Surfing has deserved this book for a long time, and it took the sport's prime archivist, Matt Warshaw, to deliver the goods. Warshaw does a masterful job of melding big-wave surfing's glory days on Oahu's North Shore with the present-day scene that has Half Moon Bay, California, as its ground-zero. The photo mix, primarily color, is inspired with fresh,unexpected camera angles augmenting the standard thirty-foot wave face 'frontal' approach. The grainy black and white shots, in particular,lend a misty, moody quality that reflects Maverick's cold and outright spooky atmosphere. Seasoned surfers will be reminded of why they first picked-up a board, and general readers will get a front-row look at one of sports' greatest spectacles courtesy of one its finest writers.

This book captures the unique world of big wave surfing better than any I've ever read. It's really cool the way it goes back and forth between the relatively recent discovery of Maverick's and the general history of big wave surfing over the last 50 or so years. The research that must have gone into portraying the various characters that make up the strange world of big wave riding is really impressive. It's got some really great photos too, although not just the typical big wave wipe-out shots. It's good looking enough to sit on your coffee table, but unlike most coffee table books, its full of great writing.

Once a year in northern California a swell of waves appear, large enough to crush a town, that can only be described as terrifying. This once hidden surf spot is known to the surf world today as Maverick's. The story begins by telling about surfing's roots in Hawaii and the long, flat pieces of redwood they used to surf on. In 1969 Greg Noll, a highly respected surfer, caught a thirty-foot wave at Todos Santos, an island off of California. Todos santos was thought to be a America's last word in surfing until Maverick's was discovered. The book focuses on the five most dangerous days in Maverick's history. On the first day, the celebrated surfer Mark Foo was killed on a wave that crashed too soon. The wave sent him into a bottomless pit of white-water, where he drownd. A memorial service was held to honor his life. After the surf world discovered Maverick's the first competition was held there entitled The Men Who Ride Mountains. Darryl Virostki won the event after a huge cutback and an arial off a fifteen-foot wave. Maverick's today remains won of the biggest names in big-wave surfing. I recommend this book to all surfers.

What's our hesitancy to give in to idealism? Duane's scribblings are exactly what a culture defined by people defining it needs. Soft and gentle California Dreaming with a backdrop of adventure and open, honest living...who doesn't need a dose of Duane's California? I adore Duane and all of his meanderings and observations on his surroundings. Any man that can write about love and the Grateful Dead, El Cap and surf towns, and not sell his soul to the new vision of extreme California is something of a gift. Duane is a deep breath of high Sierra air after a life of choking on the smog...read what you can while you can because the California that Duane writes about won't be here forever.

This is by far the best book I have ever read. I keep coming back to it, and reading it again. If you love the mountains, yosemite, climbing, california, or just an entertaining read, this book will supply you with plenty of adventure. It will have you dreaming of warm days in the El Cap valley for months!!!

The book is a very precice book. there are many chapters covering many of the major subjects of art. My skill have improved a great deal from reviewing this book. The book is a very long piece but its worth the time if you need too, or want to improve your artistic skill in every which way.

It's very clear and the best is that the examples are based on large recognized artist's draws not on author's draws.

I have two older versions of this book which was a required college text for a course a friend of mine taught. This is a thorough and up-to-date volume on the elements of drawing: line, shape, texture, value, gesture, shape, form, etc. What I like best about it is that it is illustrated with a wide array excellent contemporary and historical master drawings that make great examples when teaching a particular concept. I only wish it came with a companion volume of large prints or slides for teaching.
I have many books on drawing but this has the best visuals. Much better than many other drawing books are illustrated with only the author's drawings or perhaps a few Renaissance sketches and focus on only one small expect of good art: rendering representationally. This book brings gets to the heart of what makes good drawing is designed for professionals teaching at the college level but would probably make a good home study course for those without access to college courses.

I also liked the sequential exercises given and have used or adapted some for my own students. Covers a wide array of media from charcoal to pencil to pen and ink and colored pencil.

I was excited to see a new history book on El Capitan, but the final product was short of my expectations. Duane draws a few good observations and insight at times, but the guts of the book strike me as a rehash of articles from all kinds of other publications. I have an unusually large collection of climbing literature, which may skew my observations because I've seen so much of the raw historical material he draws from for the book in so many other places. I don't mind that so much, but I was hoping to hear some of the not-so-well known stories of adventures on El Cap and a little more new insight into the historical figures of the big stone. It just wasn't there for me. People who are not so read up on climbing history will probably find the book more enjoyable. The book is an incredibly quick read (not that much text, but lots of pictures) for a subject that could easily justify a much larger book.

El Capitan is the Holy Grail of Big Wall Climbing and Duane does a very good job providing background history of the Walls and the Legends who made their mark on them. Yes, I've read the other reviews concerned with minor inaccuracies and lack of mention of significant climbers. But, hey, I'm a novice and have never been to Yosemite although I hope to go in the next year. Duane is best in interviewing the legends and telling their background stories and trying to translate the reasons they climb. It's a fascinating story. My favorite being the men stuck on the wall when a storm comes and their bivouc tents are virtually destroyed. Also, it's nice to read about the free spirits whose goal in life have nothing to do with money and all to do with the Wall. Overall, I found this book informative, very concise, and filled with great pictures. It may not however, satisfy the experienced climbers who follow climbing history or have significant experience in Yosemite. But for people fascinated with climbing and the personalities involved, it was a great quick, informative read.

