You can’t mention the word “style” in surfing without thinking of Leah Dawson. The California born, Hawaii based surfer’s poetic fusion of classic style, paired with her wholly new and individual approach, makes for an intoxicatingly beautiful and technically progressive blend. I’m talking to Leah beach-side in Waikiki where she’s in town for a […]
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Stories From The Road With Deus Filmer Andre Cricket
Since the beginning, Deus Ex Machina has been about much more than spinning quality threads, with art shows, custom bikes, boards, and films forming equally critical parts of its offering. Much of their approach reaches back to 2010 when Dustin Humphrey established a base for the Sydney born brand in the Island of the Gods. […]
Style Influences: Ivah Wilmot
Ivah Wilmot made a welcome change from your average pro surfer interview, right off the bat: “I like talking, I like interviews,” he says from his base in Kingston, Jamaica. “You get to get your story out.” Part of the Roark Revival posse – a diverse a crew of surf talents ranging from the hammer […]
The Quik Cup, 2002: The Party Animals’ Mass Extinction
[As Wavelength celebrates its 40th birthday in 2021, we revisit at some of the more colourful chapters in European surfing history.] How an era-straddling celebration of cross-over boardsport culture – and a Daily Telegraph kiss n’ tell of it – marked the beginning of the end surfing’s vaunted age of debauchery. “So now, less than […]
Locked Down But Not Out: Aritz Goes To Jail in Jo’Burg, 2007
[As Wavelength celebrates its 40th birthday in 2021, we revisit at some of the more colourful chapters in European surfing history.] Aritz Aranburu might be the hardest working man in European surfing over the past decade and a half. An attritional battler in the beachies if not an obvious standout, it’s not until swells get […]
Style Influences: Harrison Roach
There’s much to admire in the Harrison Roach oeuvre. A logger of global repute, but much more than just that, he’s also outstanding as a roaring tubesmith, an all around performer on shorties, mids, or fibreglass of any denomination. His refined touch and waterpersonship is matched by a trim and tidy aesthetic. Bright-eyed and sharp, […]
The Wavelength 2020 Surf Quiz
As we say goodbye to 2020, it’s time for one last little look back on the year that was (before we never, ever dare breathe a mention of it ever again) by testing your knowledge of the world of surfing over the last twelve months. You may want to refresh your memory, of course, in […]
2020 Revision: Looking Back on The Year in Surfing That Was
Somebody’s has to speak up for the forgotten victims, like 2016. The year that gave us Brexit, Trump and killed everyone who’d ever thought about making a decent song or film, had enjoyed a level of infamy as the gruesome year everyone wanted to turn off and on again, until 2020 came along and put […]
Defining Moments In The Life Of John John Florence
[This winter we teamed up with JJF’s long time sock sponsor Stance to offer every new subscriber to Wavelength a free pair of John’s new signature Swell socks. Get yours here.] With the opening leg of the women’s tour cancelled following a fatal shark attack at Honolua Bay and the Pipe Masters postponed due to a Covid […]
On Reefs: Stuart Gibson & The Mechanics Of The Shipstern’s Step
[Welcome to ‘On Reefs’ a new series of stories exploring the hidden quirks and perils of reefs around the world through the personal experiences of those who know them in intimately.] In the two decades since the mutant slab at Shipstern Bluff was first unveiled to the surfing world, its ascent into legend has owed […]
Db: A Brand Story
Norway and Sweden have a lengthy history of highly fruitful collabs. There’s Ericsson Bakelite telephone, designed back in 1931 for one. There’s the EU/ non EU land border without customs checks for another… There are almost certainly others. Back in 2009, Truls Brataas, a Norwegian product engineering boffin and space travel enthusiast, and Jon Olsson, […]
The Real Stories Behind The Internet’s Most Viral Surf Shots – Part II
A little while back we set out on a quest to uncover some of the stories behind the internet’s most widely shared surf shots. In the process of our digital sleuthery we discovered all sorts of intriguing tales of doctored lineups, forgotten surf trips, legendary characters and even an innovative approach to managing surf tourism. […]
Money Saving Tips For The Frugal Surfer
Surfing, ever proud of its counter-counter individualism, has generally championed the tightwad. Whereas excessive thriftiness is broadly seen as a source for derision among many social groups, to us, it’s somehow upheld as a method of being less kooky. Perhaps because our highest of high priests, Tom Curren, has famously never been seen with his […]
Culture Wars: Wavepools Vs The Sea
It’s time to make surfing great again, and take back control (of pushing the button that sends the set to the 3.45pm intermediate group in purple rashies). Whether you’re for surfing being for the many not for the few, or worry that the sea is increasingly melted snowflakes, it’s time to pick a side… It’s […]
Ready For The Longest Winter of Your Surfing Life?
