Surfing E-Book

Chris Nelson

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Crowood Sports Guides are the perfect tool for anyone wanting to improve their performance, from beginners learning the basic skills to more experienced participants working on advanced techniques. These practical, no-nonsense guides will help give you that all important advantage. Fully illustrated with over 150 colour photographs, Surfing - Crowood Sports Guides covers: the history of surfing; choosing and maintaining a board; reading the ocean; skills development; advanced techniques; environmental care and surf contests and careers. This instructional and practical guide is aimed at surfers, surf enthusiasts and surf instructors and is superbly illustrated with 150 full colour photographs.

Leseprobe

First published in 2017 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2017

© The Crowood Press 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 229 8

CONTENTS

Preface

Part 1: Introduction to Surfing

1. Surfing Through The Years

2. Surfing Styles

3. Construction of a Surfboard

4. Choosing a Surfboard

5. Other Equipment

6. Looking After your Surfboard

7. Weather, Swell and Waves

8. The Rules of Surfing

Part II:Technical Skills

9. Reading the Ocean

10. Catching the Whitewater

11. On to the Green

12. Basic Manoeuvres

13. Progressive Manoeuvres

Part III:Surfing Culture

14. Surf Fit

15. Surf Travel

16. The Environment

17. Surf Contests

18. Surf Careers

19. Surf Culture

20. Alternative Wavecraft

21. Surf Clubs

Further Information

Index

PREFACE

Sharing the stoke of surfing. (Photo: Sarah Bunt)

Surfing will change your life. Surfing is the inspiration that gets you up in the morning – even when it’s raining. Surfing is that thing that converts you into a meteorologist or at least compels you to keep pressing the refresh button on your laptop, hoping the forecast may have changed in the last two minutes and there might be surf this weekend. Surfing is that thing that turns you into an oceanographer – a studier of the tides, of swell and of changing conditions – you will have tide tables secured everywhere – in your home, in your car, in your desk. Surfing is the thing that gives your holidays, your weekends, your waking hours a definite direction – it will make you a master negotiator when convincing friends, family and loved ones that, yes, another fortnight in Northern Scotland rather than southern Greece is just the ticket.

Surfing is that thing that connects you across the continents and across the oceans with like-minded people right across the globe. It is the thing that will make you stay up until four in the morning to watch just one more heat of the Pipeline Pro. It is the thing that will make you realize that your body is an incredible piece of design; that your arms can paddle harder and you can hold your breath for longer than you ever thought imaginable. Surfing is the thing that will challenge you to explore your limits and to go beyond your comfort zone – whether that is firmly in the 1ft or 10ft range. Surfing is that thing you do that makes you who you are and makes you a surfer …

Only a surfer knows the feeling. (Photo: Kate Czuczman)

CHAPTER 1

GETTING STARTED

SURFING THROUGH THE YEARS

The art of stand-up wave riding has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. While scholars still debate the root of surfing, one thing that can be agreed upon is the lure of the ocean. There is something primordial in our attraction to it. Our coastal dwellings revolve around interactions with the sea so perhaps it was only natural that over time we would be drawn to enjoy the rise and fall of the tides and the power of breaking waves.

In South America, Peruvian fishermen returning from fishing trips out beyond the whitewater rode Caballitos de Totora – reed craft with a prominent curved bough – in through the surf. This may have been out of necessity or it may have been for the thrill of the ride, but the act can be seen depicted on pottery dating back 3,500 years.

The ancient Polynesians are widely accepted to be the pioneers of wave riding as we know it – that is catching waves on a board for the pure joy of the experience. The Polynesian art of surfing was recreational, ceremonial, cultural and communal, with evidence of the activity dating back to the fifteenth century, by which time surfing was already a wellestablished tradition.

Sport of Kings

A regal looking surfer wave riding in a style akin to the ancient Hawaiians. (Photo: Sarah Bunt)