Slaps will rain!
Taschen is a wonderful publisher founded in Cologne, Germany. Their books are more works of art than mere pages sandwiched between covers. Who could deny The Pedro Almodovar Archives? Or Frank Sinatra has a cold? Expensive yes but not compared to the quality. Not compared to the approving looks you will receive from dinner party guests.
A new offering is simply titled Surfing. Let’s read about it!
This platinum tome is the most comprehensive visual history of surfing to date, marking a major cultural event as much as a publication. Following three and a half years of meticulous research, it brings together more than 900 images to chart the evolution of surfing as a sport, a lifestyle, and a philosophy.
The book is arranged into five chronological chapters, tracing surfing culture from the first recorded European contact in 1778 by Captain James Cook to the global and multi-platform phenomenon of today. Utilizing institutions, collections, and photographic archives from around the world, and with accompanying essays by the world’s top surf journalists, it celebrates the sport on and off the water, as a community of 20 million practitioners and countless more devotees, and as a leading influence on fashion, film, art, and music.
An unrivaled tribute to the breadth, complexity, and richness of surfing, this book is a must-have for any serious player on the surfing scene and anybody who aspires to the surfing lifestyle. As one surfing scribe has declared, “There has never been a book like this, and there will never be another one again.”
Edited by Jim Heimann, a cultural anthropologist and executive editor for Taschen America, it seems wonderful and would surely be a pleasure to own.
Except. Let’s examine this sentence a bit closer. “Utilizing institutions, collections, and photographic archives from around the world, and with accompanying essays by the world’s top surf journalists…”
And one more time, closer still. “…with accompanying essays by the world’s top surf journalists…”
WHAT!
Who the hell are these world’s top surf journalists? Certainly not me, apparently, if you can believe. I was not invited to participate in this unrivaled book. I was left on the sidelines standing shoulder to shoulder with Chris Binns and Tim Baker. Wait. Binnsy, were you invited? Tim, were you?
SHIT!
Am I the the world’s only top surf journalist who did not get the call?
Am I not a top surf journalist?
HELL!
Matt Warshaw, you are certainly included. Can you call your best friend Jim Heimann and tell him I’m coming to his house to dish out some good old fashioned Hawaiian justice.
SLAPS!
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“Serious player in the surfing scene” Ugh.
Can someone please get the australian comic artist Pat Grant to start illustrating these blood feuds?
I heard Derek Rielly has Ben Brown on retainer…http://benbrown.com.au/
Don’t feel too bad Chas. Gorgeous as that book indeed is (what printing! how deluxe!) it’s just a re-hashing of a very old trope: that California invented surf culture, with Hawaii as its attractive backdrop. It’s lush, beautiful and completely divorced from reality.
love to hear a counter-argument other than “nuh, uh.”
Ummm yeah there’s a book in it actually. A real book.
Drew Kampion, the Madanna to my Kesha in terms of surf writers, has just this morning sent a polite but stern email to Heimann. By now the note had no doubt been read to Benedikt Taschen himself by a tunic-clad secratary. Will keep BG posted as events unfold.
I am on pins and needles. While the jealousy rages, tell me…were your essays used in half of this book or all?
I saw an early draft of the book months ago and rumor was they were floating Rory’s name to write the intro…
I’ll pick up a used copy off Amazon for $35 in 2018.
The bastard, you deserve to be in the company of Jack London and Mark Twain (I assume they made it)! Did Morgan make it, now that would sting!
Is Morgan a real person?
Ask Willogly’s Paddling Style – I think he runs the fan club!
Once Beachgrit wins the coveted Pulitzer/Nobel combo, they’ll have no choice but to print a second edition. The only problem with that is you may be standing shoulder to shoulder with Derek and Rory. The office watercooler would be a minefield.
Oh a new one is brewing between Inertia and Slate: http://www.theinertia.com/s…
Haha! “Naturally, she defines the spirit of surfing with a quote from Barbarian Days–a book that East Coast pseudo-intellectuals have gobbled up quicker than the latest food allergy…”
Isn’t this sort of thing The Inertia’s main ambition?
That was a lot of words. I think I’m too dumb for the Inertia maybe.
Convoluted prose is clearly the best means of self-expression.
Jen See! I think theinertia thinks it’s too smart for surfing.
As long as the ‘grit doesn’t get any silly ideas like that it’s chill.
You want a wamburger with those cries? I’m on the Mike Marshall perpetual trophy for the icons of foam and I SCRAPE BOATS FOR A LIVING. I can’t make enough shaping to live in a fucking van! How bout a blood fued,”Rory Russell trained shaper and icons of foam contestant vs. Whole FUCKING industry!”?
Coming up next! So cathartic, trust me!
While it may hurt now, perhaps its just the push you need to write a follow up to Welcome to Paradise which will receive universal acclaim and cement your legacy as the premier ‘surf journalist’. Or you could erase this story and write a new one lamenting the class division within surf media pitting the free Beachgrit vs. those ivory tower intellectuals like Jim who want you to shell out $200 for a book.
Since your embroiled in a blood feud I suggest sending me a copy of the book to provide Beachgrit readers an unbiased review.
done! Send details!
Now that’s service! I sent it to Derek.
Seriously, please write another book blowing up the surf industry. last one was great I hope you’ve got something in the works