A Downshifter’s Guide To Resilient Stoke
The Lonesome Death of Surfer Magazine (1960 – 2020)
You’ve probably heard the one about all the celeb obituaries all being already written; where Guardian feature writers, on slow news days, fully aware the title is spaffing an unrecouped £2mil/week in a ‘changing media landscape’ make use of their time by updating the Queen or David Beckham’s obits, so that they may be rapidly […]
5 British Mysto Waves To Look Out For This Winter
So that’s it for summer then? This time last week, the view outside the window was one of autumnal perfection. Head high waves, light winds, sunny skies. The sort of conditions almost every surfer would break into one of those tottering jogs for. Now, the view looks very different. The horizontal rain is back and […]
Confessions of a Surfing on Magic Mushrooms First-Timer
Warning: Magic mushrooms are illegal in Britain, France and most of Europe except Portugal. Whether or not you respect and observe laws of the land is a decision only you can make, based on whether you feel the law has a moral authority over your own free will. Whatever decision you make, whether you topple […]
Looking Back On Our Summer Of Drive-In Cinema
Sometime back in spring, as lockdown stretched out indefinitely and the summer event schedule was wiped clean, we started thinking about ways we could make our own fun. With several movie tours under our belts and drive-in cinemas popping up around the country, we figured what better way to bring the community together than our […]
A Closer Look At Indonesia’s Plan To Create Ten New Balis: Morotai
Over the last few years, the Indonesian government has been working on an ambitious plan, aimed at rapidly growing tourism in ten handpicked locations across the archipelago. Its authors call it ‘Ten New Balis’. For the doomsayers among you, this title will no doubt evoke visions of foreign developers with dollar signs for eyes rolling […]
5 Surfers With Hair of Distinction
If you love great hair and fine surf storytelling in premium print periodicals, you’re going to love our latest Wavelength subscription offer. Few sporting or leisure endeavours have great hair as central to their identity as the riding of waves, few subcultures are so easily recognisable by flamboyant follicular flourishes. Hence, “He’s got table tennis […]
45 Years After Jaws, Do Surfers Still Hate Sharks?
[The Wavelength Drive-In Cinema is back for 2021, bringing you a range of surf cinema, cult classics and family favourites from the clifftops of Cornwall, including three screenings of Jaws starting on the 31st July. Browse the full lineup and get your tickets here. Or, subscribe to Wavelength now to get free entry to a screening of your choice.] Jaws […]
After The Endless Summer II: What Happened To The Surf Destinations Featured In The Film?
[The Wavelength Drive-In Cinema is back for 2021, bringing you a range of surf cinema, cult classics and family favourites from the clifftops of Cornwall, including a screening of Endless Summer II. Browse the full lineup and get your tickets here. Or, subscribe to Wavelength now to get free entry to a screening of your choice.] In late 1992, Pat O’Connell, […]
How The Star Of The Endless Summer Became An International Drug Smuggler
It’s the autumn of 1963 and Mike Hynson is sat in a plane seat, sweating and itchy, with sticky tape bound tightly around his torso. As he cranes his neck to peer down the aisle, it occurs to him that his Endless Summer co-star Robert August and the film’s director Bruce Brown are still nowhere […]
The Double Life Of Adam ‘Bearman’ Griffiths
Here’s a brand new clip by Seth Hughes offering an insight into the double life of Newquay based surfer, father and fisherman Adam Griffiths. I remember an afternoon a few winters ago, several hours into a tireless hunt around the Cornish coastline, standing with Adam as he stared intently down into a cove where choppy […]
Catching Up With Lucy Campbell
Last weekend at our drive-in cinema screening of Point Break, we sat down with Korev ambassador and 6X National Champ Lucy Campbell for a pint and a quick catch up overlooking the waves at Watergate Bay. WL: What do you reckon to our drive-in cinema then? LC: It’s pretty amazing, such a good spot. I’d […]
The WL Drive-In Cinema; Much More Than Just A Movie Screening
Last month we announced we’d be putting on a series of drive-in cinema nights, running throughout July and August, to fill a little bit of that fun shaped hole left in your summer but the widespread cancellation of festivals and outdoor events. Since then, we’ve been excitedly unveiling our line up of films, including local […]
Endless Summer 2: The End of Surfing’s Innocence?
