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Surfing Brilliant Corners
| Author: Sam Bleakley, photos by John Callahan |
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| ISBN: 9780906720806 |
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| Description: |
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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.’
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.
You can read an interview with Sam in Drift Surfing, and watch a video in The Independent, or find out more about him on his website. Discover five secret surf spots recommended by Sam for the Financial Times, 14.08.10.
John Callahan is one of the most widely published surfing photographers in the world. Raised in Hawaii and based in Singapore, he has a BA in Design from the College of Fine Arts, UCLA in Los Angeles. After working for iconic American magazines Surfing and Surfer, John went freelance and has produced groundbreaking photographic editorial projects on unexplored waters and perilous coasts. He is Company Director of tropicalpix.com.
Sam and John have a combined work ethic that eclipses any sense that surf travel is an easy living. When they go to work, they go to work!
1st edition
Paperback
192 pages
110 colour photographs
220 x 170mm
06.07.10
Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Woodslane.
1 Setting the Pace
2 Haitian Fight Song
3 The Birth of Cool
4 No Brains, No Headaches
5 Taking the Tube to Work
6 Manila Dawn
7 Staying Tuned in Kenya
8 Panamania
9 Buddha on Board
10 Confronting the Kimchi
11 Desert Blues
12 Surfing Away from a Sinking Ship
13 West African High Life... Let Freedom Ring
14 Kick-out Coda
‘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. You can read the full review here.)
‘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. You can read the full review here.)
‘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. You can read the full review here.)
‘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)
‘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)
‘Sam is a cut above when it comes to travel writing ... he has made a name for himself in all the best surfing publications world wide. ... the insights into some of the more remote quadrants of the surfing world are inspirational ... The photos are excellent, the words perfect’ (Wavelength, 194, August 2010)
‘a highly entertaining surf-travel book ... Written with the same elegance with which he rides a board.’ (The Cornishman, 29.07.10. You can read the full review here.)
‘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, 15 August 2010)
‘Book greeted by excellent sales and superb reviews’ (Global Surf News, 05.08.10).
‘Um amor incondicional pelo surf, pelo mundo e pela grande aventura humana.
‘As imagens deslumbrantes de John Callahan fornecem o apelo visual ideal para ilustrar as palavras de Bleakley, neste que é um dos grandes livros de surf atualmente disponíveis no mercado.’ (Surf Portugal, Agosto 2010)
‘There's rhythm and fun... Bleakley has, in the surfing genre and beyond, rare writing skills and sensitive powers of observation. He also has passion and a dexterous imagination.’ (The Surfer's Path, September 2010) |
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RRP: £15.00 |
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£13.50
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