Ever wanted to venture outside of your usual surf breaks? Assuming you live in California,
Surfing California: A Complete Guide to the Best Breaks on the California Coast is a great book to help you find all the major breaks in California. Raul Guisado and Jeff Klaas do a great job getting you to the spots and preparing you for the waves. With this book you can surf your way from Del Norte county in NorCal all the way down to Imperial Beach on the border with Mexico.
Each major break gets a full write-up with descriptions on driving directions, wave descriptions, where to eat, where to stay, local surf shops… There’s also a handy grid to breakdown each spot’s with best tide, ideal swell direction, the crowd situation, fees, water quality, hazards, lefts/rights, season and so on. It really is quite thorough for each break.
Lesser breaks also get a mention in the book. For example, El Porto gets a nod between the Chevron and Manhattan Beach entries. Your not going to find any secret spots in this book, but I think since we all have our secret spots, we are fine with that.
But this really is a handy reference book to get you beyond your local area and really try out the full bounty that is California. Well worth the $16 shelf price. (Though you can get it for $10.18 online using the links on this page.)