surfresearch

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references : books w

2007
Wade, Alex:
Surfing Nation
In Search of the fast Lefts and Hollow Rights of Britain and Ireland.
Simom and Shuster, UK ltd
Africa House, 64-78 Kingsway, London WC2B 6AH, 2007.
Pocket Books, 2008.
Soft cover, 340 pages, black and white photographs, Acknowledgements, Glossary.
Review
Professionally written overview of the surfers and surfing locations of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland circa 2006.
With some historical background (occassionally less than accurate, note the James Cook references) and literary and cinematic insights, Wade generally emphasises the rugged nature and quality of both the surfers and locations, which tends be be slightly repitious by the book's conclusion.
Although not intended as a surf guide, a lack of maps makes the author's extensive travels somewhat confusing for the international reader.
Chapter 12, on famous tidal bore on the Severn River, is a interesting contrast with storm generated ocean waves.

1968
Wagenvoord, James and Bailey, Lyn:
How To Surf
Collins Books, New York. 1968
Hard cover, 96 pages, 79 b/w photographs or sequences, 3 b/w illustrations, glossary, demonstrations by Mike Doyle, afterword by J.J. Moon.
Review
Very basic instructional book concentrating on basic manoeuvres circa 1968 USA.
The boards in this book appear to confirm Australian design dominance at this time (compare Carter, Jeff 1968).
Interesting to note style influence of Mike Doyle on Nat Young - pages 56, 64 and 68.
Who is J.J. Moon?
In August 2009, Paul Ambler noted by email:
"J.J Moon is my dad.
His real name is John Ambler and he use to surf in the 60's & 70's with his brother Kevin Ambler.
There used to be a cartoon in a surfing mag titled "Life Of J.J Moon" or something.
He later went on to skate for Golden Breed in Australia and pretty much does nothing now haha."
Many thanks to Paul.

2003
Walding, Murray :
Blue Heaven : The Story of Australian Surfing
Hardie Grant Books
12 Claremont Street
South Yarra, Victoria 3141, Australia, 2003.
Hard cover, 194 pages, extensive colour, duotone and b/white photographs, Bibliography, Index.
Review

2006
Walding, Murray :
Blue Heaven : The Story of Australian Surfing
Hardie Grant Books
12 Claremont Street
South Yarra, Victoria 3141, Australia, 2006.
Paperback, 194 pages, extensive colour, duotone and b/white photographs, Bibliography, Index.
Review

2008
Walding, Murray :
Surf-o-rama - Treasures of Australian Surfing.
The Miegunyah Press
Melbourne University Publishing Limited
187 Grattan Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia, 2008.
Soft cover, 240 pages, extensive colour, duotone and black and white photographs, Picture Credits, Bibliography, Index.
Review
A richly illustrated catalogue of Australian surfing associated collectables with extensive item notes and expostition.
Arranged by chapter: surfboards, skateboards, magazines, recordings and posters.

1991
Lee Wardlaw :
Cowabunga! - The Complete Book of Surfing.
Avon Books
A division of the Hearst Corporation
105 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10016. 1991
Soft cover, 165 pages, 8 colour plates, 2 black-and-white illustrations, 23 black-and-white photographs, Surfing Organisations, Glossary, Bibliography.
Review
Well balanced overview of surfing that covers all major areas of interest, circa 1991.
With a strong American focus, the book is sometimes deficient in dealing with other countries, for example, "Bob McTavish ... pioneered the first tri-fin boards in the mid 1960's", page 127. There are several other minor spelling for factual errors.
Hotspots Chapter 15 (surfing locations) includes five US wave pools.
Page 74 boldly, but correctly, nominates Kelly Slater as a future top professional for the 1990's.

Warner, P.F. (editor):
The Boy's Own Book of of Outdoor Games and Pastimes.
The Religious Tract Society,
4 Bouverie Street and 65 St. Pauls Churchyard E.C., 1913.

For extract , see
H.S Abbott : Surfing in Australia, pages 178 to 180.

2014
Warren, Andrew and Gibbson, Chris:
Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers
Craft, Creativity, and Cultural Heritage in Hawai'i, California, and Australia
University of Hawai'i, 2014.
Hard cover, 270 pages, black and white photographs, diagrams, tables, Notes, Bibliography, Index.
Review
The book was produced following Andrew Warren's Phd. thesis in Geography at the University of Wollongong, most evident in the early chapters the book.
However, some of the early sections are disappointingly general in nature, for example Surfboard Design Elements pages xii-xiii, and occasional glaring errors: Geoff McCoy's Lazor Zap attributed as "Early 1970s", pages 56-57.
Importantly, the authors fail to establish the distinction between designers and shapers, which was so evident up to the early-1980s, when the vast majority of advances in design were initiated by surfer-shapers whose reputation was based on their performance in the waves.
Even when their shaping skills were perfunctory, or even non-existent, for many decades the association between the surfer and their model produced in the sponsor's workshop dominated marketing and promotion; for example the Joyce Hoffman model by Hobie Surfboards in the mid-1960s.
The book becomes progressively more general in language and focus and by the final chapter it appears to be almost devoid of any attempt at a rigorous critical analysis.

