Capturing the perfect wave

“The book has the effect of a time capsule, bringing back an era that continues to resonate for us in shades of Technicolor and black and white.” – Los Angeles Times Book Review, Los Angeles

At a time when surfing is more popular than ever, it`s fitting to look back at the years that brought the sport into the mainstream. Developed by Hawaiian islanders over five centuries ago, surfing began to peak on the mainland in the 1950s, taking America—and the world—by storm. Surfing became not just a sport, but a way of life, and the culture that surrounded it was admired and exported across the globe. One of the key image-makers from that period is LeRoy Grannis, a surfer since 1931, who began photographing the scene in California and Hawaii in the longboard Gidget era of the early 1960s.

This collection, drawn from Grannis`s personal archives, showcases an impressive selection of surf photographs—from the bliss of catching the perfect wave at San Onofre to dramatic wipeouts at Oahu`s famed North Shore. An innovator in the field, Grannis suction-cupped a waterproof box to his board, enabling him to change film in the water and stay closer to the action than other photographers of the time. Equally notable is his work covering an emerging surf lifestyle, from “surfer stomps” and hoards of fans at surf contests to board-laden woody station wagons along the Pacific Coast Highway. It is in these iconic images that a sport still in its adolescence embodied the free-spirited nature of an era—a time before shortboards and celebrity endorsements, when surfing was at its bronzed best.

This unlimited popular edition is for readers on a budget or who were unable to get their hands on the original limited Collector’s Edition (it sold out in record time and copies were being resold for up to double of the retail price!)

About the editor:
Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America, and author of numerous books on architecture, pop culture, and the history of the West Coast, Los Angeles and Hollywood. His unrivaled private collection of ephemera has featured in museum exhibitions around the world and dozens of books.

About the photographer:
LeRoy Grannis’s initial foray into surfing began at age 14 with a six-foot slab of pine, but it wasn’t until the age of 42 that he picked up a camera and made a career out of it. Under doctor’s orders to take up a hobby, Grannis built a darkroom in his garage and began shooting surfers at Hermosa Beach, selling prints for a buck apiece. His photos soon started appearing in many of the burgeoning surf magazines, and “Photo: Grannis” quickly became a hallmark of the California surf scene of the 1960s. Grannis is considered one of the most important documentarians of the sport, and was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame in 1966.

About the author:
Over the past decade working as Surfer magazine`s globe-roaming editor at large, photojournalist Steve Barilotti has made it his business to document the sport, art, and lore of surfing. A lifelong surfer and fourth-generation Californian, Barilotti’s passion for West Coast beach culture runs deep. His writing has also appeared in The Perfect Day and the books of renowned surf photographers Art Brewer and Ted Grambeau. Between trips, Steve lives in San Diego, California.

“In LeRoy Grannis: Surf Photography of the 1960s and 1970s, the myth of sun-soaked California is spun out in elegiac Technicolor: A hot-dogging Miki Dora, one of the sport`s great pioneers, catches a tube; a stack of amber-hued boards at Greg Noll`s surf shop in Hermosa glows like honey; the dewy-fresh surf model Marsha Bainer poses next to a longboard twice her height; and the towering green wall of Hawaii`s Pipeline tumbles with apocalyptic fury. Grannis`s motto was ‘Shoot it now or you`ll never get it back.` In this dappled monograph, the period that Grannis documented—California at maximum stokage, surfing evolving from fad to ethos—appears much like a wave itself, as evanescent as it was indelible.”
Men’s Vogue, New York, United States