Overview

Surfing Brilliant Corners details a decade of extreme global surf travel by professional longboarder Sam Bleakley, illustrated with stunning photographs by John Callahan. It takes surfing beyond the waves and packaged surf tourism to a wider sense of place and cultural identity. Sam travels from his birthplace in West Cornwall to Indonesia and the Philippines; through vibrant West African highlife in Ghana, to war-damaged Liberia; to Mauritania, where landmines litter access to some of the best waves on the planet; to a serene Buddhist oasis in Communist China; to Ecuador, Oman and Haiti, whose complex culture seeps into his psyche and captures his heart. He looks deep into the jet-black eye of a surfacing shark in Kenya, and faces a stacked set of foaming lips during typhoon surf in South Korea. Celebrating Thelonious Monk's 1950s album Brilliant Corners, Sam explores how, like great jazz musicians, talented surfers use invention, complex rhythm, timing and spontaneity to turn impossible waves into beautiful and challenging music. 'Surfing,' he says, 'has opened me up, split my skin, widened my horizons, and closed me down, because any obsession restricts your involvement in other aspects of life.'

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9780906720806

Table of Contents

Reviews

'A book worth reading if you're looking for a one-man jazz-infused tip-toe along the road of life. ... Sam simply shares his past, his present and his frequencies with us, which is worth sharing. He's well travelled, a Cambridge alumni, and speaks with soft tones.' (Drift, 22.06.10.) 'a jazz-inspired song of surfing... 'Bleakley argues persuasively that surfing, and therefore life generally, consists of imparting some new syncopated swerve to an old standard and improvising amid the maelstrom, between chaos and control .' (Andy Martin, The Independent, 09.07.10.) 'un piacevolissimo mix di surf-report, avventura (quella in cui qualcosa va necessariamente storto) e raffinata letteratura di viaggio, resa palpabile dalle immagini di Callahan.' (SurfNews, June 2010) 'a beautifully written book ... accompanied by some stunning photos ... packs in some incredible trips which are well off the beaten track ... A great read and a wonderful contribution to the increasingly rich library of literature by British surfers' (Tim Kevan, The Barrister Blog, 29.06.10. 'Bleakley is part of a growing group of creative writers determined to push the boundaries ... and write with a jazz timing that captures the essence of travel and sports ... and enable a wider readership to take surfing and surf travel more seriously. ... 'Surfing Brilliant Corners is unlike anything else in the surf writing genre - and all the better for it.' (Cornwall Today, August 2010) 'a highly entertaining surf-travel book ... Written with the same elegance with which he rides a board' (The Cornishman, 29.07.10) 'It's a vibrant collection of writing you'll want to spend time with, one you can really sink your teeth into and get your brain working. And John Callahan's photos are fantastic as always - culture and surf. 'The road less travelled is never easy, but can be extremely rewarding. With Surfing Brilliant Corners, it's a pleasure to have a solid gold dose of surfing literature from some of the world's waveriding frontiers.' (Pacific Longboarder, August 2010)

Author Information

Sam Bleakley is a writer and professional surfer. He has been a multiple European, British and English Longboard Surfing Champion, and a regular competitor on the Oxbow World Longboard Tour. He has an MA in Geography from Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. He is widely published and featured in international magazines, including Resurgence and The Surfer's Path, and has contributed to numerous surf and travel books, as well as editing The Surfing Tribe: A History of Surfing in Britain.

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