1988
Warren, Mark:
Atlas of Australian Surfing
Angus and Robertson Publishers
Unit 4 Eden Park 31 Waterloo Road North Ryde NSW Australia 1988
Hard cover, 232 pages, 68 colour photographs?, 46 black and white maps?, Glossary, Index.
Review
Comprehensive guide to Australian surf breaks, in similar format to Jeff Carter (East Coast, 1968), Nat Young (East Coast, 1980/1983 and Surf/Sail Australia, 1986), Chris Rennie (Australia, 1998) and Richard Loveridge (Victoria, 1987).
Break information (swell, tide, wind) is supplemented with occassional historical, cultural or personal observations.
Blue boards with dust jacket.

1994
Warren, Mark:
Atlas of Australian Surfing (Second Edition)
Angus and Robertson Publishers
Unit 4 Eden Park 31 Waterloo Road North Ryde NSW Australia. 1994
Hard cover, 232 pages, 68 colour photographs?, 46 black and white maps?, Glossary, Index.
Review
Comprehensive guide to Australian surf breaks, in similar format to Jeff Carter (East Coast, 1968), Nat Young (East Coast, 1980/1983 and Surf/Sail Australia, 1986), Chris Rennie (Australia, 1998) and Richard Loveridge (Victoria, 1987).
Break information (swell, tide, wind) is supplemented with occassional historical, cultural or personal observations.
Basically same text/illustrations with some minor variation in format (pages 2 -3?), different cover in laminated boards.

1998
Warren, Mark:
Atlas of Australian Surfing- Revised Edition
Angus and Robertson Publishers
Unit 4 Eden Park 31 Waterloo Road North Ryde NSW Australia. 1998
Hard cover, 232 pages, 68 colour photographs?, 46 black and white maps?, Glossary, Index.
Review

1999
Warren, Mark:
Atlas of Australian Surfing - Traveller's Edition
Haper Collins Publishers 25 Ryde Road Pymble Sydney NSW 2073 Australia. 1999
Reprint of 1989 edition
Laminated soft cover, 272 pages, 68 colour photographs, 46 black and white maps + continent map on end papers, Glossary, Index.
Review
Comprehensive guide to Australian surf breaks, in similar format to Jeff Carter (East Coast, 1968), Nat Young (East Coast, 1980/1983 and Surf/Sail Australia, 1986), Chris Rennie (Australia, 1998) and Richard Loveridge (Victoria, 1987).
Break information (swell, tide, wind) is supplemented with occassional historical, cultural or personal observations.
Despite being a 1999 edition, some details are incorrect -e.g. The Farm (page 126) is incorrectly shown on the map, appears to be confused with Mystics (page 127) and neither is private property, the area being declared as Killalea State Recreational Area in the early 1990's.
This copy, courtesy of Shoalhaven City Library.

1997
Warshaw, Matt :
Surfriders – In Search of the Perfect Wave
Tehabi Books, Inc.
Collins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. 1997
Soft cover, 132 pages, 70 colour photographs or sequences, 31b/w photographs, World champions photo gallery 1964 – 1996, bibliography, photography credits.
Review
Excellent publication beautifully presented with great (some rare) photographs.
Text has a tendency to become a bit dramatic.
Chapters “Morning at Freshwater” (the Duke) and “Revolution” (McTavish) are of particular interest.
Duke Kahanamoku at Freshwater : 24 December 1914.

1997
Warshaw, Matt:
Above The Roar - Fifty Surfer Interviews
Waterhouse
4350 Bain Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95062. 1997
Hardcover, pages, extensive colour and black and white photographs and illustrations, Photo and Art Credits, Sources and Acknowledgements.
Review
Not complete interviews, but rather short selections taken from Matt Warshaw's portfolio of previously published (full) interviews 1987 - 1997.
This tight editing often leaves the reader wishing for further information, or that some other topic had been selected.
The selection of accompanying photographs is excellent and they are beautifully reproduced.

