Second Hand Stoke
Surfer|November 2016

After a surfboard drive led by California-based foundation Positive Vibe Warriors, the future of Jamaican surfing is looking brighter than ever.

Ashtyn Douglas
Second Hand Stoke

Ivah Wilmot’s sun-bleached dreadlocks dangle over a pile of surfboards as the 19-year-old bends down to pick up a groveler with a green, gold, and red stomp pad. It’s a wide-nosed Sharp Eye—probably no bigger than a 5'6", by the look of it under his taut, chiseled arm. The deck is covered with craters and the rails have a few patched dings, but by Jamaican standards, the board is mint.

“An American surfer named Tyrone gave this to me when he was visiting,” Ivah tells me, holding the board out in front of him for us both to examine. He’s shirtless with an oversized shark-tooth pendant hanging from his neck. “He noticed I didn’t have a fresh board, and he was like, ‘Oh, mon, you rip. Take this.’”

Looking for relief from the sweltering Jamaican sun, I had asked Ivah to show me his quiver in Jamnesia Surf Camp’s boardroom. Jamnesia was started along the south coast of the island by Ivah’s father, Jamaican surfing legend and prominent reggae musician Billy “Mystic” Wilmot. Ivah and his four older siblings learned to surf the wave-speckled shores outside Kingston and quickly became the island’s top talent, winning both domestic and international competitions in their respective age groups. Ivah is part of Jamaica’s new generation of rippers, with a style that pays homage to the knock-kneed, light-footed comportment of Craig Anderson or Rob Machado.

Inside Jamnesia’s boardroom, the sun seeps in through shuttered windows, silhouetting a library of aging boards scattered throughout the room. A beige Channel Islands short board with weather-beaten full traction leans against the wall, pummeled with pressure dings and patched back together in two different places. Yellowed single-fins and heavily rockered ’90s chips hang from the ceiling alongside a few stubby twin-fins with wide tails thick with resin from repair jobs.

Denne historien er fra November 2016-utgaven av Surfer.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra November 2016-utgaven av Surfer.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA SURFERSe alt
60 Years Ahead
Surfer

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.

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong
Surfer

A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong

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

time-read
7 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
THE LGBTQ+ WAVE
Surfer

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

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
For Generations to Come
Surfer

For Generations to Come

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

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
Christina Koch, 41
Surfer

Christina Koch, 41

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

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING
Surfer

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?

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
Surfer

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

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

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
What They Don't Tell You
Surfer

What They Don't Tell You

How does becoming a mother affect your surfing life?

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
Surfer

Four Things to Make You Feel A Little Less Shitty About Everything

Helpful reminders for the quarantine era

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 2
The Art of Being Seen
Surfer

The Art of Being Seen

How a group of black women are finding creative ways to make diversity in surfing more visible

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 2