Sebastian Junger, William Finnegan, and Winston Groom are just some of the esteemed authors giving Chris Dixon praise for his new book "Ghost Wave: the discovery of Cortes Bank and the biggest wave on earth."

And rightfully so.

Dixon, the founder of surfermag.com, spent most of the last year researching the world's most frightening maritime hazard, a massive wave that breaks 100 miles out in the middle of the ocean off of San Clemente, California. His goal was to separate legend from lore, and unearth the rich history of trial, error and terror that surrounds this fabled wave, and it takes only a few pages to realize he delivers.

While uncovering the multi-year mission to surf these massive open-ocean waves makes up the backbone of this story, Dixon goes beyond, researching the entire list of renowned maritime mishaps and the graveyard of dreams that haunted men long before its first descent.

Dixon found the fishermen, divers, treasure hunters and nation builders who were lured to the bank for their own reasons. "Hardly anybody knew a thing about Cortes Bank before these guys summitted it in 2001," Dixon told me during a recent swing by the grind media offices. "I became obsessed with it after I went out there to watch them in 2008. And the more I poked around, the more I figured these stories - this story - had to be done."

The book hits shelves on November 1st.