Sam Bleakley

My first book, Surfing Brilliant Corners (Alison Hodge Publishers 2010), details a decade of extreme global surf travel, illustrated by the exquisite photographs of John Callahan. My most recent book, Surfing Tropical Beats (Alison Hodge Publishers 2012) charts our surfEXPLORE team on a rollercoaster ride through Haiti, Gabon, India, Vietnam, Algeria and China. Surfing Tropical Beats is also printed in Mandarin Chinese with the Hainan Publishing House, Haikou (2011).

In Surfing Brilliant Corners I journey from my birthplace in Cornwall to the living vodou of Haiti, through vibrant African highlife, to the Middle East and Asia. Amongst other adventures, I look deep into the jet black eye of a surfacing shark in Kenya and face a stacked set of foaming lips during storm surf in South Korea with bemused lifeguards waving us in from the beach to point out that surfing is banned.

In Surfing Tropical Beats where ‘waves transform from green glass to white foam, the surfboard is the frozen double of that transition – a rainbow bridge that allows you to step in the blink of an eye from inertia to adrenaline-fuelled ecstasy to the fear of the water-wrestling hold-down.’ The paradoxical red hot and cool blue of surfing, and the often icy logic of preparation for challenging travel, form a matrix from which springs a distinctive kind of writing as performance.

I have contributed to numerous books on surfing and travel, and edited the only detailed history book on a European surf nation - The Surfing Tribe: A History of Surfing in Britain.

AUTHOR

Surfing Tropical Beats
By Sam Bleakley
photos by John Callahan
2012 Alison Hodge, Penzance
ISBN 978-0-9067208-5-1

AUTHOR

Surfing Brilliant Corners
By Sam Bleakley
photos by John Callahan
2010 Alison Hodge
ISBN 978-0-9067208-0-6

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Surfing Yearbook: Presented by Surfersvillage
Edited by Phil Jarratt, 2009 Gibbs Smith
ISBN 978-1-4236-0558-4
UK and Ireland Report by Sam Bleakley

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Soul i-D
Edited by Tricia Jones
2007 Taschen
ISBN 978-3-8365-0666-3
Safe and Sound contribution by Sam Bleakley

FEATURED

Surf Nation: In Search of the Fast Lefts and Hollow
Rights of Britain and Ireland
By Alex Wade
2007 Simon & Schuster
ISBN 978-0-7432-8598-8
Featured in The Legions of the Unjazzed chapter

FEATURED

The World Stormrider Guide: Vol 3
By Antony Colas
2009
Low Pressure Publishing
ISBN 978-0953984060
Featured in the Central Atolls, Maldives section

FEATURED

Switch-Foot II
By Andrew Crockett
2009 Hodaddy Australia
ISBN 978-0-646-51817-6
Featured in the Russ Pierre/Cornwall Section

AUTHOR

Surfing Tropical Beats - Mandarin-language China edition
By Sam Bleakley
photos by John Callahan
2011 Hainan Publishing House, Haikou
ISBN 978-7-5443402-9-8

EDITOR

The Surfing Tribe: A History of Surfing in Britain
By Roger Mansfield
Edited by Sam Bleakley and Chris Power
2009 Orca Publications
ISBN 978-0-9523646-5-8

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Global Surfari: The Surfer's Travel Atlas
2007 Aurum
ISBN 978-1-84513-298-9
Western Europe and Africa chapters by Sam Bleakley

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

September
Edited by Michael Fordham
2007September Project
ISBN 978-0-9557392-0-0
Fish & Bird poem by Sam Bleakley featured

FEATURED

The World Stormrider Guide: Vol 2
By Antony Colas
2004 Low Pressure Publishing
ISBN 978-0953984022
Featured in the Northern Ecuador section

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR

Surf Food: The Ultimate Surfers Cookbook
By Nava Young
2009Pandanus Productions Angourie
ISBN 978-0-646-52251-7
Featured with a recipe contribution - Fruit Salad
with Honey Spiced Yogurt

FEATURED

Ultimate Surfing Adventures: 100 Extraordinary Experiences in the Waves
By Alf Alderson
2010 Wiley Nautical
ISBN: 978-0-470-71083-8
Featured in China, Oman, Ghana, Liberia, Panama, Algeria, Mauritania and South Korea Chapters