One of the better books for intermediate surfers
344138
One of the few books I've seen for intermediates that goes into foot placement and mechanics without all of the "shredding" hype. My only complaint is the photos are really poorly reproduced and blurry.
4391582
The level of writing in this book is one of the wonderful, almost poetic in its ability to capture situations and describe people. I think most people will not only enjoy learning about the emerging discoveries regarding big waves (until the past 20 years or so, 100 feet or higher was considered to be a fable), but enjoy meeting the people brave enough to ride huge waves on a surfboard.  The book really almost seems like two books tied together by the wave theme, one about huge waves and their affect on ships and other structures at sea, the second about the big-wave surfing culture.
168360
I found the presentation and format of this book provided a good, quick, and easy read.  Simple diagrams and explanations address those questions you feel too dumb to ask but probably should ask.

It is a book I find myself coming back to re-reading items after I have tried them out on the water.

This is the book to buy for sit-on-top newbies.
3760473
Great book, lots of useful info and good explanations of basic things, like knots and functioning of the lure. Highly recommended if you are a beginner and you'd like to develop your skills as a surfcaster.
2956161
This is a good book for folks who paddle. He tells you all about his learning curve, which we have all gone through. I do hope he graduates from that HEAVY clunky Klepper to something more light weight. Innova kayaks are my preference.
1730117
Good book for intermediate/advanced intermediate players. Well worth reading, though his later entry in the series (Deception in Defense) is somewhat superior.
3655665
If you're the more adventurous type, this guide book is excellent. Most of our activities on the Big Island came from this reference. The surfing info is not very detailed, but there are other resources for that. Great book!
1596961
If you're looking for a book to start out with, this one is great. My only beef is that I came away from it as a beginner with the notion that you should float everything, which is a great way to screw things up in older versions of Internet Explorer. This book also makes absolute positioning kind of seem like the devil, which it can be, but when used properly is actually more reliable than floating cross-browser. Anyway, great book, definitely get it, but keep those things in mind.
2567644
Here's an inspired how-to volume that really struck my fancy. How to be a Surfer is a clearly organized, graphically attractive, nicely illustrated, well-written, superbly resourced, and pretty damn comprehensive instructional that will help every aspiring surfer, from the cold-turkey novice looking to get started to the competent wave-rider looking to improve his or her game. The supporting cast of photographers attests to the quality of the imagery presented herein: Devon Howard, Will Henry, Patrick Trefz, Carlos Pinto, and Ricardo Bravo. Lots of stills and useful sequences, in all sorts of waves. Mario Belem's illustrations are inspired and fun, with a clarity of purpose reminiscent of Herv's Tin-Tin comics. As for the author, De Macedo is a world traveler, North Shore veteran, former Euro pro circuit rider, and a founder of the Praia Grande Surf Academia in Lisbon. He's president of the Sintra Surf Association and a writer for SurfPortugal magazine. He lives part of the time in San Francisco, and his English is impeccable. He operates within the parameters of the International Surfing Association (ISA) in this book, and his use of "the 7" coaching method herein is revelatory.  Have fun!
- Drew Kampion for The Surfer's Path [...]
4732596
I recommend this book to the beginner intermediate kite aviator. Some of the techniques is this book may seem a bit redimentury to more advance praticioners, but the information presented is clear and very exhaustive. I especially like the "dragon dipper", but there are many other great techniques in this book.
2812173
I am involved with a very active Girl Scout sailing program. For quite some time, the program has used this book as the textbook for the basic sailing class taught on Sunfish. Many, many girls use this text each year in our program.

In our program girls may enter the sailing program as early as 11 years old. The text may challenge some 11 year olds a bit, but girls only a year or two older seem to have no trouble with it at all.

I used the book myself when I took the same class offered for adults. I found the book worked for me too as an adult who had no prior sailing experience at all. The book is entirely suitable for programs aimed at either kids or adults.

In our program, the emphasis is on Sunfish sailing. Although the illustrations are for slightly larger boats, the illustrations are plentiful, well done and add to the usefulness of the book as a teaching text.

I am diving back into the book now, as I will soon be part of a team teaching a new group of Girl Scouts to sail. Great book, highly recommended.

The companion videos are also very useful, and we use them sprinkled throughout our classes.
1811623
First Off, Last On - That is the philosophy for people who will appreciate and value this book. It is not a review of cruise ships and is not going to help you find the best deck chair around the pool. This is for travelers who have chosen to cruise the Mediterranean so they can see many sights in Europe in a small amount of time. The book is very well designed for that purpose.

For the ports that are covered, it provides reliable information about how to get transportation from the port to the best destinations. Since you'll have a limited amount of time he helps you identify where you should focus your attention. We used the book throughout a week-long cruise and his advice was spot-on and very helpful. No other book will give you such a detailed, step-by-step, guide.

