Fifty Places To Surf Before You Die

Covering famed surf spots all over the world, this unique full-color gift book and travel guide invites you to discover such unexpected gems as the Amazon and the Gulf of Alaska. From the frigid waters off Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula to Nazaré, Portugal, where in 2013 Garrett McNamara broke a world record for surfing the tallest wave (78 feet!), highlights also include: North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii Gold Coast, Australia Malibu, California Faroe Islands, Denmark Cocoa Beach, Florida Hossegor, France Grajagan, Indonesia Montauk, New York Thurso, Scotland Jeffreys Bay, South Africa And dozens more! Fifty Places to Surf takes readers on a wide-roving adventure, divulging the details that make each venue unique—and plenty of tips for those who aspire to surf there. Author Chris Santella writes in his introduction, “Surfing means different things to different people. For some it might mean longboarding mellow chest-high waves in board shorts, followed by a great sushi dinner; for others it may mean donning a six-millimeter wetsuit to brave near-freezing waters and triple overheads. Fifty Places to Surf Before You Die attempts to capture the spectrum of surfing experiences—from beginner-friendly to downright death-defying.” Featuring interviews with seasoned surfing experts such as pro surfer Joel Parkinson and Billabong executive Shannan North, Fifty Places to Surf Before You Die is an essential travel companion for surfers of all levels who are looking to catch that perfect wave.

Climb every mountain—and ski and snowboard the world’s most amazing slopes, from Aspen to Zermatt. Includes color photos. Based on interviews with leading experts, Fifty Places to Ski and Snowboard Before You Die chronicles the rich history of these sports and the people who’ve mastered them, including Tommy Moe, Jonny Moseley, Billy Kidd, and Greg Harms, and takes you to the fabulous mountains you’ve visited—or have always wanted to visit. Explore the world’s most inspiring skiing and snowboarding destinations: Chugach Mountains (Alaska) * Aspen, Crested Butte, and Steamboat Springs (Colorado) * Tuckerman Ravine (New Hampshire) * Rusutsu (Japan) * Chamonix (France) * Portillo (Chile) * Whistler Blackcomb (British Columbia) * Mammoth Mountain and Squaw Valley (California) * Kashmir (India) * Taos (New Mexico) Jay Peak, Mad River Glen, Stowe (Vermont) * Jackson Hole (Wyoming) * and more! Chris Santella brings to life the gorgeous scenery, the glamorous ambience, and the always-thrilling experience of visiting mountains from the Alps to the Rockies, whether it’s après-ski in Cortina or helicopter rides into virgin Alaskan powder. If you’re jetting off on your next getaway or just armchair-traveling this season, this guide will inspire beginners and black-diamond experts alike.

Championship racers and professional adventurers disclose their favorite destinations in an inspiring volume of stories, travel tips, and photos. Featuring some of the best-known men and women in the sport—Tom Whidden and Gary Jobson (members of the winning 1987 America’s Cup crew), Jeff Johnstone (of J-Boats), award-winning sailing writer Lin Pardey, and many others—this is a unique full-color celebration for sailors to relive their greatest memories or plan their next big adventure. The amazingly diverse places they’ve selected include: Australia: Fremantle and Sydney Bermuda: St. George’s Harbor Brazil: Bay of Ilha Grande California: Channel Islands and San Francisco Bay Chile: Cape Horn Italy: Costa Smeralda, Sardinia Maine: Boothbay Harbor, Penobscot Bay, Southwest Harbor Florida: Biscayne Bay and Key West Scotland: Firth of Clyde South Africa: Cape Town…and dozens more For each place, the sailor recommending the venue spins an entertaining yarn about their experience there, and each description is accompanied by a “make you want to go there now” photograph. From the relative indolence of cruising the Dodecanese or the British Virgin Islands, to the white-knuckle adventure of rounding Cape Horn, to the thrill of partaking in the regatta off Newport, Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die captures the rich and varied world of recreational sailing—and may just inspire you to set sail on some new adventures of your own.

Amateur or expert, every angler dreams of landing the big one, but that's only part of the appeal of fly fishing. Because even when hours pass without a bite, nothing beats the rugged beauty of the surroundings. For both armchair travelers and avid outdoorsmen who may have already started a checklist of their own, Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die maps out the meccas of the fly-fishing world. Through in-depth interviews with the sport's acknowledged gurus, author Chris Santella goes beyond standard guides to convey the very essence of the recommended locations. Readers can vicariously cast mouse pattners to fifty-pound taimen in the wilds of Mongolia, wrangle with wily permit off the Florida Keys, and match the hatch on Montana's Armstrong's Spring Creek. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba (tarpon), the Zhupanova River, Kamchatka (rainbow trout), and the Rio Negro, Brazil (peacock bass) are also included. The essays include a cultural and natural history of each site, along with colorful anecdotes based on the author's and authorities' experiences. With breath-takingly-beautiful photos of the spots, many by celebrated fly-fishing photographer R. Valentine Atkinson, the book also provides adventurous anglers with enough travel-and-tackle information so that they, too, can start planning excursions to go fish around the globe.

A guide to some of the greatest locations around the world as recommended by expert rock climbers, with travel tips and stunning photos included. Covering three types of climbing—trad, sport, and bouldering—and showcasing breathtaking venues from Joshua Tree to Jeju, South Korea, this guide features insights from industry insiders, including employees from rock-climbing gear companies like Petzl and Black Diamond Equipment, professional climbers like Jon Cardwell and Kevin Jorgeson (co-star of Dawn Wall), filmmaker Michael Call, and Climbing magazine editor Matt Samet. And for those who want to travel to these locales, Chris Santella provides “If You Go” suggestions to help plan your trip. This essential travel companion for climbers of all levels of expertise features such locations as: Horse Pens 40, Alabama * Cochise Stronghold, Arizona * Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado * Innsbruck, Austria * Castle Hill, New Zealand * Elephant’s Perch, Idaho * The Bugaboos, British Columbia * Arco, Italy * Red River Gorge, Kentucky * Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin * Acadia National Park, Maine * The Shawangunks, New York * Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma * Chamonix, France * Railay Beach, Thailand * and more

**Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography** Included in President Obama’s 2016 Summer Reading List “Without a doubt, the finest surf book I’ve ever read . . . ” —The New York Times Magazine Barbarian Days is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses—off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships forged in challenging waves. Finnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly—he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui—is served up with rueful humor. As Finnegan’s travels take him ever farther afield, he discovers the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissects the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, and navigates the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little-understood art.

The editors of TransWorld SURF share inside information and jaw-dropping photography in this comprehensive guide to the one-hundred best surf spots on Earth. The editors of TransWorld SURF magazine have been all over—from Australia and California to emerging destinations in West Africa, Japan, Norway and beyond—searching for the best beaches and waves with some of the world’s top surfers. This book collects amazing photos of the one-hundred top spots around the world, along with the pro tips and travel details you need to go there yourself. SURF: 100 Greatest Waves takes you from classic locales, such as Mexico, Fiji, and Thailand, to inside secret spots like Iceland, India, and Wales. Whether you’re a globetrotting barrelhunter chasing the perfect wave, or a weekend wave-rider dreaming of the perfect vacation, let SURF: 100 Greatest Waves take you there.