[The Wavelength Drive-In Cinema is back for 2021, bringing you a range of surf cinema, cult classics and family favourites from the clifftops of Cornwall, including a screening of Endless Summer II. Browse the full lineup and get your tickets here. Or, subscribe to Wavelength now to get free entry to a screening of your choice.] When Pat O’ Connell and […]
Behind The Scenes On The Endless Summer; The Real Story Behind The Greatest Surf Movie Ever Made
[We’re excited to announce we’ll be showing The Endless Summer and The Endless Summer II at the Wavelength drive-in cinema, overlooking Watergate Bay, on the 15th and 22nd of August respectively. Get your tickets here.] In the early 1960s, films featuring surfing were either niche, all-action affairs or cheesy mainstream blockbusters that felt wholly unrepresentative […]
50 Year Storms & Knife-Wielding Locals: Point Break Plot Fact or Fiction?
[The Wavelength Drive-In Cinema is back for 2021, bringing you a range of surf cinema, cult classics and family favourites from the clifftops of Cornwall. Browse the full lineup and get your ticket here. Or, subscribe to Wavelength now to get free entry to a screening of your choice.] Before fake news and post-truths, there was just stuff people said, […]
Wavelength Drive-In Cinema Presents: Dogtown & Z-Boys
We’re excited to announce the next film to be added to our summer drive-in cinema line up is the award-winning surf/skate doc Dogtown and Z-Boys, showing on the 23rd August and the 4th September. Ticket numbers are limited. Enter your email here and we’ll let you know as soon as you can get yours. Set […]
25 Years Since Blue Juice: A Potted History of the Cornish Surf Culture Experience
[The Wavelength Drive-In Cinema is back for 2021, bringing you a range of surf cinema, cult classics and family favourites from the clifftops of Cornwall, including two screenings of Blue Juice. Browse the full lineup and get your tickets here. Or, subscribe to Wavelength now to get free entry to a screening of your choice.] Quarter of a century of time […]
The Real Stories Behind The Internet’s Most Viral Surf Shots
Once released into the digital wilds, photos have a habit of taking on a life of their own. Like the biological agent after which they’re named, viral shots live in a constant spin cycle of copying, editing, resizing and resharing, until one day enough variations exist to fill a small desert server farm. Surf shots […]
Road Trip Tips: Where & Who
Universal in appeal and availability, and yet experienced in their own unique way even by members of the same journey, the surfing road trip is one of the fundamental truths of your surfing life. At its best, the road trip embodies the very essence of the surfing experience. At its worst, the road trip embodies […]
Discovering Bagpipe; A Brief History Of A Crazy Scottish Slab
It was a balmy summer’s day in 1975’s when Welsh surfer and photographer Paul Gill crossed a boggy field on Scotland’s north coast and watched waves breaking across the shallow flagstone shelf that would come to be known as the Bagpipe. He’d first visited the coastline four years earlier on a geography field trip and […]
Naming Rights & Naming Wrongs: ‘Somewhere in Mexico’
The bungled unveiling of Barra de la Cruz, 2006 Rip Curl Search WCT venue
Bodysurfer Drowns At La Nord, Hossegor
Tragedy struck yesterday (14/06/20) in Hossegor, France as a bodysurfer, as yet unidentified but estimated to be aged 40-50 drowned at La Nord, the big wave break located outside of la Graviere and in front of the main beach square, la Centrale. A solid NW groundswell had been confused overnight by a stormier local seas, […]
Was Surfing Better Back When Everything Was Shit?
How e-fat bikes and boards that actually paddle crushed my French surfing dream
Is An Above Average 2020 Hurricane Season Cause For Celebration?
