Maverick's: The Story of Big-Wave Surfing

Not just a nice coffee table book, but also a great story about big waves and big wave surfers. Some of the shots are absolutely spectacular. And what would a book on big waves be without a chapter on Greg Noll - what a character.

This is a fascinating look at the history and sport of big-wave surfing, focusing primarily on Maverick's but also discussing some of the other big-wave spots in the world, such as Todos Santos and Cortes Banks. If you have fond memories of the classic travel and surf-bum movie from the 60s, "The Longest Summer," about great surf spots around the world, you'll probably enjoy this book. My review concentrates mainly on the dangers, since I was interested in researching that, but overall it's a beautifully illustrated and well-written account of the sport. The author starts with the early history back in the mid-1850s (when a legend has it that a Hawaiian was supposed to have ridden a tsunami back to shore). I was interested because I used to live for many years near Maverick's, one of the premier big-wave surfing spots in the world, and I was curious what it had to say. I've never been a board-surfer myself, but grew up in southern Cal and did a lot of body surfing when I was younger. One time, I foolishly tried to body-surf a storm-driven 18-footer at Gillis Beach in southern California and got ground into the bottom and held down long enough so I thought I might not get back up to the surface in time. But I survived, and am now older and wiser. I've had a few other misadventures, such as having been pulled out by a couple of riptides (including one that pulled me underneath the water briefly), so I've always had respect for the ocean, and I figured big-wave riding must surely be even more dangerous. Photos of lone surfers dwarfed by enormous waves have always amazed me and sent shivers up my spine, as I remembered my own scary encounter with a wave. Oddly enough, the author goes to some pains to dispell that notion by recounting various statistics and many anecdotal stories about the sport. For example, although it's possible for a big-wave to hold a surfer underwater long enough to drown, this is very rare. More likely is for a surfer at the more crowded small-wave sites to get knocked unconscious by someone else's board who wiped out and to drown that way. Or there's the possibility of an unsupervised and inexperienced surfer drifting into a strong riptide. And as the author says, "No big wave surfer ever tested the odds as boldly as the untrained, pot-bellied, beer-staggered, citizen body-surfer." Mark Renneker, a UCSF physician and avid big-wave surfer, gathered data and compiled statistics on injuries and concluded that cheerleaders were injured more often than big-wave surfers. Peter van Dyke, another big-wave fan, had some other comments, pointing out that in one recent year, a half dozen Grand Prix racers were killed but not one surfer, and many more bull-fighters were killed. He said that big-wave surfers were so unconcerned about their fitness that they trained on "cake, Kool-Aid, ice cream, and cigarettes." He also pointed out that the last surfer to die at Waimea was Dickie Cross back in 1943. By 1994, no-one had yet died at Ma

Matt gets the essence of Mavericks right in this one. He paints an accurate picture in words and photos of the Californian big wave spot and and the watermen who have come since the beginning to test their courage in its extreme conditions. His book vividly describes the personalities and the necessary 'go for it' attitude needed to survive in these dangerous situations. The book also contains many facets about big-wave surfing from other areas and this adds another excellent dimension to the tale. I enjoyed the book immensely and once started I read it from cover to cover.

This book captures the unique world of big wave surfing better than any I've ever read. It's really cool the way it goes back and forth between the relatively recent discovery of Maverick's and the general history of big wave surfing over the last 50 or so years. The research that must have gone into portraying the various characters that make up the strange world of big wave riding is really impressive. It's got some really great photos too, although not just the typical big wave wipe-out shots. It's good looking enough to sit on your coffee table, but unlike most coffee table books, its full of great writing.

Surfing has deserved this book for a long time, and it took the sport's prime archivist, Matt Warshaw, to deliver the goods. Warshaw does a masterful job of melding big-wave surfing's glory days on Oahu's North Shore with the present-day scene that has Half Moon Bay, California, as its ground-zero. The photo mix, primarily color, is inspired with fresh,unexpected camera angles augmenting the standard thirty-foot wave face 'frontal' approach. The grainy black and white shots, in particular,lend a misty, moody quality that reflects Maverick's cold and outright spooky atmosphere. Seasoned surfers will be reminded of why they first picked-up a board, and general readers will get a front-row look at one of sports' greatest spectacles courtesy of one its finest writers.