begginer tutorial shader?

[Darkmax]

in the virtual vacation from your home page, you have a great water effect with a dolphin getting out of the water, i think is using a water shader and particles(thats other problem that i have ) effect for the dolphin.

I tried to learn how to write my own shaders for future applications like bump, specular,illumination, etc. to achieve a more realistic application but i couldn't find a easy tutorial (better if is video tutorial) to explain how to achieve this.

Right now in my application i have a beach but the water is a little flat and also the sand of the beach. So i really need to learn how to write shaders, to have a great impression on my works.

So if some one know a good start point for shaders would be very thankful.

PD If some also know for particles too