Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport by Ben Finney and James D. Houston, which calls itself 'the first book to chart surfing's Pacific origins in the context of Polynesian culture,' has its juiceless roots in Finney's mid-Sixties master's thesis at the University of Hawaii. Written without apparent enthusiasm or verve, the book plods along, its undistinguished text style flattening what should be a colorful, vital, and fascinating history. For the 30th anniversary addition, the authors decided not to bring the book up to date, a strategy which might have worked had the original been stronger. But Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport, at a slim 117 pages, could badly use some lively additional material. In its present form, it is no classic.

Though the book contains a variety of prints of traditional Hawaiian surfing practices and customs, there are surprisingly few historical photos, and less than a handful from the post-Forties period. Though most of the photos included are excellent, a vivid photo documentary Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport is not.

The book may be useful to students or novice researchers, but most of the information contained here can be found elsewhere, and in brighter, more stimulating form. The book does include interesting maps of the most heavily-used surfing areas in ancient times, a pronunciation guide, an appendix of Hawaiian surfing terms, and observations of men and women surfing by Mark Twain and Jack London as they witnessed it in 1872 and 1911.

This is a great book with lots of awesome pictures, this book is great, I really recommend it!