2000
Warshaw, Matt :
Mavericks – The Story of Big Wave Surfing
Chronicle Books, Inc.
85 Second Street, San Francisco, California 94105. 2000
Hard cover, 209 pages, 36colour photographs, 19 b/w photographs, numerous magazine reproductions, film poster reproductions, map, Bibliography, Photograph credits, Index.
Review
As implied by the tittle, an account of big wave surfing largley centralised on stories and photographs of Maverick's, California.
This is most prominant in the focus on the death of Hawaiian Mark Foo in 1994, which dominates the book - Chapters 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Alternate chapters (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10) give a overall historical perspective.
The early history chapters, mostly Hawaii, are detailed and highly informative. However, the 20 year span of Chapter 6 (1970-1990) is a bit light. While noting the impact of professional surfing, it fails to mention significant developements such as the legrope and the 3 fin Thruster that undoubtedly took surfing performance both deeper and higher.

Tow-in surfing is coverered in Chapter 8.
The various comments on subjective wave height estimation are reflective of the confusion of this issue. "Surfers of course don't measure wave height by the face" - page 159.
See How to measure waves.
Pedants Corner : "Plank and cigar boards were both finless and lumbering, and virtually uncontrolable in waves over six feet.
Even in smaller surf the idea usually was to chart a straight and undeviating course to shore... riding on a plum line to the sand." page 20
Here Matt Warshaw maintains the myth that pre-1940 surfers rode straight to the beach, when all the available evidence indicates that 'cutting' was an integral part of surfing since ancient times.
This copy ex-Chandler Public Library, Arizona.

2004
Warshaw, Matt :
The Encyclopedia of Surfing
Viking
Penguin Books Australia Pty Ltd
250 Camberwell Road
Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Hard cover, 774 pages, black and white photographs.
Appendicies include Bibliography, Contest Results, Movies, Magazines, Music.
Review
Encyclopedic.
Personal note : Internet and surfing, page 293, notes...
sites for surf history (legendarysurfers.com, surfresearch.com.au)

2010
Warshaw, Matt :
The History of Surfing
Chronicle Books LLC.
680 Second Street, San Francisco, California 94107, 2010.
www.chroniclebooks.com
Hard cover, 496 pages, colour and black and white photographs and illustrations, Acknowledgements, Sources, Photograph Credits, Index.
Review
A magnificent publication which is an essential addition to any collection of surfing books.
Brilliantly written, Warshaw demonstrates a wonderful enthusiasm and an expansive appreciation of the subject.
In particular, and unlike many commentators, he manages to successfully balance the contributions from the three major surf riding centres - Hawaii, California and Australia.
Importantly, Warshaw casts significant scepticism on the so-called Peruvian Theory (pages 19 to 22):

"wave riding in ancient Peru remains a self-contained prelude to surf history, not the starting point."
Only an extreme pedant would note that while the associated board sports of skate and snow boarding are included, there is no equivalent mention of windsurfing.
Vested interest noted:
"Although Surfresearch.com is a messy, cut-rate, hard-to-use site (at least of this writing), it is by far the best single source of information for early Australian surf history." - page 479.

Nick Carroll's insightful review, realsurf forum, Sunday Sep 19, 2010.
http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/search.php?t=18006