Surfing’s ultimate ‘every cloud’ scenario
Europe Set To Reopen Borders For Summer Surf Trips
Road tripping looks like your best bet for scoring the surf on the Continent this summer
GALLERY: The Joys Of Late-Season Sri Lanka
Back when everything was normal, peak season surf travel was the status quo. Sure, there were some notable exceptions, like late season Hawaii, or early season Mentawais; but generally, visiting exotic locations during the window most likely to offer up glorious weather and optimum surf seemed to be the go-to for most. However, over the […]
Rumour: Have You Watched Your Last Ever Quik Pro France?
If the Euro CT leg does runs this year, it could well be the last
How A Group Of Mancunian Factory Workers Shaped The British Surf Experience
[This article originally appeared in Volume 256. Subscibe to Wavelength now to never miss an issue.] On a gloomy day in 1932 a defiant group of young factory workers, dressed in old army shorts and worn work boots, marched up a steep moorland ridge just outside of Manchester. Behind them, a breathless huddle of policemen struggled to […]
Tom Curren, Backdoor: Ted Grambeau On An Era-Defining Wave
Around The World In 6 Surf Shots: Curren’s 90’s Backdoor Bomb by Ted Grambeau
WATCH: Victoria Vergara In A New Short By Morgan Maassen
After growing up between the tropical isles of Reunion and New Caledonia, Victoria Vergara entered the world of the model/ surfer aged just 14. Since then she’s developed a style and approach in the water that has seen her become one of the most appreciated female longboarders in the world. In this brand new short, […]
Concern Mounts As Big Bank Holiday Swell Forecast To Hit Unguarded Beaches
Concern is growing in the South West ahead of the bank holiday weekend, with fears that solid swell heights, sunny weather and big tides could create a perfect storm of dangers for those visiting the region’s lifeguard-less beaches. While overnight stays are still banned under current lockdown guidelines, day trips to the seaside are back […]
Europe Officially Back In The Water
For the first time in over two months, Europe’s Atlantic lineups, from the Arctic Circle down to the Gibraltar Straits are open for surfers Five days after lockdown officially ended in France a week ago (11/05), and after some 66 days banned from the nation’s lineups, French surfers were allowed back in the water this […]
Post Lockdown Localism: A Guide To Blowing In Gently
As much of Europe starts to emerge from lockdown to varying degrees at varying rates, and we start to imagine and build the new normal, coastal dwellers and out of towners consider their positions along a shifting idealogical fault line. In much of mainland Europe, identifying the interloper at distance has generally been a more […]
Surfing Through A Tsunami In Peru; Felipe Pomar’s Legendary Ride
[Earlier this month we brought you a potted history of pop-culture’s obsession with the concept of tsunami surfing; spanning appearances in old Hawaiian folklore, through TV ads and Hollywood cult classics, to an alleged feature in one of youtube’s first viral videos. Here, we’ll tell the story of a big wave legend and early surfing […]
Surfers Turned Criminal Masterminds: Murph The Surf
Historically, there’s always been something about surfing that draws ne’er-do-wells and degenerates into its ranks. It could be the pastime’s countercultural roots or the freewheeling hedonism the lifestyle encourages. Or perhaps it’s the simple fact an obsession with chasing waves around the world ain’t exactly conducive with traditional modes of employ. Whatever the reason, everywhere […]
Introducing: Inspired Surfers – in partnership with Jimmy’s
A portion of history has ‘a surfer’ labelled as a person with very little aspiration. Someone who is blinkered to the ocean and beach culture with an outlook that does not go beyond the horizon. In our mind surfers are the opposite. We are at the forefront of disruption and in fact, have been here […]
‘Can You Surf A Tsunami?’ – The History Of A Pop Cultural Obsession
On the island of Oahu in the early 60’s, the story of the man who surfed a tidal wave was just one that everyone knew. “Everyone always used to say, ‘Hey, have you heard that story?’” remembers a Hawaiian woman named Kris Sellin, who’d first been told it way back in elementary school. “This guy, […]
Surfing’s Golden Years: Postwar Malibu & Early 70’s Queensland
Matt Warshaw is a former pro surfer from the Zephyr team of Dog Town & Z Boys fame, Editor of Surfer Magazine 1984-90, the author of several books including The History of Surfing, Above The Roar and Photo/Stoner and currently the man behind the greatest website in our sport (and arguably, up there with any website in any sport), The Encyclopedia of Surfing. We […]
The Warshaw Conventions
