Surfing Tropical Beats - Tapa blanda

'Algeria in particular is a real eye-opener.' (Wavelength Surf Magazine, on their Most Wanted page, Issue 214, May 2012) 'incredible photography' (Carve Surfing Magazine, issue 132, 12.04.21) 'a really incredible new book... It's about travel, it's about the environment and it's most definitely about waves. But above all it's about the human condition and in particular how the journeys to the highest mountains (or in this case the remotest waves) always take you through the deepest valleys. ... A fantastic book which journeys into the heart of darkness where the music, the waves and above all the people give us hope.' (Tim Kevan, The Barrister Blog, 02.05.12) '... lots of shots of Holly Beck and Baybay Niu, so definitely some surf girl style too.' (Surf Girl, issue 37, June 2012) 'En ingles, con fotos y reportajes sobre los remotos enclaves surferos... Combinando exploracion con aventura al ritmo tropical.' (3Sesenta, no. 156, June 2012) 'Im SURFERS haben wir ja schon viele ihrer immer wieder ungewohnlichen Reiseberichte veroffentlicht, und wer sie gelesen hat, weiA , dass es hier um mehr geht als nur ums Surfern selbst. Fur jeden Reise-Freak unter euch ist dies mit Sicherheit eine spannende Lekture!' (Surfers, issue no. 90, June 2012)'Sam Bleakley has once again teamed up with John Callahan, taker of really quite awesome photographs. ... [They] got stuck into some "deep travel" ... with their route reading a little like a war/environmental disaster correspondent's to do list. The result is an authentic account of some of the less fabled new frontiers in surf travel. Definitely a recommended read.' (Cooler, issue no. 37, June/July 2012) 'Though surfing is the vehicle, they are more than idle passengers, serious about getting under the skin of places... read Bleakley's text for a dense, philosophical delving into the nature of what they do, or skim through to oggle John Callahan's surf and travel photography. Both journeys are worth making.' (Action Asia, May/June 2012) 'Best yet in Surf Travel Writing ... a vivid sense of place, ... a refreshing and world-class style of contemporary travel writing. Surfing is the lens to explore, but the heart of the story is people and place in areas usually represented as disaster zones. I have recently read books about Haiti, and none seem to capture the energy evoked in Surfing Tropical Beats. ... should appeal to all readers interested in adventure, travel and exploration.' (SurfTravelBooks, 09.04.12) 'One ... travel writer worth seeking out for some rather leftfield angles would be the surf writer Sam Bleakley. He's done two books of sort of surf-jazz-travel essays, which are excellent, and he has a very interesting stylistic approach ... They come with pretty fine photos too... ' (Tim Hannigan, Response to Alison Flood, Guardian, 10.08.12)'O jornalista Sam Bleakley lancou o livro Surfing Tropical Beats, com o registro de surftrips que fez em lugares exoticos, como Gabao, Haiti e Vietna. As fotos foram tiradas por John Callahan.' (Hardcore Brasil, issue 275, August 2012) 'Sam Bleakley is a unique character in the surf world... Surfing Tropical Beats is his second compendium of travel writing... it's not just about the search for waves in countries like Haiti, Algeria, Gabon, China and Vietnam. It is also a meditation on "otherness" and what can be learned from it. Sam's key writing motif is jazz and surfing as interchangeable forms of expression, the wave dance mirroring the spontaneity of free form jazz... to anyone interested in a wide-angle view of the surf world, and especially its colourful margins, this book offers real food for thought and pages of inspiration.' (The Surfer's Path, issue 93, Nov/Dec 2012) 'former Euro and UK champion longboarder Sam is a highly talented writer... whose travels are photographed superbly by Singapore-based John Callahan... In this book the group [surfEXPLORE] returns to places visited in the last one - Haiti and China - and makes startling discoveries in new places like Gabon and Algeria. Their adventures in these places, so far removed from standard surf travel locales, make great reading. ... it's got a good beat and you can dance to it.' (Pacific Longboarder, vol. 16, no. 2, 2012) 'ten essays that show the qualities of a maturing writer.' (Swellnet, 06.11.12)

Sam Bleakley and the surf EXPLORE team take us on a roller coaster ride through Gabon, India, Vietnam, Algeria, China and Haiti, drumming up a tropical beat. Combining 'Deep Travel', John Callahan's incredible photography and Sam's performance writing, they capture the spirit of these turbulent coast scapes, blood racing, running on salt water fuel. The wide belt around the Equator - the tropics - has become an alluring path for travel, but a region often steeped in war and environmental disasters. Sam and surf EXPLORE go off the regular route, carving a niche, collaborating with locals, documenting the occasion poetically and with precision. 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. By turns, surf EXPLORE gather their wits at the cross roads where 'lovers part and souls get taken by the lost high way, lured down the wrong route.'