"Matt Warshaw: THE HISTORY OF SURFING
Chronicle Books, USA (Hardie Grant Australia)
Only two people have attempted this terrifying task.
The first, in 1983, was Nat Young.
The second, after around six years of singular effort interrupted by his wife having their first child, is Warshaw.
Two more different books on the same subject it’s kinda hard to imagine.
Nat’s book was big-format, thick on photos, thinnish on text, and grandiose in intention. It was named “The Complete History Of Surfing” and was determined to make itself the last word on the subject.
In fact it proved to be merely the first: since its publication, a steady flow of research, articles, docos and books has long since washed away its claims to omniscience.
The one thing it still has is the author’s voice – most touchingly when recounting Nat’s own periods of pride and joy, the world title in 1966 and the turn to shorter boards immediately afterward.
Warshaw’s book is medium-format, thick on text, and thinner yet more fascinating on photos.
It doesn’t bother with the adjective “Complete”.
In terms of both fact and historical framework, it is to Nat’s book as Pipeline is to your backyard beachie.
“The History Of Surfing” is a natural follow-up on Matt’s earlier megawork, “The Encyclopedia of Surfing”, and is written in the same dryly affectionate tone.
Its determined thoroughness is instantly evident from the first chapter, when Warshaw immediately pitches into the Peruvian Theory of surfing’s origins.
This theory, unknown to Nat in ’83, suggests that the first surfing was done by fishermen on the Peruvian coast on reed fishing craft known as caballitos, anywhere from two to three thousand years ago.
It’s been analysed swiftly and completely here, with Warshaw concluding that the fishermen may well have ridden waves before the Polynesians, but that it remains “a self-contained prelude to surf history, not the starting point”.
Then he makes two points many writers wouldn’t have had the wit to attempt.
First: who really knows how long humans have been riding waves for fun, in Peru, Hawaii, or anywhere else the water might allow it?
“For any society living on a temperate coastline, riding waves would likely be a natural, if not intuitive act … dolphins and pelicans and other animals seem to do it purely out of enjoyment, after all.
When did the first human wade into the shorebreak and try to imitate a dolphin?”
And second: why have surfers en masse greeted the Peruvian idea with such flat-affect silence?
Warshaw suggests it’s defensiveness: “Surfers love the idea that their chosen activity was born in translucent blue water, next to palm-fringed beaches, and practiced by royalty on beautiful wooden surfboards …Good luck trying to sell the idea that reed-boat-straddling Peruvians trolling for anchovy were the first real wave-riders.”
In this short beginning, you get all Warshaw’s strengths.
He lays out some facts, puts them into a fresh context, then pops a little bubble of surfing pretension into the bargain – without sending the narrative off track for a word.
The entire 495 pages reads this way, as Warshaw outlines the sport’s development in Hawaii and its subsequent spread through much of the Western world, consistently reframing old stories and information with fresh insights, and throwing in wicked little details only a true obsessive could spot.
Like the Swedish Surfing Association’s beginnings in the 1980s: “A Norse fireman named Roar Berge had taken to the reefs and points near Stavanger.”
Go, Roar!
Or did you know, for example, that a deaf lifeguard called LeRoy Columbo rented boards made from inflatable rubber tubes and heavy canvas to tourists in Galveston, Texas, in the 1930s?
LeRoy, by the way, was later named in the Guinness Book of Records as “the World’s Greatest Lifeguard”.
Take that, Eddie Aikau.
Warshaw – or perhaps the publisher, being US-based – shows a slight but clear bias toward the American West Coast surfing experience.
The first 10 pages of the book, for example, feature a series of double page photographs of, you guessed it, American surfers: riding Pipe, riding Baja, on the beach at Westside Oahu, sitting on the wall at Santa Monica, riding wood boards at Palos Verdes, capped off by a contents page shot of Hobie Alter’s board shop in Dana Point in the late ‘50s.
Yep, they’ve done it all, folks.
To be fair, Warshaw makes conscious efforts against this bias, carefully relating the start of surfing in places like Japan, and where they fit in the global picture, and being equally careful to explain (and credit) Australia’s numerous leaps ahead of the surfing world at large.
And almost never does he fall for any of the great West Coast surfing myths…including one M. Dora, Malibu’s very own Rebel Without A Cause: “Dora loved to criticize anything having to do with organised surfing, but that didn’t prevent him from showing up on contest day when the mood struck,” he writes of the 1967 Malibu Invitational.
Yet somehow, almost every shift and move in the sport ends up framed in Californian surf culture.
Sometimes this is necessary, appropriate, and even pretty goddam funny, as when Warshaw takes us on a trip into the rebirth of longboarding, well and truly happening among baby-boomers on the US West Coast as early as 1981. “For the first time ever, the sport had a middle-aged – and generally upper-middle-class – market,” he writes.
“Lawyers, real estate agents, and middle managers hit it hard on the weekends before their kids’ soccer games … Veneration of old surfers soon hit a point where any B-lister from the fifties or sixties could now be addressed as a ‘legend.’”
He builds the description of the late 1940s and ‘50s along that seminal surfing coast in a way that really lets us see its importance to the approaching explosion of surfing worldwide.
Without guys like Bob Simmons, Dale Velzy, Joe Quigg, Matt Kivlin, and Phil Edwards, it’s bloody hard to imagine how Nat, McTavish, Greenough, Hakman and Dick Brewer could’ve gone where they did.
Other times it feels out of proportion with actual events.
Long slabs about that great Californian obsession, Mavericks, are not parallelled with any description at all of the pioneering, gold-rush exploitation and general impact on the global surf community of the Mentawais – a modern surf fable of uniquely telling dimensions, which could have brought depth to the slightly rushed feel of the last 70 pages or so.
Huntington’s imported noserider David Nuuhiwa is explained at considerable length; Eddie Aikau gets two half-columns, written in a tone that leads you to suspect Warshaw doesn’t quite get his place in the scheme of things.
In these and a few other areas, especially concerning the past 30 years or so, the book’s focus seems a little too intensely focused on spectacle at the expense of story; Teahupo’o is a heavy surf spot, sure, but page after page of Laird Hamilton’s “Millennium Wave” doesn’t tell you much about the surfers of Tahiti, who actually learned to surf the spot 15 years before without a jetski or an elite camera crew on hand.
But these are smallish holes to pick in such a massive effort.
The truth is that over the past couple of decades, as more and more of its past has come to light, surfing’s grown too big for any one writer’s efforts.
Excellent as it is, this History can’t possibly cover the kind of ground Nat once thought he had to himself.
500 pages is no longer enough.
Warshaw’s book is best bought, read and seen for what it is: a superb, unmatched framing of the sport’s historical arc, and a starting point for all the stories behind it."

