Together with salty old surf legends and big-name modern pro-surf stars, the common theme in all these surfers' lives is how their personal journeys have been shaped and informed by their experiences in the ocean.

What emerges from this lively and thought-provoking collection of profiles, quotes and anecdotes is that waveriding is far more than mere sport or recreation. Baker's subjects, through their remarkable life stories, reveal a holistic philosophy of surfing — an attitude and approach to living which promotes spontaneity, risk taking, a connection to nature and a readiness to seize the moment.

'I feel very comfortable in the ocean, in big surf and stuff. I've learnt from fifty years of surfing that it's only water. As long as you flow with it, you're pretty safe,' says legendary surfboard shaper Bob McTavish. 'Life is just like water too. If you hang on you'll come through. No matter how hard a situation is at the time, you'll come through. Just flow with it and you'll come out the other side.'

Eight-time world champion Kelly Slater speaks of the uncanny communion with the ocean behind his incredible competitive success: 'I really thought the ocean sent all of us signals like smoke signals from the Indians and that it was communicating with me in some way. I had to communicate back with it. It sounds very out there and fruity but as a kid it was reality. And my parents weren't even hippies. No one gave me that idea.'

Classical violinist and director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra Richard Tognetti explains how surfing has inspired and informed his musical career: 'The whole genesis of surfing was it was somewhere between a performing art and a sport. Surfing's always had that for me.'

World-renowned ethicist Peter Singer explains how surfing moves him to contemplate the great unfathomable mysteries of existence. 'It does remind me of the majesty and timelessness of nature, as compared to the brevity of our own existence. Those waves have been pounding the beaches for millions of years before I existed, and will be pounding them for millions of years after I have gone.'

Eminent scientist Vezen Wu believes the negative ions generated by breaking waves could provide a natural form of anti-depressant. 'The treatment of depression could truly become as easy as a day at the beach,' he claims.

Proud patriarch of a surfing dynasty and medical doctor Dorian 'Doc' Paskowitz, 85, concurs: 'I keep surfing because surfing keeps me,' he says simply.

Cancer survivor Jeri Edwards believes surfing helps sustain her in her battle with cancer: 'I believe surfing heals me and makes me strong ... Many days after chemo, I go surfing weak and with a terrible headache, but I come in clear-headed, refreshed, and stronger. I don't know why it works, but I know it works. Every day I go out surfing is a day I have beaten cancer — I have already won.'

And four-time world champion Mark Richards speaks of the overwhelming sensual pleasure that keeps drawing surfers back to the ocean: 'Just the feeling of the water on you, diving and paddling, duck-diving your first wave, seeing a set come, turning around and stroking into it, that initial rush as you drop down the face, the jolts of acceleration as you go through the manoeuvres. There's nothing like it. The only thing that actually comes close to riding waves is sex.'

Through these human stories, Baker convincingly puts the case that surfing offers powerful life lessons the rest of society could well heed, indeed that this may be the point of surfing's sudden rise to respectability and mainstream popularity.

'These stories, I hope, help illustrate how life moves on like a series of waves,' writes Baker. 'Or rather, life is the vast ocean, the medium, through which these waves move. And we can learn to ride these peaks and troughs of our daily lives, bringing greater joy, ease and grace to our everyday existence.'