Review of "Make Your Own Waves: The Surfer’s Rules for Innovators and Entrepreneurs," by Louis Patler

Review of

Make Your Own Waves: The Surfer’s Rules for Innovators and Entrepreneurs, by Louis Patler ISBN 9780814437230

Five out of five stars

 This book is far more about surfing than it is about entrepreneurship. More specifically, extreme surfing, or in the vernacular, the “Big Wave” surfers. This is the small group of people that ride waves of several stories, even up to 100 feet high. It is a very select group, for it is a very dangerous sport, the possibility of serious injury and even death is always present.

 Most of the ink is used to describe the Big Wave surfers, how they prepare for their big rides, their mental state and how they feel when they emerge intact at the other end. These descriptions alone make the book interesting reading. Unfortunately, some postmortems must also be included.

 Interspersed within the discussion of surfing is the occasional mention of “... the perseverance, preparation and dedication exhibited by Big Wave surfers can also be applied to entrepreneurs.” This is more along the line of the obvious after reading about the surfers. In fact, what they exhibit can be applied to anything, from basket weaving to shooting baskets to playing music. If you were to replace all mention of entrepreneurship with playing a piano, this would essentially be the same book. Later in the book I found myself skimming over some of the short sections on entrepreneurship in order to get to the next part about surfing. As a point of note, I am a surfing ignoramus, yet I found it interesting. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes.