In the winter of 1975, South African and Australian upstarts Shaun Tomson, Rabbit Bartholomew, and Mark Richards arrived in Hawaii with little else than their surfboards and their love of surfing. With courage, skill, and raw ambition, they not only set a new standard for wave riding, but also succeeded in transforming surfing from a casual lifestyle into a professional sport.

Surfing is not just a sport; it is a pop-culture phenomenon. Surfing has created legends, while seizing the spotlight in every aspect of beach culture, in movies, in fashion, and in music. Surfing has evolved from its mystical beginnings in Polynesia, where it was valued as noble, positive, and deeply imbued with spiritual meaning but condemned by critics (mostly religious conservatives) who considered it “pagan, immoral, and corrupting.” And we've come a long way from pre–World War II days, when Hawaii' was as remote as Timbuktu; when itchy wool swimsuits and heavy hardwood surfboards were the norm. We've matured since the 1950s and 1960s, with their trendy popularity—the culture and fashion, the movies and music, from “Gidget” to the Beach Boys and those bushy, bushy blond hairdos—to today, when the glitz of sophisticated marketing campaigns and media-savvy surfers are “de rigueur.” Yet, through the years, surfing has maintained its reputation as a refuge for non-conformists; the often-below-the-radar individualistic lifestyle defies a dry chronicle neatly tied up with a bow. A comprehensive history of the sport by Ben Marcus, a man who lived it and who knows and loves it like nothing else, Surfing USA! is anything but dry; it truly captures the glamour and excitement of this extreme sport. If you are still in awe of that first surfboard, still stoked by hanging ten, or still dreaming of that elusive wave, then this book is for you. Ben Marcus, the former editor of “Surfer” magazine and current freelancer for such publications as “Surfer's Journal,” brings you up close and personal to the exciting world of surfing.

Surfing, unlike many sports, requires no teams, rules, regulations, scores, or stadiums full of spectators. Surfing instead encapsulates personal triumph, in which the individual measures the growth and limits of his or her own capabilities while riding the face of a wave. Initially published in 1963, this first ever guidebook to California surfing remains a classic that embodies the essence of SoCal surfing during the Golden Years. In addition to understanding the anatomy of the coastline, get the skinny on private vs. public beaches, weather and wind conditions, water temperature, swell classifications, sea life, and the history of surfing. Accented with over 100 aerial photos, action shots, and maps, Stern and Cleary's witty guide provides precise descriptions of the entire southern coast and essentially everything you need to know before hitting the waves. Although the surfing scene has changed, Surfing Guide to Southern California remains highly relevant for surfers of today and provides a dose of nostalgia for surfers of yesterday.