California Surfriders

The original surfing photo book, John "Doc" Ball's 108-page California Surfriders was first published in 1946, and was made up of Ball's black-and-white photographs accompanied by short captions. "The purpose of this volume," Ball wrote in the book's foreword, "is to present pictorially some of the thrills, spills, personalities and places pertinent to surfriding, which, since its importation from Hawaii in 1907, is now becoming California's favorite saltwater sport."

The original press run ...