Gear
Nothing enhances the surf experience like having the best gear and technology under your feet and wrapped around your body. We thrash the best gear available so you can make better purchasing choices and ultimately surf better. Check out the latest technology for boards, wetsuits, fins and any other hardware you need to enhance your next session.
Like it or not, we are living in a world that has waged a war on style. Hank Bilous is deep in the thick of it, aiming to strike the right balance between technical skill and self expression. The professional freeskier, turned surfer, turned nurse explores and challenges these dynamics......
“I never wanted to make surfboards for other people,” says Homa Mattingly, founder of Seer Surfcraft. As we walk through his backyard shaping bay, it becomes clear to me that he’s failed – at least on that front. The contents of his shaping area have invaded his living space, and......
Steve Morpeth epitomises the Kiwi surfer’s spirit and has built an empire around it with Sticky Johnson – New Zealand’s very own wax brand. Taira Blakely catches up with Steve in the Sticky Johnson factory in Kumeu to discover how he’s built his empire. Hailing from a line of watermen,......
O’Neill seems to have stumbled across a magic formula with its Hyperfreak series. Its latest Hyperfreak Fire, or Hyper Fire as it’s now called, takes that performance up another notch. We thrashed one to death, with close to 500 surf sessions, to see how it performed. It hasn’t all been......
Bringing a new wetsuit brand into New Zealand was never going to be easy, but that didn’t deter Simon Clowes and Cian Sullivan – the duo behind C-Skins here in New Zealand. Simon jokes that he and Cian could be father and son. While there is a 25-year gap between......
One of New Zealand’s finest collections of classic Kiwi surfboards and surfing memorabilia – held in a private collection – is being offered for sale. The collection, stored in a hangar at Tauranga Airport, centres on more than 130 surfboards, both longboards and short boards, most in excellent condition. It......
While the surf industry seems to be in a slump, Backdoor’s Geoff Hutchison remains cautiously optimistic as he opens his 25th and biggest store in Dunedin. We caught up with the 60-year-old ripper and surf business guru to learn a bit about what’s going on in the surf industry right......
Very few surfers have had the weight of expectation heaped upon their shoulders quite like Taylor Hutchison. At 26, he’s come to terms with being born into a hard-working, surfing devoted family. We caught up with Taylor during one of his recent “work trips” to the Otago coastline. Back in......
FCS Freedom Leash Review: The FCS Freedom Leash promised to be lighter, stronger, with less drag, less tangle – sign me up! Looks like I wasn’t the only one, a lot of online stores sold out quickly....
FCS Freedom Leash Review: The FCS Freedom Leash promised to be lighter, stronger, with less drag, less tangle – sign me up! Looks like I wasn’t the only one, a lot of online stores sold out quickly....