Rating: 
Summary: From Detour:
Review: "'It was a balmy Sunday and the news about the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor was coming in over the radio. We were paying $60 a month for rent, which was split three ways, and life was good. Suddenly everything had changed. We all knew we were going off to war.' For the half decade preceding World War II, photographer Don James and his cronies lived in the balmy Eden of the southern California coastline, surfing from San Onofre north to Point Dume. 'Surfing is life--all the rest is details,' someone once philosophized. In Don James's six-year diary of life in paradise, surfing is indeed life, but the beauty is in the details. James's sun-drenched remembrance of a paradise lost introduces us to a cast of golden children that Bruce Weber might well envy, and leaves us with at least one mystery. What ever became of Jack Power? According to 'Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume,' 'One day he walked down the beach and was never seen nor heard of again.' Where did Jack Power go? Into the sunset, no doubt. Where the details hide."
Rating:
Summary: From Entertainment Weekly:
Review: "As for the West Coast, if would appear Californians are too absorbed in turning out Baywatch episodes to establish much of a beach-tome tradition, as least this year. The lone example washing up on these shores is a book of photographs by the late celebrity dentist (and one-time Cary Grant stunt double) Don James called 'Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume': sepia snapshots of innocent, gorgeous hedonism."
Rating: 
Summary: SUPER!!!
Review: Although I was born quite a number of years after the photos were taken, I can vividly recall looking through my Dad's surfing photo's (taken by my uncle)from around the same time. Mr. James had a real knack for capturing California and the birth of west coast surfing. It must have been a wonderful time to be young.
Rating:
Summary: Simpy beautiful
Review: I ordered this quite a long time, and don't understand what took me so long in reviewing it. As others have said, this book is amazing. The photographs are simply timeless and beautiful. I can't quite describe the vibe that it captures or conveys, but I found myself somewhat saddened by the book. The pictures kind of struck a whole "Dead Poet's Socitey," "Carpe Diem" mood with me. At the same time, they conveyed the beauty of a time in California (or for that matter, the U.S.) that is forever lost and will never be recaptured. A time of innocence and naivete, before everything became so tainted, jaded, and overcrowded. I don't know, maybe that's just a crock. At any rate, as a surfer of 20 years, this book really touched me. I think it will touch any fellow surfer, or for that matter, ocean lover. Definitely pick this one up before it goes out of print (as these things so swiftly seem to do).
Rating:
Summary: Simpy beautiful
Review: I ordered this quite a long time, and don't understand what took me so long in reviewing it. As others have said, this book is amazing. The photographs are simply timeless and beautiful. I can't quite describe the vibe that it captures or conveys, but I found myself somewhat saddened by the book. The pictures kind of struck a whole "Dead Poet's Socitey," "Carpe Diem" mood with me. At the same time, they conveyed the beauty of a time in California (or for that matter, the U.S.) that is forever lost and will never be recaptured. A time of innocence and naivete, before everything became so tainted, jaded, and overcrowded. I don't know, maybe that's just a crock. At any rate, as a surfer of 20 years, this book really touched me. I think it will touch any fellow surfer, or for that matter, ocean lover. Definitely pick this one up before it goes out of print (as these things so swiftly seem to do).
Rating:
Summary: Achingly evocative - a beautiful memoir
Review: I've had this book for a while, and I'm ordering more for Christmas gifts. I recently got the wonderful "Riding the Rails," about teens during the depression who hopped freights to go Huck Finning. My father did this and wound up hanging out at "The Big Rock," which wasn't in San Onofre, but in Malibu. But conditions were similar: then, you really could camp out on the beach. Like an idiot, I let my Dad pass on before asking him the details of those years. Now, the best I can do are secondary sources. But these help me reconstruct a picture of that world of his that ended with World War II. Around the world, there is a stereotype of Southern California, which is immediately dashed upon visiting Hollywood Boulevard. However, the stereotype isn't so much lie as anachronism. There really was a world that matched the current anachronism that is still the image of Southern California. Get this book, and you'll understand what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Achingly evocative - a beautiful memoir
Review: I've had this book for a while, and I'm ordering more for Christmas gifts. I recently got the wonderful "Riding the Rails," about teens during the depression who hopped freights to go Huck Finning. My father did this and wound up hanging out at "The Big Rock," which wasn't in San Onofre, but in Malibu. But conditions were similar: then, you really could camp out on the beach. Like an idiot, I let my Dad pass on before asking him the details of those years. Now, the best I can do are secondary sources. But these help me reconstruct a picture of that world of his that ended with World War II. Around the world, there is a stereotype of Southern California, which is immediately dashed upon visiting Hollywood Boulevard. However, the stereotype isn't so much lie as anachronism. There really was a world that matched the current anachronism that is still the image of Southern California. Get this book, and you'll understand what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Don James was a genius even when he was taking snapshots...
Review: In the movie, Atlantic City, Burt Lancaster's character says with nostalgia, "You shoulda seen the ocean then." It was an ironically funny line. But in this lovely collection of photographs we do see the ocean back then, in a time when one could camp on the beach in privacy, feasting on abundant lobster & abalone. The 100 pound boards have a beauty of woodcraft no longer known in the sport, & the surfers ride them like boats, upright & confidently. They look so much like us. The women are pretty. The waves are works of art. Those distant surfers weren't environmentalists, but they, more than anyone, were witnesses to what is now lost. Don James was a genius even when he taking snapshots.
Rating:
Summary: absolute magic!
Review: The faces and images have me so stoked! I have new found repect for the pre-war surfers, they paved the way, building on Duke's foundation.It also gives such a good historical perspective on the pre-war So. Cal. surf scene. It's bittersweet to see that so many of these lives and times were to be selflessly lost in the impending war. It also shows what a utopic place it must have been before the yuppies & developers destroyed so many fabulous spots. Something that magic can never last, it seems.A must for any surfer or red blooded Californian. A delight!
Rating:
Summary: absolute magic!
Review: The faces and images have me so stoked! I have new found repect for the pre-war surfers, they paved the way, building on Duke's foundation.It also gives such a good historical perspective on the pre-war So. Cal. surf scene. It's bittersweet to see that so many of these lives and times were to be selflessly lost in the impending war. It also shows what a utopic place it must have been before the yuppies & developers destroyed so many fabulous spots. Something that magic can never last, it seems.A must for any surfer or red blooded Californian. A delight!
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