These are five books were lent to me, when I started surfing by a friend and very experienced surfer. Along with practice and words of wisdom from friends in the sea, these are all you need to get into surfing.
Taj Burrow’s Book of Hot Surfing
by Taj Burrow
Published: 2003
Publisher: Rolling Youth Press
Pages: 180
I’ve put this book right at the top of the list because it’s the one i’d choose if I could just have one. It’s written by pro surfer Taj Burrow and contains expert advice, anecdotes and lots of diagrams and pictures to help you out.
Longboarder’s Start-Up: Guide to Longboard Surfing
by Doug Werner
Published: 1996
Publisher: Tracks Publishing
Pages: 160
A brilliantly informative book about long boarding, you should start off on a nice big board so this will really help a lot. This book contains all you need to know, from basic techniques, rules and etiquette, board maintenance all the way to advanced tricks.
Surfing Handbook: Mastering the Waves for Beginning & Amateur Surfers
by Ben Marcus
Published: 2010
Publisher: Voyageur Press Inc
Pages: 224
This modern surfing guide is page to page awesome. The guide is fine tuned for the start up surfer and is a very good book to buy as a first surf book. My favourite part is the surfer glossary at the back, so even if you can’t get the hang of surfing at least you can use all the write words and have a go at bluffing it!
Science: An Introduction to Waves for Surfing
by Tony Butt, Paul Russell and Rick Grigg
Published: 2002
Publisher: Alison Hodge
Pages: 142
Surf science is one of trickiest things to get your head around and it can be quite confusing at first. This book goes into great depth about surf science, even for an ‘introduction to’ book. I think this is all you will ever really need and will serve even an experienced surfer well. It’s packed full of diagrams and maps to help you learn the basics and more.
Adventure Sports – Surfing
by John Conway
Published: 1988
Publisher: Salamander Books
Pages: 127
This retro book was first published in the 80’s. Its got loads of nice photos and images to help you out. I really like the slightly dated feel the book has especially in some of the photos. The guide however is completely current as not really much has changed in the basic technique of surfing. The guide is extremely comprehensive and well written.