year-round -- if I could get Mom to drive me and my friends to the beach. And so began a lifelong love affair with sliding down a saltwater mountain into a sweeping turn at the bottom, trimming up into the curl, walking as far forward on the board as I dared and just being there, perched on the poetic edge of an experience impossible to describe to someone who has never done it. Years have passed since I let my pectorals atrophy, gave away the board (regretfully) and got out of the water, but the emotional connection persists -- to those days spent catching waves and to the places, characters, traditions, heroes, antics, design evolution, individualism, unimaginable daring and just plain fun that make up surfing’s history.

All these and more are captured, with judicious eye and boundless affection, by surf writer/historian Matt Warshaw in “The Encyclopedia of Surfing.” Such an undertaking might be compared to braving the 30-foot giants crashing at Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore: They both take guts, man! Skill. The proper tools. Timing. In Warshaw’s case, he has long written thoughtfully about the sport and its culture in magazines and books. He was once a top-rated amateur surfer, and he claims to own “the most complete library of surfing information in the world,” much of it computer data-based. As for timing (Why now?), the book’s introduction is replete with persuasive incident: the October 1999 issue of “Surfer” coming in at 340 pages; $4.5 billion in surf-industry sales in 2002; a stamp honoring surfing patriarch Duke Kahanamoku; the growing inclusion in major papers and newsweeklies of surfer obituaries. More such evidence is noted in the book’s 48-page set of appendices, which cover surfing in print, in the movies, on video, in song, in magazines, in contests worldwide.

“Where to start?” the reviewer wonders -- no doubt the question Warshaw asked himself when faced with deciding what to include and what to leave out. At nearly 800 pages, 600,000 words and 1,500 entries from a paragraph to pages long, the encyclopedia’s mass is daunting, but (if you’ll allow the surfing analogy) it’s surprisingly easy to ride. A spiritual cousin to “The Endless Summer” between hard covers, it’s a comfortable meander around the surfing land- and seascape, full of delightful discoveries, wit and accessible narration. (You can almost hear the Sandals’ 1966 score for the movie in the background.) There’s even a definition of the perfect wave. “The Encyclopedia of Surfing” could serve as a primary text for Surfing 101 or a year’s worth of pleasant coffeetable/deck reading. Open it anywhere; take your pick.

Warshaw starts his encyclopedia with a comprehensive “Brief History of Surfing,” ranging from pre-Incan fishermen (who may have ridden waves in 3000 BC) to surfing’s modern Hawaiian origins, its Malibu years, its commercialization and internationalization, its contests, the advent of short boards and the return of soul surfing (noncompetitive surfing for surfing’s sake) and ending with today’s “Planet Surf” mind-set. Surfing has become a global phenomenon, including a strong women’s presence, the tow-in riding of huge waves often in open ocean, a healthier professionalism, a proliferation of clothing and accessory companies and growing media interest.

With all that set up, the encyclopedia’s charm and power lie in the eclectic entries themselves. Starting with “A-frame” (a peak-shaped wave ridable in either direction) and on to the surfing scenes in “Apocalypse Now,” Warshaw moves through the alphabet. There’s surf pioneer Tom Blake, the first to ride Malibu; there’s Dick Dale, king of the surf guitarists; surfing’s late angry young man Miki “da Cat” Dora, the inscrutable globe-trotting purist known for his charming theatrics, inimitable feline style and dire predictions of surfing’s demise; “Gidget,” the cinematic foundation of this multibillion-dollar industry. There are short courses on body boarding, East Coast surfing, politics and surfing, wave dynamics, genre terminology (“hollow,” “edge,” “Gremmie,” “kook,” “fish,” “pig board,” “goofy foot,” “nose-drip,” “cowabunga”). There’s Tom Wolfe’s surf essay, “The Pump House Gang.” There’s a history of surfboard design and a section on sunburn (titled “Skin Cancer”). The book ends with a short entry: “Zog, Mr. See Sex Wax,” a reference to a cleverly marketed surfboard wax that sold in the tons.

There are 10 entries starting with “Australia” (with California and Hawaii, part of surfing’s holy triumvirate), three starting with “California,” eight with “Hawaii” (including “Hawaii Five-O”), six with “wave” and 70 with “surf.” Just about every surfing break worth mentioning is included (and every country with surf), as well as a lengthy roster of personalities: surfers, businessmen, board makers, contest winners, pioneers, writers, filmmakers and musicians. Surfing aficionados will doubtless be surprised at some inclusions and decry others. My tiny complaint: Only a brief mention, under “Books and Surfing,” of what was to me in the early ‘60s the essential companion for any day in the water -- the “Surfing Guide to Southern California” by Bill Cleary and David Stern. More than a guidebook to breaks, it is an indispensable introduction to the life and the first regional surfing encyclopedia. I still have my original copy.

That said, “The Encyclopedia of Surfing” does a good job of avoiding the parochial and the dogmatic. It is inclusive rather than exclusive, and the entries bleed through the edges of an orthodox take on the sport, much like a brisk offshore wind holds up a wave just seconds longer, allowing the surfer to make it through a crashing section. In this post-”Gidget” era, in which surfing has become part of a worldwide youth culture, Warshaw’s book adheres to rule No. 1 and rides the wave the only way you can: in the direction it’s going.

In “Maverick’s: The Story of Big-Wave Surfing,” Warshaw takes a different tack, using big-wave celebrity Mark Foo’s death in 1994 at Maverick’s, a break described as “explosive surf, a rock bottom and shifting currents in fifty-degree water” in central California, as an entry point -- and climax -- to a lyric and photographic history of big-wave surfing and those hardy souls with enough of the right stuff to attempt it. In 1994, Maverick’s was newly discovered; it was Foo’s first visit.

As preeminent big-wave pioneer Greg “da Bull” Noll, who in 1957 became the first man to ride Waimea Bay, once told me: “There’s a couple of questions that I get asked at this stage of my life. One is ‘What was it like to ride a big wave?’ That’s a question that puts me in the snore mode. You got a week to talk about it? We won’t even scratch the surface. The answer, I guess, is that you don’t know unless you actually do it -- and then, what is there to really talk about?”

If you’re not yet quite up to actually doing it, making your way through Warshaw’s big-wave tome will give you a pretty good education. *