Matt Warshaw is a former pro surfer from the Zephyr team of Dog Town & Z Boys fame, Editor of Surfer Magazine 1984-90, the author of several books including The History of Surfing, Above The Roar and Photo/Stoner and currently the man behind the greatest website in our sport (and arguably, up there with any […]
The Corona Court Of Public Shaming Is In Session; Careful – You Could Be Next
There was a time when it looked like the Coronavirus crisis might actually bring us together. Commentators predicted that a shared traumatic experience could be just the ticket for beginning to heal some of our deep societal divisions. And there have been a few examples of behaviour that makes the heart sing. Like the inspiring […]
A Blueprint For A Happy Lockdown With Nic Von Rupp
From the jet setting pro to the humble weekend warrior, the current lockdown demands a major adjustment for surfers from all walks of life. We’re all trying to strike the balance between isolating as much as possible to help slow the spread, maintaining our mental and physical health and not descending into long periods of […]
Zen Surf Food: Vegan Porridge
Zen Surf Food is a new series from Wavelength bringing you vegan insights for surfers – and a better tomorrow. Fuel mind, body, soul… and a justified sense of superiority with cruelty free and ecocide light meal options for wave-riders with taste, curated by The Intolerant Yogi Everything Porridge Some say breakfast is the most […]
Are We Witnessing The Death Of The Global Surf Industry?
The surf industry is quite used to teetering on the edge of apocalypse. Mass layoffs, bankruptcies, team-riders slashed; these stories regularly come across our desks, virus or no virus. However, there’s no doubt this current round of chaos represents a brutal blow that will be particularly difficult to bounce back from. Most of the big […]
WATCH: Seven Miraculous Surfing Recoveries
What are the definitive hallmarks of a surfing master? Lightning-fast reactions? Rubber-band athleticism? A superhuman awareness that extends beyond bodily movements to include every flutter of the wave and waft of the board? Almost certainly the answer is an exact mix of all three. Of course, we love to see these skills play out in […]
GALLERY: The Many Faces Of Nazaré By Helio Antonio
For centuries Nazaré was a seaside town like any other. Just a mass of white houses with terracottas rooves sprawling back from the coast where the beaches bustled with tourists, frolicking among brightly coloured boats and a tangle of fishing nets. In the late 70’s a small crew of local surfers and bodyboarders sprung up […]
Garcia Family Explains Lack Of Updates Around Sunny’s Recovery
On 30th April 2019 it was reported that 2000 world champ Sunny Garcia had been rushed to intensive care following an attempt to take his own life. Five months later, his family released a statement via the @prayforsunny Instagram account stating that Sunny was showing signs of recovery. “We are taking one day at a […]
False Dawn Patrol: The #FightForTheBight
Did your News Feed light up last week with a multitude of surf folk celebrating Equinor’s announcement not to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight? Kudos to those behind an excellent campaign for their efforts, and their success. Not just Sean Doherty and Heath Joske, who were chief among them, but to everyone […]
Teahupoo Confirmed As Location For Olympic Surfing In 2024
Back in December, the IOC met up for a planning meeting where the subject of surfing’s location for the 2024 Paris Olympic games came up for discussion. The gentle rollers of Biaritz’s Côte des Basques, the wobbly peelers of Lacanau and the whomping tubes of Hossegor were all suggested, but today it was announced the […]
Confessions Of A Luxury Surf Guide
Learning to surf feels like a pretty levelling experience, doesn’t it? For most, it involves a well-pissed-in surf school wettie, a mostly waterlogged foamie and the waving arms of a cock-shore instructor from the Home Counties. However, if you’re in the upper echelons of the world’s super-rich, there are places that provide entry into the […]
How Instagram Changed Surf Photography
Earlier this week veteran Euro surf snapper Timo Jarvinen shared a quandary with his followers on Instagram. “For some reason,” he wrote, “I think that today’s surf photography doesn’t have anything to do with a top shelf, peak action. Just standing there and doing nothing seems to be the thing, even better if somewhat blurred.” […]
Scientists Propose Plans To Enclose North Sea and English Channel With Giant Dams
Last week, a group of Dutch scientists published a paper in the American Journal of Meteorology proposing a radical solution to the threat posed by rising sea levels; a pair of giant dams, which would completely enclose both the English Channel and the North Sea. Now you might be wondering, as we were, if the […]
Did We Just Have The Best Week of Euro Surf Comps Ever?
