Surfing The Manual: Advanced
Reference Young Adult Nonfiction Sports & Recreation Surfing Water Sports Outdoor Activities Training & Coaching
Advanced surfers looking to push beyond weekend-warrior status keep Jim Kempton’s 2008 classic “Surfing the Manual: Advanced” within arm’s reach of their wax kit. At 335 heavily-illustrated pages, this Wave Finder reference dives deeper than quick tips: it dissects hydrodynamics, board design physics, and progressive maneuver mechanics the way a coach would break down game film. Kempton—former editor of SURFER Magazine and lifelong board-tester—brings lab-note precision to topics such as fin cant angles, rail-to-foil transitions, and period-to-wave-height ratios, then shows how each variable plays out in everything from two-foot beach breaks to 15-foot reef barrels. Readers finish with a working knowledge of why slight foot shifts or fin tweaks translate into faster, tighter surfing.
What sets the book apart is its systematic training program. Each chapter ends with land-based drills, on-water session plans, and self-evaluation checklists so athletes can log quantifiable improvement instead of relying on “feel.” Sections on cross-training, breath-hold protocols, and surf-specific yoga routines reflect modern sports-science thinking, while anecdotes from Kempton’s sessions with Tom Curren, Lisa Andersen, and other icons keep the voice inspirational. The result is a manual that functions simultaneously as textbook, coach’s playbook, and coffee-table tribute to high-performance surfing.
Collectors prize the 2008 first printing for its durable lay-flat binding and oversized, salt-water resistant pages—rare in surfing literature. This particular copy is in very good condition from a smoke-free home, with every photo plate crisp and no annotations to distract from the step-by-step visuals. Whether you’re prepping for a winter on the North Shore or coaching groms toward competition, owning a clean edition of “Surfing the Manual: Advanced” ensures the most authoritative progression guide rides along in your board bag for seasons to come.
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