2017
Warshaw, Matt :
A Brief History of Surfing
Chronicle Books LLC.
680 Second Street, San Francisco, California 94107, 2017.
www.chroniclebooks.com
Hard cover, 272 pages, colour and black and white photographs and illustrations, Acknowledgements, Sources, Photograph Credits, Index.
Review
A rigorously edited version of the above publication in a smaller format.

1978
Warwick, Wayne
A Guide to Surfriding in New Zealand
Second Edition
Viking Sevenseas Ltd
Wellington, New Zealand. 1978
Hardcover, 74 pages, 25 colour photographs, 64 black and white photographs, 22 black and white maps, Glossary
Review
Comprehensive overview of New Zealand surfing circa 1978.
Unfortunately there are no page or chapter numbers.
Historical data in 'N.Z.S.R.A.' (a history of the New Zealand Surfriders Association, 1963-1978) and 'the early days' (1915-1963)..
Design in 'design and manufacture'.
Although the photography is not to the standard of US or Australian work of the period, it is by New Zealanders, of New Zealanders, in New Zealand.
The photographs that illustrate particular manouvres are well selected.
The maps are extensive and clearly reproduced with accompanying notes detailing break, wind, tide and access.
Design and layout by Terry Fong.

2009
Weaver, Robert "Wingnut" with Bannerot, Scott:
Wingnut's Complete Surfing.
International Marine - McGraw Hill , New York, 2009.
Softcover, 242 pages, black and white photographs, Appendix (includes References), Index..
Review.
A detailed instructional book covering both long and short board techniques.

2009
Welland, Michael:
Sand - The Never-Ending Story.
University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angles, c2009,
Paper back edition 2010..
Soft cover, 343 pages, black and white illustrations and photographs (some portraits), colour plates, bibliography, Index.
Review
Everything, and more, that the general reader wants to know about sand.
Surfing beaches, only a small part of the story of sand, are discussed in Chapter 5 Waves, Tides and Storms.

This copy donated by Elizabeth Cater, July 2011.

1982
Wells, Lana:
Sunny Memories - Australians at the Seaside.
Greenhouse Publications Pty Ltd
385 - 387 Bridge Road, Richmond, Victoria 3126. 1982
Hardcover, 184 pages, black and white photographs, Chronology of Events.
Review
Expansive overview of Australian beach culture and history, starting with James Cook's description of 'indians' (aborigines) bathing in 1776.
Surfcraft in Chapter 12.
'Riding the Waves' is interesting; particularly the sections on Isabel Letham (sic) page 156, Grace Smith Wootton (1915 Victorian surfer) page 157 and C.J.('Snow') McAllister page 159; but does not progress much past 1970.
The Chronology is useful, but note the 1964 World Contest at Manly is listed as 1960.
Photographic Highlights:
"Andrew 'Boy' Charlton and Snow McAllister, both wearing V shorts over their bathing suits, with their boards at Manly, 1926" pages 88 - 89,
"St Kilda Life Saving Club Member with a surfboard ... Manly" circa 1929, page 151,
"Grace Wootton Smith" page 157.

1993
Werner, Doug :
Surfer's Start-Up : A Beginner's Guide to Surfing - Second Edition
Pathfinder Publishing
458 Dorothy Avenue, Ventura, California, CA 93003, 1993.
Soft cover, 111 pages, 46 black and white photographs, 12 black and white photograph sequences, 14 black and white illustrations, Glossary, Resources, Bibliography, Index.
Review
An intensive instructional book concentrating on basic maneuvers with an abbreviated history of surfing in Chapter 12.
Highlights : photographs of LeRoy Grannis (pages 90 and 97) and Doc Ball (page 98).

1996
Werner, Doug :
Longboarder's Start-Up : A Guide to Longboard Surfing
Start Up Sports/Tracks Publishing
140 Brightwood Avenue, Chula Vista, California, CA 91910. 1996
Soft cover, 160 pages, black and white photographs, black and white photograph sequences, black and white illustrations, Glossary, Resources, Bibliography, Index.
Review
Longboard edition of Werner's Surfer's Start-Up : A Beginner's Guide to Surfing, 1993. See second edition, 1999, below.
Intensive instructional book concentrating on basic and advanced manouvers.
Design features are discussed in an interview with Bill Stewart and Henry Ford of Stewart Surfboards, pages 119 to 136.

Classic longboarders may find Bob McTavish's Malibu Repetoire circa 1966 of interest, see Source Documents:
Bob McTavish is in this wave. He probably had a plan to get out of it.

This copy, courtesy of Shoalhaven City Library.