This is truly a splendid book, capturing personalities of Valley climbers better than anything I've read. Beautifully written, thoughtful, insightful. Great pics also. But Duane is sometimes a sloppy researcher. Misspelled names galore (Scott Burk throughout, e.g.) Wrong dates. Wrong first-ascent names. Screwed-up captions. Bad geography (Palms Springs lies under the Tehachipi Mountains?). These are minor flaws but irritating to see in such a brilliant writer.

"Surfers" is a gritty and compelling photographic study of the sport and lifestyle of surfing. In 100 duotone and 11 four-color photos, Patrick Cariou captures surfers of many ages, races, nationalities. Indeed, he traveled the globe for these pictures. Whether in Long Island or Easter Island, Peru or Polynesia, the photographer searched for the world's greatest surfers and surf-legends. Cariou is especially talented at shooting natural-light portraits of these men and women. There's a relaxed naturalness about his subjects, which is a testament to the trust he gained from them. Also, Cariou, in his best shots (e.g., "Buttons Kaluhiokalani, North Shore," "Local, Biarritz," and "Laird Hamilton, Maui"), captures the surfers' eyes so effectively that they speak volumes about these wave-riders. Also, Cariou's images are refreshingly unromatic. There is an earthy, every-day quality to these pictures. I only wish the photos had been done in full color. Not only would the reproductions have been clearer, but the pictures' impact would have been far greater than they are. Still, surfers of all ranks will enjoy this book.

When I first leafed through the pages of this collection, I was struck by the numerous photographs of beautifully aging men. Upon further inspection it became clear that other subjects are well represented. But I would have to say that for me, the true impact of this book is in its portraiture of strong, active, sun-baked men of advancing years. Men whose bearing and visage evince a serene vitality as well as a timeless understanding of fate.

This is of course a book about surfing and there are a number of wonderful photographs that well capture the spirit, peril and exhilaration of the sport. And a bit of text at the beginning of the book does address itself to surfing history and culture. But it is the portraits of the rugged and weathered people who live their lives by the sea that makes this such a compelling collection.

Surfers is a wonderfully understated portfolio of mostly black and white photographs of individuals who are persuing their dreams in an unconventional yet highly inspired fashion. Cariou, a gifted master of his craft, captures the freedom and joy inherent to their journey brilliantly. His work deserves a much wider audience than just those with an abiding interest in surfing.

To sit in freezing water with even colder air temperatures for hours waiting for a good wave is an exercise in discipline, although a lot of people would say that discipline is precisely what the quintessential surfer lacks. Author Dan Duane exhibits discipline and several other honorable traits in "Caught Inside," his thoughtful memoir of a year spent following a dream and accomplishing a goal. While some may scoff at what can be called the "surfer mentality," Duane goes deep beneath the surface and dredges up a lot of emotion and introspective philosophical sentiments about why he surfs (and why he does anything worth doing). Duane is well-read, intelligent and expressive, and the book is interesting, beautifully written and thought provoking. I would imagine that Duane's musings would be valuable, meaningful and applicable even to those who have never even seen the ocean, much less ridden a wave.

PS to reviewer Christopher Seal - women surf too!

daniel duane is a great write, he mixes in history of california and surfing with his own experience on the claifornia course. the book starts out good, with many stories of surfing and insights to his childhood. the book became kind of tedious reading when he spents chapters talking about animals and marine life rather than surfing. also in some cases he started a story and ended just when you wanted to know more. i say read the book but it's definitely a five star performance

Daniel Duane succeeds at many moments in this book at expressing what every surfer who wasn't born on a board and isn't quite yet a pot-bellied longboarder thinks and feels on a daily basis. There are times when Duane manages to sum up a whole month's worth of solutions to surfing problems in a single sentence. He nailed the difficulty of explaining surfing to non-surfers, the hard to accept but obvious reason why the most crowded breaks are so crowded (perfect waves), the heartbreaking inconsistency of the ocean, and the way a surfer finds it difficult to think of anything else. The only problem is Duane chose an impossible task. He seemed at times to be filling pages with the thoughts a mind generates sitting on a board during a long lull or sitting around your house waiting for swell. While an important part of the life, those tend to be boring times, and not always worth reading about. The history lessons and wildlife observations are interesting and occaisionally poetic, but cannot mask the truth. All surfers try to keep conversations about surfing alive with the peripheral elements to interest non-surfers. It doesn't work though, because each surfer, no matter what their attitude, knows in his/her heart there is a single meaning to why they surf; the feeling of riding a great wave. Everything else is just a means to get there as comfortably and nobly as possible. I'm sorry Daniel, try as we might, they'll never understand. Caught Inside is a valiant effort full of inspiration. Unfortunatelty it can't quite bridge the gap between surfing's reality and that of the rest of the world. The Philadelphia Enquirer says the book, "Looms on the horizon like a hurricane in a summer without waves." What else needs to be said ? They just don't get it. Maybe they're not meant to.