THE WAVEWATCHERS COMPANION

One bright February afternoon on a beach in Cornwall GavinPretor Pinney took a break from cloudspotting and started watching thewaves rolling into shore Mesmerised he wondered where they had comefrom and decided to find out He soon realised that waves don t justappear on the ocean they are everywhere around us and our livesdepend on them From the rippling beats of our hearts to the movement of food throughour digestive tracts and of signals across our brains waves are thetransport systems of our bodies Everything we see and hear reaches usvia light and sound waves and our information age is reliant on themicrowaves and infrared waves used by the telephone and internetinfrastructure From shockwaves unleashed by explosions to torsionalwaves that cause suspension bridges to collapse from sonar waves thatallow submarines to see with sound to Mexican waves that sweepthrough stadium crowds there were waves it seemed wherever Gavinlooked But what he wondered could they all have in common with oneswe splash around in on holiday By the time he made the ultimate surfer s pilgrimage to Hawaii Gavinhad become a world class wavewatcher although he was still rubbish atsurfing And while this fascinating funny book may not teach you howto ride the wave