Staying on Top and Keeping the Sand Out of Your Pants: A Surfer's Guide to the Good Life

Using surfing as a metaphor for motivational and self-improvement concepts and written in accessible, everyday language peppered with surfer slang, Staying on Top proves that the good life is available right now.

Making these essential lessons fun, cartoon character Surf Master Alva appears throughout the book to dispense nuggets of wisdom that point the way to the good life, illustrating in a humorous and wise way that experts and gurus are not needed to understand and make the most of life. In other words, we don't have to learn how to achieve the good life through retreats, pills, hospitals or programs, nor do we have to wait until we find the "perfect time". In surfer parlance, "Surfz up, dude! Get your board and get to the beach."

Assessing their understanding of prevailing societal values portrayed through surfing metaphors and Surf Master Alva's quirky wisdom, Staying on Top will awaken people to the reality that living life to the fullest requires living in the present. Life right now is all anyone can truly be sure of: The secret to achieving and maintaining balance and serenity lies in accepting and embracing that truth.

For long-term devotees of self-help literature and newcomers to the genre, everyone will delight in this wise yet whimsical journey to enlightenment.

Scott D. Miller, Ph.D., is a therapist, lecturer and trainer who grew up surfing in Southern California. He cofounded the Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change and works pro bono at a clinic dedicated to serving the under served. He is the author of many papers and books, including The Heroic Client. He is also the coauthor of The Heart and Soul of Change. Mark A. Hubble, Ph.D., is a psychologist, national consultant and trainer. In his youth, and to the endless worry of his parents, Mark body-surfed in the Atlantic every summer. A graduate of the prestigious postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at Menninger in Topeka, Kansas, he founded and directed the Brief Therapy Clinic of the Counseling and Testing Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and is an award-winning contributing editor to the Family Therapy Networker. The author of numerous articles and books, he coauthored The Heart and Soul of Change. Seth Houdeshell, L.M.S.W., is a licensed social worker practicing and living in Austin, Texas, and surfing whenever and wherever he can. He earned his master's degree in social work from the University of Texas at Austin.