Books + Magazines

On the cover: Counterbalance—not posing—is the taproot of surf style. You sure as hell feel it here, all subtly elemental, as Levi Prairie coaxes a higher line from a tracking rail. The inner workings of TSJ 28.4 stretch from Hank Warner’s lifelong ride with surfing’s most revered icons to a local-level look inside the DIY Cuban surf-skate community. Modern interpretations of George Greenough’s edge board designs, the 1970s photography of Dan Merkel, and Jack Coleman’s lo-fi cinematic creations round the issue into shape.

On the cover: Multi-disciplined surfboard artisan Joe Roper. Features inside the book include a Mexican wave zone lost to time and interest, a glacial-fed A-frame, and a surf playground amid an atomic testing range. The animation and comic paneling of cartoonists Stephen Hillenburg and Roy Gonzalez, plus the creative outputs of Josh Martin, Denis Stock, and Nate Lawrence add additional facets and textures.

On the cover: Human corona—Mikey Wright at Off The Wall. Features inside the book shed light on a rivermouth sandbank in equatorial Africa, the swamps and inlets of Florida, and a foundational headland on the East Coast of Australia. The pitfalls of modern surf forecasting, the mind-space of a slab-hunting fireman, and the irreverent outputs of artist Paul McNeil mark other points of conference.

On the Cover: Greg Long in the far Eastern Atlantic, perhaps contemplating the benefits of length over height. The noted XXL-hunter journeyed toward African waters for the sole purpose of burning rubber down this quarter-mile, sand-bottomed drag strip. Check out the guts of the issue to read more from this trip. Various other points and personas also included within.

On the cover: Matahi Drollet navigates the hydro prism at Teahupoo. Pinpoints inside the mag drift from the frozen river mouths of Iceland to a sultry pier in India. White sharks in Gansbaai, the oldest continuously inhabited structure in California, and the lifecycle of surfing as a competitive endeavor are each held to the light for further revelations. 

On the cover: Arthur “Toots” Anchinges summons the spirits of Rabbit, Ah Choy, and Bird's Nest at Queen's Surf, Waikiki. Features inside the book commune with punk rockers and mutated golems, ex-pats in the Atacama Desert and beastly surf in the Eastern Atlantic. Underwater imagery from Everton Luis and the modernist subjects of John Respondek bookend the experience.

On the cover: Having broken his favored shooter, Santa Cruz surfer Wilem Banks runs the diagnostics on an even lower-tide Scottish session on a borrowed board. Inside the book, further odysseys follow a team of daredevils to the glacial outfalls of Alaska, a crew of Indonesian boat-in pioneers through the revelation of Desert Point, and director Bruce Brown’s still-camera inside the most impactful surf movie ever assembled. Technical analysis of the asymmetrical surfboard, and a deep batch of imagery from the frontlines of the professional surf arena, add motion and ballast.

On the cover: Pulse advent. “Ocean swells travel separate paths for thousands of miles,” says photographer Trent Mitchell. “I’m interested in the displays of chaos and synergy at this point of union.” Features inside the flap rove from an urban surf-scape in the Middle East to an examination of artificial waves—and their existential impacts. A Hawaiian bodysurf Mecca, an archipelago in the South Pacific, two visual/spatial artists, and a horde of full-bleed surf imagery offer waypoints of interest.