Product Description

Surfing: A Beginner’s Manual is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning to surf.  Alf Alderson takes you through all the vital steps to becoming a surfer: you will learn where to surf, when to surf and how to surf safely.  You will learn the foundations such as choosing the correct equipment, which is essential to make any progress as a beginner; pre–surf preparation, including getting fit with tips and advice; and your first surfer steps on the beach and in the ocean.  All these stages lead up to you catching your very first wave and catching the surfing bug.

 The sea is renowned for its beauty, but infamous for its dangers. Alf provides you with transferable skills to safely enjoy your new hobby.  Safety features heavily in the book, and you will learn all the basic common–sense aspects of surfing that even the most experienced surfer forgets.

 The revised and updated edition will now feature sequential colour photographs of professional surfers.  Green conscious surfers will love the updated Green Seas section, which will feature updated organizations and discusses potential impact of global warming/rising sea levels on surfing in the future.  A larger Appendix will also be added with more web–based information that is vital for any beginner.

Table of contents:

  1. Equipment.

2. First Steps.

3. Into the Surf.

4. Surf Manoeuvres.

5. Safe Surfing.

6. Waves and Weather.

7. Surfboard Design.

8. Care and Repair.

9. Green Seas.

10. Surfing Associations.

11. Surfspeak.

The easy–to–follow instructions and photo–sequences will have you riding your first wave – in a weekend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65607 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Review
"This is just the book for anyone wanting to get into surfing...a fine combination of authoritative explication and practical know-how." --TimesOnline, Tuesday 19th August 2008

Review
“This is just the book for anyone wanting to get into surfing...a fine combination of authoritative explication and practical know–how.”  TimesOnline Tuesday 19 August 2008

“…takes you through all the essential first steps”.Carve Surfing Magazine

From the Back Cover
Catch your first wave this weekend.

Alf Alderson, a seasoned surfer and award–winning journalist, takes you through all the essential steps; learn where and when to surf and how to surf safely.  Discover the foundations such as choosing the correct equipment, essential to make any progress as a beginner; pre–surf preparation, including getting fit with tips and advice; and your first surfer steps on the beach and in the ocean.  All of this leads you up to catching your first wave and hopefully catching the surfing bug.

This stunning new edition features the talents of rising surfing star Flynn Novak and one of the world′s top surf photographers, Sean Davey, Their combined efforts result in some breathtaking shots and mind blowing surfing sequences in Hawaii.

Surfing includes the following:

• Equipment
• First Steps
• Care & Repair
• Safe Surfing
• Surfing Manoeuvres

Whatever your aspirations and whatever your standard, surfing is one of the few sports that will bring you back to nature’s greatest playground time and time again.

Customer Reviews

A practical and clear introduction to the sport.
Wayne Alderson's book covers all the important issues necessary to give anyone who wants to start surfing a fun, safe and informed introduction to this sport. The book takes the beginner through the fundamentals in good detail with clear photographs and illustrations. Since the author is British it is geared to surfers in the UK. However it has a very sensible approach to learning the fundamentals of surfing that anyone can benefit from. It also covers all the ancillary issues such as equipment selection, safety and surfing weather in practical detail. Above all it is easy and fun to read. With more advanced techniques also included it provides support even to intermediate or advanced surfers wanting another angle on surfing at their level. I have surfed in the UK, in Japan, Indonesia and Australia and I find myself using this book as a reference time and again to help refresh and move my surfing to the next level. Read, surf and enjoy.

Brilliant basic beginners book
I got this book a week before my first ever surfing lesson, and it made me feel so much more confident going in the water, answering some of my questions and giving tips just on things like carrying your board, and paddling out, which all seem quite simple, but to a beginner can be a bit overwhelming all put together. It was great to come back to as well, to review what I'd done, and provides some good information on the different types of boards. It also contains some basic information about rips, currents, what forms waves, and what causes them to break, which I also found fascinating. It is very basic, but as a beginner that's all you need, and I'd definitely recommend it to ayone starting out.

No book can compare to lessons
This is a very good book but by reading anything like this without taking lessons it could be dextremental for your surfing.

First note this book is for beginners only and is very good at what it does, this is the book to buy, it takes you through safety, equipment, types of surf, very basic surf forcasting, and then to the important bits, standing up and learning to ride a wave properly like the pro's. I would strongly recommend to buy this book above others.

It does roughly go over more complex moves but you won't be doing these for a long time yet. Gives you something to aim for.

Lastly I have to reiterate, to do anything like this its no good just reading a book, you NEED real lessons, someone to show you how to overcome boundries, tell you if your learning a technique wrong... which can take a longtime and much more effort to relearn if you do learn it wrong, and also to answer your questions, but most importantly boost your confidence in the water.