A wave in every port

This latest edition of the Stormrider Guide from the Aussie series serves as an encyclopedia of the world through the lens of the travel surfer. It offers insider tips on details from the crowds and kooky locals at certain surf spots to the months of the year most favorable for swell.

Diagrams predict wave size and whether to expect sand, reef or rocks on the ocean bottom. The guide estimates local prices for surfboards and provides an index of local surf guides.

Surf spots south of Santa Monica Bay into Mexico are absent. It’s probably not “the only surf book you’ll ever need,” as the publishers claim, but pleasingly close.

-- Emmett Berg