Part 1: The Proofreader

I once read an interview with Neil Young where he said he could never make love while listening to music. The reason, said the man with the nasal twang, was that as a professional musician he always listened to songs with a critical ear. If he was getting intimate with bonking music playing in the background, he simply couldn't concentrate on the task at hand.

I kinda felt the same while reading The Big Juice. Not that I was reading it while making love, let me make that point clear, but I critiqued it with a keen eye and it caused me to lose focus.

Reason being there were some glaring errors. Oversights that you wouldn't expect in a publication that has Sam George and John Long's names attached. For example:

• The epic Billabong Pro that had the early rounds at Waimea and won by MR was in 1986, not 1984.
• The first Eddie Aikau Invitational to be run at Waimea Bay was in 1987, not 1985.
• The winner of the 2010 Mavericks competition was Chris Bertish, not Craig Bertish.
• The large wave adjacent to Laniakea, Hawaii, is Himalayas, not Avalanche.
• It's Mark Healey, not Healy.

I could also list a number of minor mistakes involving spelling and grammar, though I believe the point's been made; gone was the giddy enjoyment of reading, knocked on the head by a voice in my head yelling, "You've got it wrong!"

And so the moment was ruined...

Part 2: The Nonplussed Punter:

Read in a detached, relaxed and entirely unpedantic manner The Big Juice is a great book that matches its subject. Let's face it, it's hard to go wrong when you're writing about big waves, any faults are usually the result of do-or-die machoism or lame cliché. The editors have had the good sense to approach big wave surfers who can articulate their actions with authenticity.

Shane Dorian, for instance, utters a surprisingly profound line in a moment of reflection with Sam George:

I told Shane that if I regretted anything about my surfer's life, it was the big waves I hadn't ridden and that as someone sitting on the shoulder of big wave surfing, both literally and figuratively, I wished I had on occasion pushed myself into the heavy water alongside the Shane Dorian's of the world.

"No, you don't Sam," he said, looking out again toward Mavericks like an infantryman on the eve of battle. "You enjoy your surfing. You always have. This..."

Shane looked down at the board on his lap, regarding its curves, pointed nose, and stilletto tail – it really did look like a weapon. "This is an obsession. And I'm really not too sure how healthy it is in the long run."

Other good moments come in stories by Evan Slater, Daniel Duane, Chris Dixon and Brad Melekian. There are 23 stories in total, the majority US-centric – Australia and South Africa have just one entry apiece. Matt Warshaw provides historical pieces, lifted from the History of Surfing, that provide scope to the contemporary stories.

The Big Juice makes sense of the big wave mindset and gives a history lesson along the way. It's an enjoyable book that could do with a bloody good proofread.