LIQUID IDEALS

We surfers are a fickle bunch. We’ll latch onto a certain break every few years, convinced that it represents everything we love about waves, right until the next fantasy-fueling discovery comes along. To think that there was a time when we believed Waikiki was as good as surf got—that’s right, the same stretch of mostly crumbly reefbreaks where thousands of tourists now search for their sea legs every year. But as our boards evolved from crude redwood planks to finely tuned composite craft, and our idea of high performance shifted from standing statuesquely on the shoulder to launching over lips and tucking into deep caverns, our criteria for great surf followed suit. For the last six decades our concept of perfection has changed from gently tapering California pointbreaks to bone-rattling Hawaiian reefs to exotic slabs once deemed unsurfable and beyond. With every new era, there’s always