The year 2002 will forever be remembered as the year the surfing sport-lifestyle broke through. Surf imagery and surfers were just about everywhere - huge Hollywood productions (Die Another Day, Blue Crush), major advertisement campaigns (Target, Toyota Corolla, Apple Computer, Acura, and Dewars), and much, much more. Surfing has become white hot and, with at least a few more major movies in the works (projects involving Tom Hanks and Sean Penn), there are no signs of it cooling off anytime soon. Beautifully illustrated with color-drenched photography of exotic surfing paradises around the world, legendary surf writer and former Surfer magazine editor-in-chief Drew Kampion's new book is a short history of surfing worldwide and a fascinating journey into the lives of thirteen of the most important surfers ever. Catering to the explosive new interest in all things surfing related, it is the first book to articulate why men and women of all ages are drawn to the sport and why, once there, so many make a lifestyle of it. From Surfer magazine founder John Severson, Australia's national hero Nat Young, and Hawaiian surf guru Gerry Lopez, to the most popular and accomplished surfers of today, Lisa Andersen and Kelly Slater, Kampion spends time with surfing's biggest stars, uncovering, for instance, what forty-year-old Lopez's state of mind was like during and after successfully riding a sixty-five-foot wave off of Maui.