1999
Werner, Doug :
Surfer's Start-Up : A Beginner's Guide to Surfing - Second Edition
Start Up Sports/Tracks Publishing
140 Brightwood Avenue, Chula Vista, California, CA 91910. 1999
http://www.startupsports.com
First Edition 1993
Soft cover, 128 pages, 46 black and white photographs, 12 black and white photograph sequences, 14 black and white illustrations, Glossary, Resources, Bibliography, Index.
Review
Intensive instructional book concentrating on basic maneuvers.
Highlights : photographs of LeRoy Grannis (pages 95 and 100) and Doc Ball (page 96).

1915
Westervelt, W.D
Legends of Old Honolulu - Collected and translated from the Hawaiian
Geo. H. Ellis, Boston, and Constable & Co, London (1915)
Hard cover, 284 pages, Index.
Review
Bound in Tapa cloth, sepia photo illustrations and map of Oahu and Tapa cloth sample.
Legends include one on surfing.
The author collected these legends from old Hawaiians and from files of papers published from 1850-1870.
Reprinted: Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, VT & Tokyo, Japan (1963), 13th printing 1979.

2013
Westwick, Peter and Neushul, Peter:
The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing
Crown Publishers, New York, 2013.
Hard cover, 416 pages, Acknowledgements, Notes, Bibliography, Index.
Review
A highly readable history of surfing and the cultural, political, economic, and environmental consequences of its evolution to a billion-dollar worldwide industry.
The work is, regrettably less than definitive; the omission of Simon Anderson and his three fin Thruster of 1981 is inexplicable.

1977
White, Graham :
Surfing
Summit Books, Published by Paul Hamlyn Pty Ltd
176 South Creek Road, Dee Why West 2099. 1977
Hardcover, 96 pages, 5 colour plates, 7 b/w plates, 43 b/w photographs, 7 b/w illustrations.
Review
Attempt to fully cover Australian surf scene (surfboards, bodysurfing and Surf Life Saving) by a Surf Life Saving Champion and Olympic representative.
In the surfboard section (Part 1) the text is competent but the photography is poor.
Most interest is Part 1 Chapter 2' Choosing A Surfboard' (page 21) that includes construction directions and accompanying photographs (McGrigor Surfboards, Brookvale).

2000
White, Jill (ed):
Dupain's Beaches.
Chapter and verse, an imprint of
Wellington Lane Press Pty Ltd.,
120 Wycombe Road, Neutral bay Nsw 2089, and
John Witzig & Company Pty Ltd.,
Mullumbimby NSW 2482. 2000
Hard cover, 112 pages, black and white photographs.
Photographs by Max Dupain, Introduction by Sebastian Smee, Text by Matthew Cawood, Design by John Witzig.
Review
Splendid

1978
Whitman, John B.: An Account of the Sandwich Islands:
The Hawaiian Journal of John B. Whitman, 1813-1815.
Topgallant Publishing Company, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1979.
and
Peabody Museum of Salem, Salem, Massachusetts,1979.
Hard cover, xx pages.
Review
For extracts see:

1813 John B. Whitman : Hawaiian Journal.

1910
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, illustrations by John Prendergast:
The New Hawaiian Girl; a play.
London, Gay & Hancock, 1910
Hard cover, 16 pages, colour illustrations, 22 cm.
Review
A short play in verse set in Hawai'i.

Mrs. Ella W. Wilcox was noted as one of the earliest supporters of the Outrigger Club( Evening Bulletin, 14th March 1908)

Illustration 2, John Prendergast: [Surfboard Riders], 1910.
See Images to 1910.

1986
Wilkie, David and Juba, Kelvin:
The Handbook of Swimming.
Pelham Books
Published by Penguin Books, London, Ringwood, Australia, 1986.
Paperback edition1990.
Soft cover, 232 pages, black and white photographs, illustrations, Appendix, Index.
Review
Mostly an instructional manual, with a large amount of technical information, Chapter 1 has an excellent account of the history of swimming.

It is, however, somewhat Euro-centric, for example on page 15:
"The Great Hawaiian, Duke Kahanamoku, first of the swimming Hollywood stars, followed Daniels by winning the 1912 Olympics, but when asked where he learnt the crawl he stated that it was by watching his fellow islanders splashing around in the water." (my emphasis)

2000
Williamson, Luke:
Gone Surfing
- The Golden Years of Surfing in New Zealand, 1950 -1970
Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads,
Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand, 2000
Soft cover, pages, colour photographs, black and white photographs, various magazine, poster and advertising reproductions, Glossary, Thank You (Credits).
Review
Excellent early history of New Zealand boardriding with a healthy concentration on board design and manufacture.
Unfortunately makes no account of prone craft and some interesting New Zealand designs such as the Levine (a hollow timber board available in kit form, circa 1959) and the Tinkler tail (1976, outside the historical parameters) are absent.

