Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1 Catching the First Waves

From Polynesia with Love • The Dawn of Time to 1940

Chapter 2 From Here to Honolulu

Discovering the Secrets of the Sea • The World War II Years

Chapter 3 The Golden Years

From the Fall of Hitler to the Rise of Gidget • 1946 to 1959

Chapter 4 The Surfer Stomp

A Rock’n’Roll Soundtrack to the Waves • 1959 to 1967

Chapter 5 Blue Screen

Hollywood Exploits Surfing—and Vice Versa • The 1920s to Today

Chapter 6 Going Vertical

The Parallel Ascent of Kelly Slater and the Surf Industrial Complex • The 1980s and 1990s

Chapter 7 The Sport of Queens

Gidget Kicks Ass • From Ancient Hawai’i to Blue Crush and Beyond

Chapter 8 Monster

Surfing’s Twenty-First-Century Man • The 1990s to Today

Epilogue Something Wild

The Wave of Surf Culture • Through the Centuries

Acknowledgments and Sources

Index

About the Author