It’s totally possible to ride a wave so big and so intense that you just walk away from the sport afterward. I don’t think I could ever do it as dramatically as Greg Noll, but it has occurred to me. Every winter I assess my mindset and wonder if this will be the year I’ll paddle out at Jaws and decide that that’s it, I don’t want anything to do with it anymore. Now that I’ve been out of it for a little bit, I look back at some of the waves I’d ridden at Jaws and Mavs and I’m not sure I’ll ever top them in terms of a personal experience. At some point, I feel like it’s kind of irresponsible and selfish of me to put myself in tons of danger when I really don’t need to anymore. I have a lot of responsibility in my life these days.
You don’t need so many surfboards. I don’t want to be wasteful and I don’t want to maximize the amount of shit I’m throwing in a landfill. Try not to do that. I might not be the most eco-conscious person in the world, but I definitely would think about waste every time I ordered a bunch of boards.
This story is from the Volume 61, Issue 2 edition of Surfer.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Volume 61, Issue 2 edition of Surfer.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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