2003
Willis, Clint (editor):
Big Wave- Stories of Riding the World's Widest Water
Adrenaline
Thunder Mouth Press
An imprint of Avalon Publishing Group Incorporated
161 William Street, 16th floor
New York, NY 10038
Soft cover, 316 pages, Acknowledgements, Permissions, Bibliography.
Review
A collection of surf stories or surfer profiles from a selection of professional American writers.
Half are selections from widely available books that are included in the surfresearch.com.au bibliography, for example Daniel Duane, Greg Noll, Jack London, John Grissim and Matt Warshaw.
The remainder are reprints of magazine articles such as Outside and The Surfer's Journal.

Originally published in Natural History magazine in 1969, Finney and Houston's Polynesian Surfing (pages 173-184) essentially summarises their 1966 book, Surfing- The Sport of Hawaiian Kings.
Of most interest is Matt Warshaw's Goodbye Sunshine Superman (pages 81-109), a profile of Jock Sutherland, a surfer of exceptional talent.
First published in 1994 in The Surfer's Journal, this reprint sorely misses the photographs that undoubtedly accompanied its initial publication.
This copy, courtesy of Shoalhaven City Library.

1979
Wilson, Jack
Australian Surfing and Life Saving
Rigby Limited, Melbourne, Sydney, Australia .,1979
Hard cover, pages, 29 colour photographs (plates), 75 black and white photographs, 7 black and white illustrations.
Surfing photographs by Bruce Channon/Surfing World
Review

Attempt to fully cover Australian surf scene (surfboards, bodysurfing and Surf Life Saving) from a Surf Life Saving perspective, similar to White:Surfing above, but with a superior selection of photographs.
Chapter 1- Development of the Sport, concentrates primarily on the Life Saving movement. Chapter 5 - Boardriding, is very basic : four pages of text, compared to seven pages for... Chapter 4 - Bodysurfing.
Chapters 6 and 7- Hazards and Dangerous Sea Creatures, are probably the most extensive Australian analysis of these subjects available.
Highlights :
1. The much reproduced ...
   A. Duke with solid wood board Wakiki circa1918 page 14.
   B.Duke at Freshwater Beach 1914. page 15.
   C. Snowy McAlister and board 1928 page 21.
   D. Lou Morath, Hawaii 1939, page 36.
2. Bodysurfing, Bondi 1912. page 24
3. Manly's Swordfish and North Steyene's Bluebottle, page 31.
4. N. Smith, Cooks hill circa 1923, riding hollow board, page 35.
5. Duke Kahanamoku and Australian Surf Team, Hawaii 1939, page 36.
6.Colour plates featuring Mark Richards, Rabbit Bartholomew, Terry Fitzgerald, others. Between pages 48 and 49.
7.Claude West and Surfoplane Manly Beach 1924 page 73.
8. Bondi, Autumn1930's, featuring bellyboard, hollow surfboard and surfskis, page 74.
9. Hollow board at Fairy Bower, page 77.

1970
Wilson, Doug:
Learn to Surf
European Surfing Co Ltd, Newquay, Cornwall, 1970.
Soft cover, 32 pages, illustrated with colour and b/w photographs, diagrams, glossary of surfing terms.
Review
Written by a pioneer of Britain's surf industry who states, in the Foreword:
This book has been prepared as an introduction to surfing.
It is not intended as a full and comprehensive account of all aspects of surfing.
The contents cover Body surfing; Belly boarding; Malibu board riding, surfers in action pp 13-19 with colour photographs.
Wake surfing; Skateboarding; Skim boarding; Beaches and the surf; Rips and undertows and Safety in the surf.

2009
Wilton, Jan and Salm, Dick :
The Austinmere Surf Life Saving Club- Centennial 1909-2009.
One Hundred Years of Vigilance and Service
Austinmer Surf Life Saving Club, 2009.
Soft cover, 162 pages, black and white and colour photographs and maps, Executive Holders 1909-2009.
Review
A general overview of significant members, competitors and events in the history of the Austinmere Surf Life Saving Club.

2008
Winniman, Jim :
Vintage Surfboards 1 - A photo history of surfboards and surfing collectables.
US Vintage Surf Auction, November 2008.
#134 of a limited edition of 485 copies.
Hard cover, 75 pages, black and white and colour photographs, Special Thanks.
Review
A beautifully printed book featuring selected items from the online US Vintage Surf Auction, 2008.
Some boards do not indicate basic dimensions and some of the decal images are so small to be almost illegible.
Unfortunately some of the historical notes have severe errors, for example:
"Until Captain James Cook first sailed into Hawaiian waters in 1776, the world had not known surf riding.
The first images of a surfer and surfing were drawn by explorer John Webber aboard Cook's first Ship, Resolution." (page 4).
Cook first observed surfriding in Tahiti in 1769, he did not arrive in the Hawaiian Islands until 1778, and Webber did not illustrate "surfing."

