WL Rating
This is the second book offered by the folks over at Surfline (the first being a book about J-Bay, which I haven’t read yet). Candidly, I put off buying this book for a while since it wasn’t cheap, and I wasn’t sure it would be a quality product. While I do like the reporting service over at Surfline, I was a bit skeptical about their ability to produce a good book. Well, I’m happy to say that The Pipeline is an excellent book. The Pipeline’s chapters are divided into decades, starting with the 60’s and moving through the millennium. The photography is stunning, and the editorial is informative, dramatic, and highly entertaining. Like another favorite book of mine, Teahupoo, the most entertaining parts of the book are the honest and unvarnished comments from the world’s surfing elite. Basically, even though they learn to love it, Pipeline can scare the crap out of them too. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a used copy of this book, but I recommend buying it new since it’s definitely gift and coffee table worthy. For me, this is a WL Essential. (September 2010)
