Coffee Table Book of: The Sport of Breaking (Hardcover)

Coffee Table Book of: The Sport of Breaking is a large format book of breaking, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the floor in a hall, the cardboard square on a street and the circle of the battle, halls, studios and plazas empty from first light to late at night, the kit and the floors being made and cared for, the old gear of the early days, and a few breakers seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: flat soled trainers, soft knee pads, wrist supports, a knitted headspin hat with a slick patch on its crown, a nylon tracksuit jacket, two turntables and a mixer seen from above, headphones, a microphone, a skipping rope and a crate of records, with cardboard, lino and a portable floor carried out to a seashore, a salt pan, a hilltop, a beach at low tide and a mountain lake.

The making and care follow a box opened out and flattened, rolls of lino cut to size and their seams taped, plywood panels built for a portable floor, a slick patch stitched to a hat, a floor swept and mopped and a square of lino rolled away. The past runs from a street lamp in a park and the apartment blocks where the first parties were held to old linoleum in an attic, a big portable stereo, a cassette, a helmet for headspins and trainers with wide flat laces.

Then the places, empty at many hours and in many seasons: a hall in frost at first light, an old ballroom at noon, a bandstand in fog, a basement on a snowy night, a rooftop at blue hour, a car park after rain, a tiled passage, a closed arcade and a polished plaza late at night, a market hall in a thunderstorm, a railway arch in winter rain and a park stage at dusk, and a few small breakers far off, spinning on the head, holding a freeze, facing off in a battle, circled by onlookers and stretching at first light.

Short notes run through the book, on the moves and the rules of the battle, the floors and kit and how they are made, and the history of the dance: breakers favour flat soled trainers that grip the floor yet let the feet pivot and slide, a slick patch sewn on the crown of a headspin hat lets the head turn freely on the floor, in the early days some breakers wore helmets to spin on the head, and lino is rolled, never folded, as a fold leaves a ridge that catches a hand.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.

Publisher - Cedar Pine Editions

Language - English

Case Bound - PPC

Contributors

By author

Dimitri Smith

Published Date - 2026-10-20

ISBN - 9671456001708

Dimensions - 27.9 x 21.6 x 1.3 cm

Page Count - 100