The (Un)Official Forecast
Surfer|Volume 59, Issue 4

Five left-field predictions about the future of wave riding

Ashtyn Douglas
The (Un)Official Forecast

If you were to use a yardstick to compare the biggest airs of 1990 with the biggest airs of 2018, you’d see that above-the-lip maneuvers have grown vastly higher over the past three decades. But if you took that same yardstick and compared airs done by surfers with those done by snow-boarders or skateboarders, you’ll quickly see that the latter two easily out-launch and out-rotate surfers any day. Find Danny Way’s 25.5-foot air on You- Tube and contrast it with the 6-ish-foot alley oop Jack Robinson landed in West Oz back in March. It’s not even in the same league, let alone ballpark.

Paralleling wave-borne punts with those done in snowy half pipes or in concrete pools begs an obvious question: why the enormous difference? Will surfers ever be able to slingshot themselves skywards at heights that rival Snowboarders and skateboarders? Or does surfing have unique limitations and we’ve already reached the uppermost level of aerial maneuvers?

According to James Riordon, the head of public relations at the American Physical Society, the answer is both yes and no. Based on a couple “simple calculations,” Riordon’s figured out how to roughly estimate the max height surfers can launch themselves above the lip. Unlike Snowboarders and skateboarders, surfers are reliant upon the speed of the wave they’re punting off. And since waves slow down as they reach the shore, the speed a surfer can obtain becomes limited, and therefore so does their launch.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Volume 59, Issue 4 من Surfer.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Volume 59, Issue 4 من Surfer.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من SURFER مشاهدة الكل
60 Years Ahead
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60 Years Ahead

We had a whole plan for this year. Funny, right? Surfer's 60 year anniversary volume was going to be filled with stories nodding to SURFER’s past, with cover concepts paying homage to the magazine’s most iconic imagery. Our new Page One depicts something that’s never happened in surfing before, let alone on a prior SURFER cover. And our table of contents was completely scrapped and replaced as we reacted to the fizzing, sparking, roiling world around us. In other words, 2020 happened to SURFER, just like it happened to you.

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Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong
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A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong

You don’t make 60 years of magazines without dropping some balls. Here are a few

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Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
THE LGBTQ+ WAVE
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THE LGBTQ+ WAVE

Surf culture has a long history of marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community, but a new generation of queer surfers is working to change that

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Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
For Generations to Come
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For Generations to Come

Rockaway’s Lou Harris is spreading the stoke to Black youth and leading surfers in paddling out for racial justice

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Christina Koch, 41
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Texas surfer, NASA astronaut, record holder for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman

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END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING
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By the time the pandemic is done reshaping the world, will the World Tour still have a place in it?

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CHANGING OF THE GUARD
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After decades of exclusive access to Hollister Ranch, the most coveted stretch of California coast is finally going public

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What They Don't Tell You
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How does becoming a mother affect your surfing life?

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Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
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Helpful reminders for the quarantine era

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Volume 61, Issue 2
The Art of Being Seen
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How a group of black women are finding creative ways to make diversity in surfing more visible

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Volume 61, Issue 2