Innehållsförteckning för #357 Waves från Surfing Life

Visit a beach, stand ankle-deep in its powdery sand … something takes our focus. An unassuming influencer makes our mind relax while creative ideas flow, and on countless occasions, our insides backflip with anticipation at its mere sight. The sea. Its magnetic charm draws our gaze. When we drive by with no chance of a surf, we catch glimpses of watery hills and valleys. Waves can transform an ordinary place into a briny adventure. Its curling peaks entice us. Or the exact spot can sap our energy, as we sneer at its blustery slop. The ocean is a mish-mash of metaphors, rehashed by tides and swell. Waves are playful youngsters, tippy-toeing across the sand, giggling and basking in the warm sun. Pleasure-driven, sun-kissed and curious, a grom’s best friend, eager…

The insatiable desire for exploration has been engrained into my psyche. Do all humans have this intrinsic programming? Or has growing up with a world map for a rug had something to do with it? My inner navigational faculty is mapped by the location of waves. I didn’t just see countries as I stared at my rug; I saw a list of waves I wanted to surf before I die. And not just surf them but experience those waves doing what they’re famous for. The list was expansive: Pipeline, Teahupo’o, Deserts, Super Suck, Greenbush, Macaronis, Skeleton Bay, Thurso East, Riley’s, Mullaghmore, Mundaka, Maldives, Raglan … it went on. In retrospect, did staring at my carpeted world map, every day for years on end and imagining what it’d be like to…

Do you have a PhD in geophysical fluid dynamics? Adam Fincham does. He’s the type of guy who could breeze through round after round of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? to take the bacon. But he doesn’t need to, because anyone with a PhD in something as complex and niche as geophysical fluid dynamics is clearly going places. We’ll discuss Adam’s contribution to the world of waves a little later. In the meantime, for the layperson who doesn’t have a rare and mind-boggling PhD but wouldn’t mind a crack at Eddy’s hot seat, there’s a much more accessible and enjoyable option to help level up ocean knowledge: read the third incarnation of the late legendary waterman Willard Bascom’s Waves and Beaches.1 We’ve dubbed this little number “The Ocean Encyclopaedia”,…

Over the falls and floundering about, I’ve had an epiphany: there’s no time for doubtSearching the coast, it’s clear as can be, I’m a slave to our glorious seaBut not for a moment will I ever agreeSurfing’s positive, makes a “better” me’Cos on days ending in “Y”, it’s easy to seeWhen I paddle out: the bigger the set, the bigger the doubtSo it’s not about pride and I’ll never decideWhen I’m charging a wave, it’s my choice to be braveAnd there’s no shame in making this claim:When times are tough, I’m not good enoughAs long as there’s wax on my deck, I’ll never acceptSpeeding down that salty slope, confirms I’m brave and full of hope[It’s time to shift the viewpoint and take that menacing dropRe-read this two-way poem from the…

Will wave pools replace the ocean, especially if things get dire out in the great blue? No, we don’t see that wave pools will ever totally replace the ocean. But they certainly complement the ocean and allow for the opportunity to share ocean-like experiences with communities who will never be able to enjoy its raw beauty and the thrill of wave riding. Through the sharing of the ocean-like experience, we have an opportunity to educate and promote sustainability and causes, which are devoted to help repair oceans. In our case, we have aligned with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in a partnership that we hope will aid them to create positive change and not just awareness. You have created an incredible piece of technology; can you see it being trumped?…

Late 2000s. The golden era. The Dream Tour in its prime. Slater, Fanning, Parko, Steph and Carissa at their peak powers, swinging into caverns across the world. Cloudbreak firing. “The sickest competition on the planet” was Globe’s slogan, if memory serves correctly. Snapper, Bells, Teahupo’o, and J-Bay, all leading into a thundering crescendo at Pipeline. Fast forward to 2021 and only half of those locations are left on tour. Of course, there’s COVID-19 and all that. But is two-foot Narrabeen the dream? As a native Queenslander who spent the pandemic surfing our blessed beaches with the rare fortune of avoiding lockdowns, it’s safe to say that Snapper Rocks should have been a sure thing for the 2021 competitive calendar. If Snapper Rocks had run this year, it would have been…

There is a hell on Earth, at least in a meteorological sense. A place where mariners’ superstitions may have been forged, as they brawled with deathly seas and demonic winds. A place named by the first sailors in the early 1600s. A place we still call the Roaring 40s. Below mainland Australia, engulfing Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand, are invisible latitudinal boundaries, which lie 40 and 50 degrees South of the equator. This global band of perpetual and ferocious westerly winds gust up to such extreme forces, they generate waves that measure in excess of 23 metres (78 foot). How huge are we talking? Simply gaze up a six-storey building to gain a sense of scale. Mountains of water steam train towards their inevitable end somewhere on…

It’s dark and eerily cold. If we launch out of our high-piled blanketed beds and wipe the condensation off the window, there could be mist or fog or that wave-hogging nemesis with his car packed and hooning toward our local break. Nevertheless, today could be a cracker if we snaffle a few waves before “the grind” (after the coffee grind, of course). But let’s not race ahead. Before we leave our cosy warm beds, chuck on some clothes and throw our boards in the car, what do we check? The surf reports. No point becoming human icicles ’til we know for sure. So, which one’s the best? More to the point, how can it benefit me—us? Over the years as science and technology has evolved, we’ve learnt to trust the…

Let’s start out by saying we love the World Tour; we love live surfing, and we love to watch surfing’s elite battle it out, heat after heat, ’til a victor is crowned. However, we have a few questions about the finals, some that can be answered, many that can’t … at least not by us. Some time ago, legendary surfer Tom Curren was having a couple of cleansing ales after an event, and made the following statement, “It should be the best surfers in the best waves.” Enter the spearhead of modern pro surfing, Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew. Rabbit helped facilitate this, and today, we’re able to watch world titles being battled out over the globe in all kinds of conditions and breaks. And when that final winner is soaked with…

Peter “Joli” Wilson is one of surfing’s best shooters. He has been a professional photographer for over four decades and has logged thousands of hours of shooting around the world. Joli has seen plenty of shifts both in his field and in the broader surf industry. He has worked with some incredible surfers and big brands. He’s been published in every surf magazine in the world. We hope you enjoy our catch up with Joli as much as you enjoy his imagery. Q: When did you start surfing? I got my first surfboard when I was 14 years old, and that’s when I figured I started surfing. I started liking surfing before I got my first board. The interesting thing is my dad gave me a photograph of him holding…

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