BOOK CHRONICLE.Byline: Richard Couch ``In the 1930s, the concept of riding a wave while standing on a plank was completely alien to everyone.'' - Don James Don James can be:
``Surfing San Onofre San Onofre or São Onofre may refer to:
Point Dume forms the northern end of the Santa Monica Bay, and Point Dume Headlands Park affords a vista of stretching to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Santa Catalina Island. , 1936-1942'' (Chronicle Books; $24.95) is more than a good, albeit short, read. It's also a good look. The small coffee-table book cof·fee-ta·ble book n. An oversize book of elaborate design that may be used for display, as on a coffee table. coffee-table book Noun a large expensive illustrated book Noun 1. chronicles a period in the lives of some of Southern California's first wave riders as seen through the lens of surf photographer and dentist Don James. An insightful foreword by C.R. Stecyk, interspersed with little samples of the photos to come, sets the scene: ``Six years of exuberance. Hometown boy Don James is witness to, and participates in, the halcyon hal·cy·on n. 1. A kingfisher, especially one of the genus Halcyon. 2. A fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea inception of California beach culture . . . a transitory Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, in the years before World War II changed the region forever.'' The standard-size pictures that follow - most of them black and white - are presented in a photo-album style, without captions, in a chapter titled simply ``Plates.'' Captions follow in the ``Notes'' section. James' earliest pictures were taken with Kodak folding cameras.Some of the most eye-catching snapshots are of men riding shoulder-high waves at San Onofre, Dana Point and Hermosa Beach; the gang piled into a 1925 Hudson with giant boards stacked high on the roof; guitar playing and dancing around campfires on deserted shores; and one of James holding a big lobster. James died in 1996, but his images of a culture in its infancy live on. Our rating: Two and One-half Stars. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO no caption (Cover of ``Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume'') |
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