For twenty years, Miki "Da Cat" Dora was the king of Malibu surfers—a dashing, enigmatic rebel who dominated the waves, ruled his peers' imaginations, and who still inspires the fantasies of wannabes to this day. And yet, Dora railed against surfing's sudden post-Gidget popularity and the overcrowding of his once empty waves, even after this avid sportsman, iconoclast, and scammer of wide repute ran afoul of the law and led the FBI on a remarkable seven-year chase around the globe in 1974. The New York Times named him "the most renegade spirit the sport has yet to produce" and Vanity Fair called him "a dark prince of the beach." To fully capture Dora's never-before-told story, David Rensin spent four years interviewing hundreds of Dora's friends, enemies, family members, lovers, and fellow surfers to uncover the untold truth about surfing's most outrageous practitioner, charismatic antihero, committed loner, and enduring mystery.

Biography of the legendary Miki Dora, who learned to surf from his step father, Gard Chapin, at San Onofre Beach in Orange County, California.

**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.

Surfing today evokes many things: thundering waves, warm beaches, bikinis and lifeguards, and carefree pleasure. But is the story of surfing really as simple as popular culture suggests? In this first international political history of the sport, Scott Laderman shows that while wave riding is indeed capable of stimulating tremendous pleasure, its globalization went hand in hand with the blood and repression of the long twentieth century. Emerging as an imperial instrument in post-annexation Hawaii, spawning a form of tourism that conquered the littoral Third World, tracing the struggle against South African apartheid, and employed as a diplomatic weapon in America's Cold War arsenal, the saga of modern surfing is only partially captured by Gidget, the Beach Boys, and the film Blue Crush. From nineteenth-century American empire-building in the Pacific to the low-wage labor of the surf industry today, Laderman argues that surfing in fact closely mirrored American foreign relations. Yet despite its less-than-golden past, the sport continues to captivate people worldwide. Whether in El Salvador or Indonesia or points between, the modern history of this cherished pastime is hardly an uncomplicated story of beachside bliss. Sometimes messy, occasionally contentious, but never dull, surfing offers us a whole new way of viewing our globalized world.

The founders of a surf school for women provide both a practical how-to guide to the sport of surfing and a witty look at the surfing lifestyle, integrating advice from professional surfers and tips on how to stay safe while having fun.

Yvon Chouinard-legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc.-shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth. From his youth as the son of a French Canadian blacksmith to the thrilling, ambitious climbing expeditions that inspired his innovative designs for the sport's equipment, Let My People Go Surfing is the story of a man who brought doing good and having grand adventures into the heart of his business life-a book that will deeply affect entrepreneurs and outdoor enthusiasts alike. A newly revised edition of Let My People Go Surfing is available now. From the Trade Paperback edition.

"Pioneer big-wave surfer, Greg Noll, was called Da Bull by his fellow surfers for his stubborn, straightforward and aggressive approach to the sport. His approach to life in general wasn't much different. His life revolved around surfing and everything the sport engendered. He made surfboards and surf films. He pioneered modern surfing in Australia. He discovered Mazatlan as a surf spot. He as the first to ride the fear-some waves at Waimea Bay and Outside Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore. He brawled and caroused with men, charmed and entertained women. Above all, he was Da Bull, one of the bravest and best of the big wave riders of his or anyone's era."--Amazon.com

Instagram sensation Clark Little shares his most remarkable photographs from inside the breaking wave, with a foreword by world surfing champion Kelly Slater. “One of the world’s most amazing water photographers . . . Now we get to experience up-close these moments of bliss.”—Jack Johnson, musician and environmentalist Surfer and photographer Clark Little creates deceptively peaceful pictures of waves by placing himself under the deadly lip as it is about to hit the sand. "Clark's view" is a rare and dangerous perspective of waves from the inside out. Thanks to his uncanny ability to get the perfect shot--and live to share it--Little has garnered a devout audience, been the subject of award-winning documentaries, and become one of the world's most recognizable wave photographers. Clark Little: The Art of Waves compiles over 150 of his images, including crystalline breaking waves, the diverse marine life of Hawaii, and mind-blowing aerial photography. This collection features his most beloved pictures, as well as work that has never been published in book form, with Little's stories and insights throughout. Journalist Jamie Brisick contributes essays on how Clark gets the shot, how waves are created, swimming with sharks, and more. With a foreword by eleven-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater and an afterword by the author on his photographic practice and technique, Clark Little: The Art of Waves offers a rare view of the wave for us to enjoy from the safety of land.

In 1996, Allan Weisbecker sold his home and his possessions, loaded his dog and surfboards into his truck, and set off in search of his long-time surfing companion, Patrick, who had vanished into the depths of Central America. In this rollicking memoir of his quest from Mexico to Costa Rica to unravel the circumstances of Patrick's disappearance, Weisbecker intimately describes the people he befriended, the bandits he evaded, the waves he caught and lost en route to finding his friend. In Search of Captain Zero is, according to Outside magazine, "A subtly affecting tale of friendship and duty. [It] deserves a spot on the microbus dashboard as a hell of a cautionary tale about finding paradise and smoking it away." In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer's Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road is a Booksense 76 Top Ten selection for September/October.

A charming story book about emotions and mindfulness, featuring easy breathing exercises to help kids ages 5-8 navigate daily highs and lows. Being teased for your ‘funny’ hair is hard—but when little surfer Mop studies the lessons of the waves, he learns how to bring the mindfulness and joy of surfing into his whole life. Going to school and navigating classmates can be hard—but all that goes away when little surfer Mop paddles out in the waves. With a few tips from his clever mom, Mop studies the wisdom of the water and learns to bring it into his life on land: taking deep breaths, letting the tough waves pass, and riding the good ones all the way. With newfound awareness and courage, Mop heads back to land—and school—to surf the waves of life. Celebrated San Francisco surfer-journalist-dad Jaimal Yogis teaches 4-8 year olds timeless beach wisdom with the story of Mop, a sensitive and fun-loving kid who just wants to be in the ocean.