Surfers read the patterns of the sea like others read a book. For them, the organization of swells and currents and the curling folds of the waves are elements of a natural language, as coherent in structure and meaning as any taught in school. Each of the eighteen stories in this collection is a raw glimpse of surf life-from sliding into cold, stiff neoprene to experiencing the ecstasy of the Pure Art of Surfing. Most previously published in magazines over the past thirty-five years, the stories in this collection capture the movement, mythology, fantasy, and philosophy of surf life and culture on the sweet and ragged wild edge of beauty.