CATEGORIES
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.
A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong
You don’t make 60 years of magazines without dropping some balls. Here are a few
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
For Generations to Come
Rockaway’s Lou Harris is spreading the stoke to Black youth and leading surfers in paddling out for racial justice
Christina Koch, 41
Texas surfer, NASA astronaut, record holder for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman
END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING
By the time the pandemic is done reshaping the world, will the World Tour still have a place in it?
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
After decades of exclusive access to Hollister Ranch, the most coveted stretch of California coast is finally going public
What They Don't Tell You
How does becoming a mother affect your surfing life?
Four Things to Make You Feel A Little Less Shitty About Everything
Helpful reminders for the quarantine era
The Art of Being Seen
How a group of black women are finding creative ways to make diversity in surfing more visible
Surftech
Everyday surfers weigh in on Surftech’s newest models, and the Best of the Test was the “Untitled” by Haydenshapes
THE PERFECT STORM
The Brazilian Storm cracked the code to competitive surfing dominance, but Brazil’s next generation faces an uncertain forecast
WARRIORS OF THE BIGHT
In beating back Big Oil, the misfit crew of surfers behind the Fight for the Bight have done more than save Australia’s southern coast—they’ve created a movement for bigger fights to come
Shane Dorian, 47
Father, hunter, one of the best ever in waves 2-feet to 60. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
A WORLD AWAY
Traveling, surfing and escaping in the time of Coronavirus
SECOND COMING
After a series of near-career-ending injuries, former aerial innovator Wade Goodall finds new ways to channel his erratic creativity with his film “Pentacoastal”
SONS OF THE REVOLUTION
Fifty years ago, the Shortboard Revolution saw the most radical design shifts in the history of surfcraft. Today, that same experimental spirit is alive and well in the surfing and shaping approaches of Torren Martyn and Simon Jones
Jodie Cooper, 55
First Openly-Gay World Tour Surfer, Big-Wave Charger, Assault Survivor, Zero-Shit Taker North Coast, New South Wales
When Surfing Isn't Enough
Surfing seems like it should be a salve for mental health problems, so what happens when it isn’t?
The Kids Of Queens
In the birthplace of modern surfing, a young crop of Waikiki surfers who call themselves “The Grom Squad” are redefining Hawaiian style and taking the longboarding world by storm
Surf Media's Grom-In-Chief
Those who think print is dead have never met Tanner Bromberg, the Hawaiian surfer who edited and published a grom-focused surf magazine when she was only 8 years old
Wisdom - Peter Schroff, 65
Shaper, artist, philosopher San Pedro, California
Scions Of Style
From classical trims to punk-inspired punts, these six young aesthetes are drawing some of the most interesting lines of surfing’s new generation
A Podcast for Shred Heads, Wax Heads, Kooks and Barnies
Ain’t That Swell co-hosts Jed Smith and Vaughan Blakey discuss their wildly funny and utterly Australian audio episodic
Going Off Script
Matt Wilkinson’s transformation from party boy to world-title contender proves that competitive surfing today is more unpredictable than ever.
Of Dirty Wax And Rabbits' Feet
Surf superstition is alive and well in our culture, and it can be the difference between our best and worst sessions.
Gut Check
Is there a unique set of bacteria shared by surfers worldwide? By ZANDER MORTON With his Surfer Biome Project, Cliff Kapono hopes to find out
On The Nose
How an unlikely collaboration between shaper Chris Christenson and an aerospace engineer from Pennsylvania may alter the future of big-wave surfboard design
Traveling Light
With their new board-sharing platform Awayco, Ace Buchan and friends want to bring the travel quiver to you
Spirit Animal
For Dane Gudauskas, relentless optimism and unbridled enthusiasm aren’t affectations; they are the key to surfing fulfillment