This title introduces readers to the adventurous sport of surfing. Readers will discover the sport's unique, must-have equipment in the text and diagrams, from surfboards to wax, wet suits, leashes, and helmets. Important safety information is also covered, including never surfing alone, respecting right-of-way, wipeouts, rip currents, marine animals, and underwater reefs and rocks. Chapters highlight surfing history from Polynesia to Hawaii and beyond, how to choose a board, and types of surfing, including longboarding, shortboarding, and tow-in surfing. They also cover famous athletes and surfing pioneers, including Duke Kahanamoku, George Freeth, Tom Blake, Kelly Slater, and Bethany Hamilton. Important surfing organizations are also introduced, such as the Association of Surfing Professionals, the International Surfing Association, and the National Scholastic Surfing Association. Sidebars on sunscreen, getting skegged, and surfing lingo will put readers in the know. Readers can also find out how to get started in this exhilarating sport and where to find good waves, including the United States, Australia, France, and Brazil. Striking, colorful photos will put readers right in the middle of this action-packed sport. They'll have a blast getting ready for an Adrenaline Adventure. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

Presents information on the history of surfing, the different styles of boards, and how to learn to surf.

**Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography** Included in President Obama’s 2016 Summer Reading List “Without a doubt, the finest surf book I’ve ever read . . . ” —The New York Times Magazine Barbarian Days is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses—off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships forged in challenging waves. Finnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly—he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui—is served up with rueful humor. As Finnegan’s travels take him ever farther afield, he discovers the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissects the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, and navigates the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little-understood art.

Surf photographers are the unsung heroes of surfing. They do crazy things to get the shots that fill the pages of the world's top surfing magazines. Some risk life and limb shooting the action at deadly reefs like Teahupoo and Pipeline. Some lose themselves in the Arctic, braving sub-zero temperatures for the chance to score a perfect day at a remote pointbreak. Shooting the Curl showcases the work of 15 top surf photographers and gets the inside story on the surfers and waves that inspire them.

Whether you’re a beginner trying to get started or an experienced surfer looking to take it to the next level, The Surfing Handbook gives you the tips you need to maximize your performance on the water, with guidance on training and conditioning, technique and style, safety and etiquette, and gear. Written by veteran pro surfing journalist Ben Marcus, this guide is illustrated with instructional photos and drawings, providing step-by-step instructions, background history—as well as stories and tips from legendary surfers and teachers—making this an informative and entertaining guide that will help you to master the waves.

The story of the simple skateboard is part thriller, part underground, underdog success tale. It’s chock-full of innovations, far-out graphic artistry, and ever-more-incredible hot-dogging feats. And the story’s told in this book with contributions from the stars themselves—Tony Hawk, Stacey Peralta, Jeff Ho, the Dogtown Z-Boys, and more. Beautifully illustrated with historical posters, ads, and memorabilia along with new action photography, studio skateboard shots, and unique portraits of the stars, this is a fitting tribute to an American classic.