I wanted to play like Dick Dale. These books help me pretend. They are quite good.
The Hal Leonard Surf Guitar play-along book is really great. In general Hal Leonard guitar books are dependable and get you playing a reasonable facsimile of some of your favorite/the most popular songs in a genre. I wouldn’t buy a surf song book that didn’t have “Walk Don’t Run” on it, I find the Venture’s hit to be one of the most fun things to play, ever. “Let’s Go Trippin'” is also wonderful. If you want to quickly play some very surf-sounding songs, I highly recommend this book.
If what you want is to learn to create the signature sounds and rhythms of surf rock, on your own. To improvise or write your own surf rock classics. Not to merely emulate, but to join these great musicians as a master of surf guitar? Dave Celentano has the book for you. Surf Guitar, Beginning to Advanced will give you everything: the extremely brief history of Surf Guitar, instruments that convey the sound and ethos of the genre, getting more twang into your thing, palm muting, and even writing your own songs. It is out of print but there are a few copies on Amazon.
I enjoy both these books and they pretty much shut down and further need for me to pursue the pure surf genre. I feel well prepared for surf punk now.
Surf: Guitar Play-Along Volume 23 (Hal Leonard Guitar Play-Along) via Amazon
Surf Guitar Beginning to Advanced via Amazon