I have only given it four stars because it does not include the island of Majorca as one of the destinations. Our cruise ship stopped there and things did not go as smoothly without his advice. We used other books and our own online research to have an enjoyable time on Majorca, but it wasn't quite as easy as the ports that were covered in the book. There were three large cruise ships in Palma while we were there, so this seems like a key destination that should be included.

If you want to make the most of your cruise in the Mediterranean, you can't make a better choice than buying this book.
2317402
I'm about 80% through my first reading of this book.  So far, I find it a very good summary of some widely known concepts.  Also, so far, I've not come across any truly new concepts (at least not new to me).  I believe that much of this book has been (briefly) covered elsewhere in the poker canon, however, unless you're expert in Texas Holdem, you probably have not fully understood the concepts and their consequences.

IMHO, this book is written for the poker player that has a couple years in the game, and understands much of the lingo.  Such a player, will likely have some grasp of the concepts that discussed in this book, but probably hasn't put it together into a systematic plan for play.  This book will help with putting it together into a systematic plan.  Definitely, this is not a book for a beginning poker player, or a casual poker player; you will not get much out of this book unless poker is "on your mind".

Personally, I really like this book, and books like it.  The concepts involved are not overly technical, or mathematical, however only the truly dedicated players will be able to master these ideas.  The concepts herein are 100% correct, and yet they are subtle.  Those who give this book only a casual reading, will likely suffer a somewhat deteriorated poker game.  Probably, the price of the book ($50) will essentially cause a self-selecting effect of the readership to the upper echelon of poker students, and so I doubt these concepts will become any more popular then they are already.
2605513
Great for any intermediate and above player.  Excellent concepts and exercises.  For me, it works best if I only focus on this book and nothing else.  Which brings me to one con.  The layout of the concepts/subjects could have been arranged a little more carefully.  It has a tendency to jump around a bit.  Not to the point of confusion or frustration though.  Once you get use to the chapter layout, it's fine.
4246904
Listening to EWTN I have heard conversations with Bear Woznick a couple of times and found what he had to say interesting. At the time I knew nothing about him, but found that he is a two-time Masters World Champion Surfer. He mixes his experience in this and other sports with wisdom from the Greek philosophers and the treasury of the Church.

I found his new book Deep Adventure: The Way of Heroic Virtue to be fairly worthwhile and a good read. As you would expect there are a lot of sport metaphors in regard to living the spiritual life as a Catholic. St. Paul started this trend so this is something new. Sport metaphors work quite well when done right. I once remember a book that used Hockey to good ends in this regard.

Surfing is a sport I know next to nothing about, but that didn't keep me from enjoying what he had to say. He takes you into this world in such a way that you can really see the attraction of it. He writes about his own spiritual struggles and coming to grips with truly living his faith in contrast to the lessons he learned from trying to master sports. This all works rather well and doesnt feel contrived at all or attempting to illustrate to much out of his surfing examples.

In addition in between chapters is a story of a rescue he performed and this makes a nice narrative thread throughout. At times I was waiting between chapters to find out what happened next.

So if extended sports metaphors don't put you off, this is some solid spiritual reading.
1762784
It's a good book for the intermediate heading to advanced levels.  This book will not be a good read for beginners.  The author is knowledgeable in both sound per se and electrical engineering.
3521149
As my techer has a reputation for being hard, I decided to buy this book so that I could learn ahead of time on my own while I was out at sea.

Am I ever happy that this was the book I bought! Concepts that had always been vague or confusing to me yet that form the base of stability (the Archamedes principle, for example) are clearly explained in a fashion that can be easily understood by nearly anybody. For those who have also taken a basic mecanical physics class and have an idea of what a moment is, it gets even easier (if you don't, don't worry: the author briefly goes over what it is and then skips to the practicals).

The only downside is that for a study guide, there are quite a few mistakes. By my count, there are about 7 (of which I have informed Witherby Seamanship). Perhaps someone with better experience in stability will find more. However, they are rather obvious. In case someone does buy the book and is wondering, here are the ones I found:

p. 76: on the bottom right of the page, the formula should be GGv= (w x d) / (W - w), and not (W+w)
P. 109: The angle of Loll is mentioned as being dangerous, yet is not explained. A quick google search will explain it, but when on a ship with no internet, it's rather hard to find.
P. 121: In the problem explanation, the weight is written as being 250t, yet in the problem resolution, the author inserts 225t in his equations.
P. 213: 12.4) GGv=(400x4.6) / (12640 - 400), not (12640 + 400)
p. 215: 12.6) the answer should be 8.1 to port, no STBD
p. 294: 15.7) the final answer for the aft trim should be 5.164, not 5.250 (simply do that calculations with the numbers written in the resolution, they don't add up to the sum written)
p. 301: 15.12: the answer should be 4.4 CM by STERN, not head

It is possible that I mayself have made a mistake (as I said, I learned everything about stability from this book), but I believe my corrections to be exact. Besides, a few accidental errors like this are nothing when compared to the excellent education I recieved from this book. I'd recommened it to anybody having a bit of trouble with stability or those who simply want to get ahead.