While the British Isles were getting blasted by screeching gales and torrential downpours by the back to back bomb depression systems of Ciara and Dennis, the Continent basked in the double delights of plus 20 degree air temps, and plus 20 ft swells. For good measure, it was also puffing offshore, too. While Ciara’s sub […]
In Defence Of The Hastings Storm Surfer
On Monday of this week, a lone surfer jumped off a harbour wall for a surf in Hastings as solid 6-foot onshore waves pounded the shoreline. Nestled way up the channel coast, in the south-east corner of Britain, Hastings isn’t exactly a surfing hub. But still a small community of wave riders exist there, waiting […]
Coffee & Surfing: Any Questions?
Love both surfing and coffee, in almost equal measure? So do we. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Origin Coffee to bring you a delicious subs offer for a limited time. New subscribers to Wavelength’s premium print editions can currently get two free bags of Origin Coffee. Get a Wavelength subscription & 2 free bags of Origin Coffee here But enough […]
A Trip To Taiwan; The Pacific’s Alternative Surf Destination
“Xièxie” I say to the smiley-eyed baker as she closes the condensation-filled cabinet and emerges from a cloud of vapour like a contestant on ‘Stars in their Eyes’. She hands me a carrier bag bulging with a selection of the famous Taitung County Baozi buns, each the size of a fist, with a consistency akin […]
Know When To Go: The Wavelength Guide To Surf Seasons Around The World
As the murky depths of winter envelope us here in Europe, thoughts naturally turn to overseas surf missions. Perhaps you’ve already got a destination or month in mind, or perhaps you’re still very much in the spin the globe stage of planning. Either way, we’re here to help with this guide to swell seasons at […]
The Most Talked About Surf Clips Of The Decade
Like everything the internet has got it claws into, the world of surf film making has undergone a profound shift over the last ten years. When the decade began Youtube was still in its infancy, Instagram was still three years off even hosting video and the majority of surfing’s moving images still existed on the […]
A Decade In Review; European Surfing’s Defining Moments From 2010-2019
Smell ya later, twenty teens. We started the decade not wanting to be part of no f*kin tennis tour, and ended it on the eve of being part of the Olympics, whether we like it or not. If we cast our minds back a decade, we probably didn’t particularly see a wave pool CT event, foiling, or the Brazilian Storm coming. Elsewhere, […]
Ripcurl Flashbomb Heat Seeker Review
It struck me as a little bizarre, one cold windy morning in the Atlantic, just how much my new plain black wetsuit seemed to be turning heads. I’d had the Ripcurl Heat Seeker for about 3 weeks and decided to give it a whirl without reading into what makes it special. This way I got […]
Between Struggle & Rubble; The Besieged Surfers Of Gaza
[This article originally appeared in Volume 255. Subscibe to Wavelength now to never miss an issue.] In the farthest-flung corner of the Mediterranean Sea, there lies a small strip of land. Looking at a map it is largely inconspicuous; lodged in the crook of the eastern coast, its 365 square kilometres are neatly contained by […]
The History Of The Aloha Shirt
[During the Vans Triple Crown, we’ll be bringing you a whole stack of stories centred around Hawaii’s North Shore. You can read them all here.] Over the last century, from the golden sands of the Seven-Mile Miracle to the many anonymous town centres of Northern Europe, Hawaiian shirts have become a staple of the sartorial […]
5 Non-North Shore Winter Surf Trips
[During the Vans Triple Crown, we’ll be bringing you a whole stack of stories centred around Hawaii’s North Shore. You can read them all here.] It’s wintertime in the northern hemisphere, a time when you might feel the powerful lure of a seasonal equatorward migration. However. You may have also noticed the climate crisis, our […]
Only The Simplest Of Pleasures; Catching Up With Torren Martyn
It’s a cold afternoon in mid-November and I’m sat in a busy cafe, on a nondescript industrial estate on the outskirts of Plymouth. Opposite me, wearing glasses and a thick puffer coat is Torren Martyn, the wirey, 29-year-old surfer from Byron Bay who’s been setting the surfing world alight over the last half-decade with a […]
