Tony Butt has a PhD in Physical Oceanography and worked with the Coastal Processes Research Group at Plymouth University for some ten years. He is the author of The Surfer’s Guide to Waves, Coasts and Climates, and has written many articles on the science of surfing and the coastal environment, including a regular oceanography column in The Surfer’s Path magazine. He is a big-wave surfer and lives for most of the year in a forgotten corner of north-west Spain.