Showing titles in Water Sports

When you arrive at foreign shores by sailboat, it's not such a small world after all. Come along with Glen and Julie as they sail around the world and discover that reality is even bigger than the escape they imagined. This breathtakingly personal true story will thrill those wanting to sail off into the sunset or enjoy the wonders of the world from the comfort of home. Escape from the Ordinary reminds you of the unlimited possibilities in life and nudges the listener into thoughts of their own dreams.

Several years ago, Julia Jones was searching through long-forgotten items stored at her house and discovered some suitcases of old written material, which turned out to be accounts by her father of his experiences in the RNVSR (Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve). She realised that as a child she’d met some of the people mentioned, and although she was too young to truly know them, these youthful impressions spurred her on to rediscovery and understanding. In this absorbing book, Julia tells the compelling stories of the yachtsmen.

Erik and Emily skillfully reveal that it is possible to live big on a shoestring budget while giving their family an astonishing education in adventure, creativity, purpose, and grit. Told alternately by Erik and Emily, Seven at Sea is a portrait of a captivating and resilient family and a celebration of the courage it takes to head for something over the horizon.

Still unsolved, still baffling, still claiming new victims. Here are the untold stories. A pilot reports a strange haze enveloping his plane, then disappears; 11 hours after fuel starvation, as if calling from a void, he is heard 600 miles away. He requests permission to land, then vanishes forever. A freighter steaming over placid seas disappears without a trace. A pleasure yacht ghosts past without a soul on board. A pilot calls for help because a "weird object" is harassing his plane. A jet collides with an "unknown" and is never found.

On a dismal day at the end of October, 1968, a weekend sailor by the name of Donald Crowhurst set out from England in a flimsy trimaran, hoping to become the first solo sailor to circumnavigate the world nonstop. His was an exercise in over-arching ambition, delusion, and tragedy such as the world has seldom seen. Before it was over, the world media would be subject to a fraud of enormous proportions, and Crowhurst would die a madman in the middle of the Atlantic. What he left behind was a shattered boat, a shattered family, and this incredible story.

This enthralling audiobook takes us on a tour of the most dangerous, exciting, and often eccentric escapades of literature's sailing stars and how these true stories inspired and informed their best-loved works. Arthur Ransome, Erskine Childers, Jack London, and many others are featured as we find out how extraordinary fact fed into unforgettable fiction.

By the same author as the best-selling Total Loss, this is a new collection of terrifying and compelling accounts of yachts lost at sea. The seven deadly causes of loss continue to take their toll, and Paul Gelder has compiled firsthand accounts of shipwreck and sinking caused by collision, gear failure, stress of weather, faulty navigation, fire, crew failure, and exhaustion. The moving, emotionally charged descriptions of shipwrecked sailors abandoning their yachts at sea will have you on the edge of your seat.

Wave Woman is the untold story of an adventurer whose zest for life and learning kept her alive for 98 years. Betty Pembroke Heldreich Winstedt was the granddaughter of Mormon pioneers who, after spending an active and athletic childhood in Salt Lake City, moved to Santa Monica with her family and enrolled at USC to study dental hygiene. Betty went on to elope with a man she hardly knew, and to have two daughters.

Proving that sailing is not just the husband's pursuit, this charming narrative of one couple's first long distance voyage is told from the wife's perspective. Writing in a lively, humorous way, Sandra Clayton gives an entertaining account of her and husband David's maiden cruise from the UK, down the Atlantic coast and into the warm waters of the Mediterranean. Conscious that old age or poor health could prevent them from sailing away for much longer, they left the world of work behind to chase their dream of adventure.

Fed up with teenage life in the suburbs, Jaimal Yogis ran off to Hawaii with little more than a copy of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and enough cash for a surfboard. His journey is a coming-of-age saga that takes him from communes to monasteries, from the warm Pacific to the icy New York shore. Equal parts spiritual memoir and surfer's tale, this is a chronicle of finding meditative focus in the barrel of a wave and eternal truth in the great, salty blue.

Matt Warshaw knows more about surfing than any other person on the planet, as evidenced by The History of Surfing, Warshaw's definitive take on the sport. Now he has honed that book into an abridged and excerpted edition for surfers everywhere. Each spread features a micro essay alongside an image capturing a slice of surf history, from Kelly Slater and the invention of the thruster to shark attacks and localism. A Brief History of Surfing deftly defines surf culture in an entertaining and irresistible volume with wide appeal.

The Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) are revised and published every four years by World Sailing, the international authority for the sport. This handy guide audiobook is a simplified view of the basic racing rules and has been updated to reflect the Racing Rules of Sailing 2025-2028.

Including stories from paradise and hard-won lessons in seamanship, Taleisin's Tales reflects back to the first miles Lin and Larry Pardey gained together on the second boat they built lovingly with teak carvel planking over sawn black locust frames. The book includes details from outfitting, provisioning, and final detailing during the early months Lin and Larry spent getting to know their new bluewater cruiser, as well as moments of melancholy as they let go of attachments to their first trusty boat.

Sailing is an international sport that offers many rewards. Imagine white sails billowing against a clear sky, the brisk feel of the breeze on your face, and the gentle motions of the boat as it cleanly slices through the water. While sailing is a great way to enjoy the outdoors, it also requires you to be an active participant more than almost any other type of boating.

Patrick Dixon spent years working as a doctor at University College Hospital, while his wife, Sheila, was a magistrate - high-pressure careers that demanded long hours away from their home, family and passion for sailing. It is a frustrating story many occasional sailors can relate to, but unlike most, Patrick and Sheila realised early enough that they could only bend so far before something snapped; they could only take on so much before they drowned.

The world's first kitesurfing audiobook helps you to learn this incredible sport in the shortest possible time with the least amount of effort. It has been written with the help of 10 world kitesurfing champions, 17 professional instructors as well as other kitesurfing legends such as billionaire kitesurfer Sir Richard Branson and the author Tom Fuller has over 10 years' experience of teaching kitesurfing. The Learn Kitesurfing Faster audiobook helps you to learn even faster by making kitesurfing as simple, clear, and concise as possible.

This audiobook covers comprehensively all the information that an RYA Instructor needs to know, both on and off the water. As well as detailing the instructing and coaching qualifications that are available, and explaining how sailors learn, this audiobook details how to teach and coach the theoretical aspects and practical sessions of the RYA National Sailing Scheme.

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race is one of the world's major sporting events. In 1998, it became one of the world's major sporting disasters. Six sailors tragically perished, and numerous yachts sank or were badly damaged. the subsequent search and rescue operation was one of the most phenomenally accomplished peacetime efforts the world has ever seen. In this fully updated edition to mark the 10th anniversary of the tumultuous race, Rob Mundle, one of Australia's leading journalists and yachtsmen, tells this story of challenge and survival with compassion, vigour and understanding.

Bob Shepton is an ordained minister in the Church of England in his 70s, but spends most of his time sailing into the Arctic and making first ascents of inaccessible mountains. No tea parties for this vicar. Opening with the disastrous fire that destroyed his yacht whilst he was ice-bound in Greenland, the book travels back to his childhood growing up on his family's rubber plantation in Malaysia, moving back to England after his father was shot by the Japanese during the war, boarding school, the Royal Marines, and the church.

Whether you want to explore remote beaches and mountain lochs, improve your confidence in open water, refine your swimming technique, or have a race or long-distance swim challenge coming up, How to Wild Swim offers the perfect practical foundation to help you find your perfect adventure and achieve your goal. Expert wild swimmer Ella Foote offers the ultimate guide to mastering the practicalities and techniques, and answers your most frequently asked questions so that you can feel safe, have fun, and re-energize.