The Incredible Life Of Cribbar Pioneer Ric Friar
[This article originally appeared in Volume 255. Subscibe to Wavelength now to never miss an issue.] “He was implying I was a coward if I didn’t paddle out,” recalls Ric Friar with crystal clarity of a morning back in 1963, when a monster storm swell battered his local stretch of reef. Despite a barrage of […]
North Shore Lore: The V-Land Ghetto
[During the Vans Triple Crown, we’ll be bringing you a whole stack of stories centred around Hawaii’s North Shore. You can read them all here.] When surf spots undergo metamorphosis, it’s usually sudden, rather than gradual. The 2007 Indonesian earthquake lifting the reefs at spots like Nias and Macaronis, making them heavier waves than previously, […]
North Shore Lore: Big Wave Surfing’s First Fatality
[During the Vans Triple Crown, we’ll be bringing you a whole stack of stories centred around Hawaii’s North Shore. You can read them all here.] December 1943: Woody Brown and Dickie Cross paddled out on a rising swell at Sunset Beach, at a time when the North Shore had but a handful of very occasional surfers. While the […]
Read: Five Books For Hawaii Trippers
[During the Vans Triple Crown, we’ll be bringing you a whole stack of stories centred around Hawaii’s North Shore. You can read them all here] Heading to The Islands? Decided to take the plunge and make the only winter surf trip that counts? Not undermining your self-aware #nopalmtrees safaris to Caledonia of course, complete with pseudo-intellectual […]
Why Is It Called The Banzai Pipeline?
[During the Vans Triple Crown, we’ll be bringing you a whole stack of stories centred around Hawaii’s North Shore. You can read them all here.] In the 1800s, amid frequent wars with Russia and China, Japan’s military government seized on what they hoped would be a game-changing tactic. Inspired by the ancient Samurai’s commitment to […]
How (Not) To Watch The Vans Triple Crown: Haleiwa & Sunset
The Vans Triple Crown is upon us, the thrilling climax to another year of competitive pro surfing. In terms of gathering of the tribe vibes, it’s kind of a cross between the Hajj, the Eisteddfod… and Spring Break. The North Shore aka the Seven Mile Miracle is the hallowed, sacred ground upon which anyone who […]
Catching Up With Kelia Moniz
To say Kelia Moniz is a household name in women’s longboarding is an understatement. Although she’s only in her mid-20s, she’s been a prominent face on the world tour for over a decade, winning two ASP world titles and serving as a central figure in female longboarding’s ever-growing mainstream appreciation. Unlike many in her field, […]
Crowd Surfing: Who Actually Goes To Surf Comps, Anyway?
Sports are often defined by the people who go and watch them as much as those actually doing them. Association football springs to mind in particular, the various fan tribes being as much the defining factor of the match day experience than any passage of play or venue. Hundreds of thousands of Britons’ entire lives are defined by the […]
The Best Apparel For Winter Surfing 2019/20
Surf wear has come to mean much down the years. Once, its principal function was merely to instantly identify you as a surfer, a person on the inside of the wave riding tribe, at 50 paces. It was a bold yet casual uniform, designed to separate us, from them. They had shell suits and polo shirts, […]
Jeremy Flores Scores Historic Victory On Incredible Finals Day At The Quik Pro France
Jeremy Flores just became the first-ever Frenchman to win the Quik Pro, capping off a monumental finals day here in Hossegor. The waves pumped from dawn till dusk, with reeling rights and lefts on the outer banks at La Nord serving as the playing field for the early rounds, with action shifting to the giant […]
The Best Wetsuits For Winter Surfing
If you’re surfing in Europe in winter, you’re wearing a wetsuit. In fact, what wetsuit you’re wearing will likely determine the quality of the surfing experience as much as – possibly more – than the board you ride. Realistically, each session you’re only up and wiggling (sorry ripping, I meant ripping) for a couple of […]