Laird Hamilton

Surfer 

Laird Hamilton is known as the guiding genius of crossover board sports, and he is truly amazing in the water. As the son of 60's surfing legend Bill Hamilton, hailed as the world's greatest big-wave surfer, Laird grew up around the last of the original big-wave pioneers on Oahu's NorthShore, and is himself a throw back to the time when surfers prided themselves on being all-around watermen.

Bold since day one, Laird has always been determined to live life to the extreme. His size - six-foot-three, 215 pounds - makes him seem indestructible. His life has been dedicated to searching for ever bigger waves and developing new techniques and unfathomable tricks, and he is regarded as the best in the world at surfing huge waves, often up to 70 feet high.

His first book, Force of Nature, allows readers a rare glimpse inside the unique philosophy that has created his circumstances, and not the other way around. After all, this is a man whose biological father abandoned him shortly after he was born; whose first job was working on a pig farm; who dropped out of school in eleventh grade. And then the career decision: surfer. Though earning enough to pay the rent as any kind of surfer is next to impossible, Hamilton has ended up in the place we all desire to be: doing exactly what he loves, becoming the world's best in the process, making a great living, being surrounded by nature and family, radiating peak health and fitness, and succeeding by any definition of the word.

How did he get there? And more importantly, how can the rest of us join him?

Force of Nature is a detailed map to that destination, with Laird Hamilton as the reader's guide. It's not about chasing trophies or accolades or cash. It's about quality over quantity and being true to your physical, mental, and spiritual roots. Not only is it possible to thrive in the modern world without adopting its harmful habits: it's essential. And not only has Hamilton mastered this balance, he makes a compelling and articulate case that anyone who wants to can do the same.

This book is a deeply authoritative and cutting-edge guide to peak fitness in mind, body, soul, and surfing. It comes directly from the source and his inner circle, which includes those at the vanguard of sports, training, nutrition, and more. Former pro volleyball player Gabrielle Reece, surf legend Dave Kalama, fitness gurus Paul Chek, T.R. Goodman and Don Wildman, and Food Network star Giada DiLaurentis all contribute their expertise. Readers will get an all-access pass into an elite world filled with definitive and provocative ideas.

The guiding genius of big-wave surfing, Laird has been featured in such magazines as National Geographic, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Outside, Men's Journal, Time, GQ, and People. He has been profiled by 60 Minutes and starred in the film Riding Giants. He divides his time between the Hawaiian Islands and Malibu, California.