Review
WL Rating
The title of this book is somewhat misleading. I originally thought it might be a collection of exciting surf stories. Turns out, it’s actually a reasonably comprehensive assortment of 100 desirable surf spots from around the world. Each surf spot is categorized by water temp, e.g. Tropical, Temperate, and Cold. From there, each break then gets described across nine different attributes: Map, Difficulty, Hazards, Season, Water Temp, Wetsuit, Access, Other Local Breaks, and While You’re There. Finally, each location also gets a juicy picture as well as a paragraph or two on it’s history. Be warned that while the book does a good job summarizing many spots, it is not a substitute for the proper, in-depth spot research required before landing in some malaria-infested tropical paradise. Case in point is the book’s coverage of the North Shore as a vast, single location. If you want a detailed spot and travel guide, this isn’t the book for you. In fact, longstanding surfers with a penchant for travel will know most, if not all, of the breaks. Even so, the information you get in the book is useful enough to serve as a decent reference guide for some armchair surfing. Those folks new to surfing, on the other hand, will likely find the book to be a siren call for exciting, and inevitably expensive, trips to far flung locales. (December 2010)
Ultimate Surfing Adventures - Alf Alderson