2013
Winniman, Jim :
The Ultimate Guide to Vintage Surfboards and Collectables.
USVSA (US Vintage Surf Auction), 2013.
#193 of a boxed-set limited edition of 399 copies.
Hard cover, 649 pages, black and white and colour photographs, Acknowledgements.
Review
Following an earlier publication in 2008, above, this lasciviously presented book contains a vast collection of surfboards and printed material.
As expected, there is a preponderance of material from California and Hawaii.
Unfortunately, the historical outlines are rudimentary, a number of images are repeated throughout the book, and some information is open to interpretation, or even occasionally incorrect.
Consider the photograph of the 1963 Hobie 9'6'', page 93.
As presented, at 9ft 6in the board would be (a highly unlikely) +25in wide- either the caption is incorrect or the image has been manipulated.
Also note a discontinuity in the pagination; from page 48 to pages 73-96, then back to pages 49-72, the correct pagination then proceeds from page 97.

1980
Winter, Peter :
70 Years On Greenmount
The
Review

2007
Witzig, John:
Surfing Photographs From the 1960s and '70s.
Queen Street Fine Art
34 Queen Street, Woolahra, NSW, 2025.
Hard cover, 88 pages.
Foreward by Robert Drew.
Introduction by Mark Cherry.
Review.
A beautiful collection of surfing themed photographs by an Australian master of the genre.
They provide an rich historical portrait of the radical changes in surfriding and surfboards during the period, if from a strictly personal perspective.
This is probably most evident in the chapter Honolua Bay, pages 26 to 33, where Matt Warshaw writes this "marked the ... arrival of the shortboard" (quoted from his Encyclopedia of Surfing, 2004).
This evaluation is historically contentious.

Also note that "Nat Young at Winkipop, 1969" (pages 3 and 4) was originally published in 1969 on the cover of Witizig's Surf International Volume 2, Number 4.
A bellyboardrider (riding on the outside of Nat) has apparently been brushed out of the later version.
Rod at My Paipo Boards and... More, notes:
"The paipo rider in front of Young is Jeff Callaghan, confirmed by both Rocky Hall and Jeff Callaghan."
http://mypaipoboards.org/mags/magazines.shtml#Surf_International

2011
Witzig, John:
These are (mostly) pictures you've never seen.
John Witzig, Maclean, N.S.W., 2011.
Soft cover, unpaged, black and white and colour photographs,
Review
A large format soft cover book with a number of the images, despite the title, appearing in the earlier Surfing Photographs From the 1960s and '70s, above.

2013
Witzig, John, edited by Richard Olsen:
A Golden Age: Surfing's Revolutionary 1960s and '70s
Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2013., c2012.Queen Street Fine Art
Hard cover, 208 pages, black and white and colour photographs, Acknowledgements.
Review.
A beautifully presented book with excellent essays by noted Australian and US journalists.
Unfortunately for enthusiastic bibliophiles, these images have been widely published since the 1970's in many magazines and books, and most appear in Witzig's earlier works published in 2007 and 2011, above.

1999
Woodcock, Sandra ::
Surfing and Snowboarding
Hodder and Stoughton Educational, Euston Road, London, NW1 1999
Soft cover, pages, 3 black and white surfing photographs.
Review
Low key juvenile book.
This copy courtesy of Shoalhaven City Library.

1971
Wright, Bank (Wright Jr, Alan B.)
Surfing Hawaii
Soft cover, 96 pages, 65 black and white photograghs, 31 black and white maps, 8 black and white illustrations, index.
Mountain and Sea
P.O. Box 64 Redondo Beach, California 90277. 1971
Photography by Steve Wilkins and Peter French, Maps by Bill Penaroza, Graphics by Kathy McKeen
Review
Brief descriptions of 171 surf breaks in the Hawaiian islands, some with intensive anaysis (e.g. Sunset Beach), and general notes on Winds, Swell Direction, Currents, Living Hazzards, Tides, Camping and Save Our Surf (S.O.S. - an enviromental organisation).
The photographs circa 1970 are excellent, however none of the surfers are credited, even if many are recognisable (e.g. Nat Young, pp 21 and 61, Joey Cabell p70) .
Several of the maps have been reproduced in subsequent magazines.

1881
Wright, Saul (Frank )
Surf- A Summer Prilgrimage
Hardcover, 96 pa
Review
No surfing content, however one character recalls surf-bathing and a his rescue of a female swimmer at ???

surfresearch.com.au

Geoff Cater (1999-2018) : References : Books : W
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/rbw.html