Surfing Life

Surfboards start us off on this insatiable journey of riding waves and our fascination with them begins early. While at first we don’t entirely understand them, we feel them under our feet – sometimes sure, sometimes tentatively – but always with the

IT’S A PRIVILEGE TO SIT AND CHAT WITH INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE. SOMETIMES THEY’RE FAMOUS, MOST TIMES THEY’RE MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE THAN US, AND OFTEN THEY GIVE A GLIMPSE INTO WHAT’S UP AHEAD… LINES ON THE INDUSTRY’S HORIZON. Mark Price has been around in the

The Pacific Ocean has much to answer for this past winter, particularly when looking to the north of our Great Southern Land. First it was Cloudbreak that came out in emphatic fashion, searching for the ‘swell of the decade’ laurels. And just as we h

In the early evening of August 5th, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale flattened the north-eastern corner of Lombok, Indonesia. A hundred kilometres south of the epicentre, an untouched Desert Point was firing – flawless and lacking its

The World Surf League recently announced that it would award equal prize money to male and female athletes for every WSL-controlled event in the 2019 season and beyond. While the announcement was widely lauded and well received, Lauren Hill, unpacks

Rob Machado is a uniquely talented individual. There are not many surfer/shapers out there that have his level of surfing ability and contest record to match. Combine that with a knack for designing and shaping surfboards at a high level and one has

Korbin Hutchings, may have a slight identity crisis; the 21-year-old is from New Zealand, lives on the Gold Coast, and says that Mexican is his favourite food. What he’s not confused about, however, is riding surfboards. After an impressive junior ca

SHAPER: DANE HAMILTON 5’11” x 18 x 2 26.4 L A great shape, well executed… that’s what I thought when I picked up this board. When you get a great shape in excellent conditions, it’s hard not to have fun and that’s what I had on this board – fun! I

SHAPER: BRENDAN LECKIE 5’11” x 18 x 2 26.9 L With all the hype around Toledo at the moment and with Kanoa just winning Huntington on one, I was really looking forward to riding this board. These boards might not be as well known in Oz, but they are

SHAPER: TOMO 5’4” x 18 x 2 26.7 L I was really interested to try this board just because it’s definitely not your usual shape. When you’re on the QS grind, you do stick to what you know works, because it’s tried and tested. To have the opportunity

I had been out the water for a while, and it was time for a comeback. I had my eye on a new board that had a little bit of extra volume, but it was an epoxy, and I wasn’t too well versed in the dark art of current board manufacturing process. “What s

SHAPER: STEVE DEL ROSO 5’11” x 18 x 2 27.4 L This board definitely is a classic modern shorty with all the volume in the right places. I surfed this in some pretty solid conditions, where I was able to knife under the lip for some nice tubes. So, y

SHAPER: SPARROW 5’6” x 19 x 2 27.2 L Wow, what a crazy little machine this was. It’s another board that you might not use on the QS grind, but boy oh boy, it goes. It’s a really lively stick. You could get it into the air so easily, but it also tur

SHAPER: NICK BLAIR 5’11” x 18 x 2 27.3 L This board felt so good – so light – and is shaped really well. When I first saw this board, I was super excited to surf it. I was lucky enough to get a really good point day to surf this board. There weren’

We all know their names and we’ve seen their enticing curvy lines, but do we actually know what the tails of our surfboards do? Here’s a clue: they’re not just there to look good. They actually have a purpose and each of them is subtly different. Sha

SHAPER: BOYD PURDY 5’11” x 18 x 2 27 L The HB has a really nice plan shape and looked like it would do everything we would expect from a quality modern shorty. I was able to surf it in punchy beach breaks with plenty of barrels on offer, so like al

SHAPER: BENOIT RAMEIX 5’8” x 18 x 2 23 L This board came in a little under the 27 litres we requested, but it didn’t matter one bit. It’s a lively fun board that you could put wherever you wanted to. I really enjoyed riding this board and although

SHAPER: PAUL GRAVELLE 5’11” x 18 x 2 27 L When I picked up this board, I knew there was something different about it. Being a stringerless PU with carbon rails and glassed with epoxy, was probably what I noticed. It sure was a very different board

Speed, power, balance and control… you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a line out of the World Surf League’s judging criteria, but in this case, it’s not. We’re talking about fins. They say that a tyre is to your car, as a fin is to your surfboard;

SHAPER: LUKE MCKILL 6’0” x 18 x 2 27.25 L This board felt really good under the arm and as you know it’s a good first indicator of what a board is going to be like. It’s not a foolproof system, but when you’ve had hundreds of boards under your arm

SHAPER: FERNANDO DAL GRANDE 5’11” x 18 3/4” x 2 3/8” 26.7 L I’d never heard of DG surfboards before, and that’s because DG has only just started in the market. But from what I can understand, the shaper hasn’t just started in the market but has been

As all dedicated surfers know, every board needs fins, wax, tail pads (unless you’re left back in the ‘70s), legropes (unless you’re a hipster and don’t mind the odd swim to shore), and a board bag to throw them all in. Our board test was no differen

It was Hawaiian powerhouse surfer and international competitor, Dane Kealoha, who used to talk about weight and about how if you wanted to succeed in Hawaii for the season, your boards needed to be heavier. That was when the ASP ran three events in H

Bagging the ultimate surf shot is not just a case of point and shoot. Capturing that unique frame demands skill, timing, and the right gear. It’s kinda like choosing the right board for the right conditions; it can make all the difference in the outc

Walking into a World Championship Tour (WCT) locker room is a bit like getting a pit pass at a Formula 1 race. It’s a place where the machinery lies bare for all to see and an opportunity to look under the hood of what everyone is driving. And while

At September’s Surf Ranch Pro, held in Lemoore, California, a place where the dust settles into every case of skin like a new layer of pigment, Matt ‘Mayhem’ Biolos built surfboards for ten of the… what do we call ‘em now… oh yeah, athletes: Carissa

“Everything smelt fishy.” Matt Bromley is describing Nias, the day before the great, big boat pitching swell of July, 2018. “You could tell that the ocean had shifted. The day of the swell, I woke up in the dark and it sounded like there was a tsunam

It’s a simple idea and one that sits at the very core of human existence. The ability to share in new experiences and sensations is integral to a contented life, if only because it distracts us from the fact we’re on a long, painful journey towards c

Well that’s the Boards issue done and dusted. If nothing at all, we hope you walk away a little more informed than when you first sat down on the bog for a moment (or two) of solace. The biggest thing that has evolved in my surfing life over the past