Stealing the Wave

Presents the story of a legendary sporting rivalry. This book also explains of what it means to compete, and examines what happens when competition, passion and belief go too far, and become obsession.

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It is winter in the mid-eighties and two surfers are battling for supremacy at Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Hawaii. This is surfing's spiritual home, where some of the biggest, most awesome waves in the world crash onto the shore. Ken Bradshaw has been around the longest. Old-school, and some say too old, this muscular Texan veteran commanded respect throughout the seventies with his brilliance on the board, gritty determination, and a fearsome temper - when angered or disrespected he has been known to take huge bites out of fellow surfers' boards. Mark Foo is the new kid on the block. Icon of the next generation, this slim, good-looking Chinese-American is beginning to wow the crowds with his lightning repertoire of cool moves. With a sharp eye for a marketing angle and a magazine cover, Foo is taking surfing in a new and more commercial direction and is the antithesis of everything Bradshaw believes in. One perfect day at Sunset Beach, the two surfers are in the water together and Foo audaciously steals a wave from right under Bradshaw's nose, sparking a bitter feud which is to last over ten years and will ultimately end in tragedy.
In the spirit of Norman Mailer's The Fight and Touching the Void, Stealing the Wave is not just the story of a legendary sporting rivalry. It goes to the core of what it means to compete, and examines what happens when competition, passion and belief go too far and become obsession.