Inspiration
Meet the people who weave life into the fabric of surfing. We profile interesting characters with an amazing story and an obsession with the ocean. Read about up and coming surfers and crusty old locals who smell like billy goats and ride single fins. If they have a story to tell, you’ll find them in here. Come and be inspired by artists, business gurus and thought leaders in our well of inspiration.
When the West Coast of the South Island is becalmed by an enormous high there is no better place to be than Westport’s Tauranga Bay. With a 1 to 1.4m long-period swell pulsing through and a grom comp about to unleash on the T Bay Superbank, there’s a lot to......
With a forecast about as diabolical as you can get for a Dunedin summer the Health 2000 2020 Nationals had it all: early exits, upsets, elation and the emergence of two new champions. Here are our 10 best moments from it all. The Gathering of the Tribe There are few......
Piha surfer Elliot Paerata-Reid has claimed the 2020 National Open Surfing Title after a thrilling final battle with seven-time and defending champion, Billy Stairmand. In the women’s, 14-year-old Ava Henderson rose to the top with a polished performance to take her first open title. Two new National Champions have ushered......
The 2020 New Zealand Surf Open (Unofficial) is the impulsive gathering of New Zealand’s best surfers at a break that is completely pumping. It is unscripted. It has no rules. It has no timeframes. And no parameters. Just 40, or so, of the best surfers in New Zealand over a......
Mount Maunganui-based surfer and ocean photographer Lou Burton mixes Xmas and New Year with a little pulsing east swell for the perfect summer tonic. Together with her mates she proves the great Kiwi summer surfing roadie is alive and well … with an occasional shark scare thrown in. Christmas came......
Renowned Mount Maunganui-based shaper Andy Jordan will soon bow to a strong call from the Land of the Rising Sun and move to a “forgotten” Japanese island to live. The veteran shaper has crafted an extraordinary 7330-plus “AJ” boards – short, long, twin fins and all the rest, over about......
Inspirational Hawaiian surfer Bethany Hamilton has been awarded the international wildcard spot for the Piha Pro Challenger Series Event to be held at Piha in March 2020. Hamilton has had a few years away from competing while she has focused on her feature film Unstoppable, which tells her incredible life......
Mahia surfer Ricardo Christie has saved his best for last in the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour, despatching World Title hopeful, Felipe Toledo in the Round of 32 at the Billabong Pipe Masters in Memory of Andy Irons. It was a thrilling Round of 32 at Pipeline, Hawaii, that......
Paul Moretti and Elin Tawharu have claimed their maiden New Zealand Surf Series victories, winning the season-ending Backdoor Pro at Fitzroy Beach, New Plymouth at the weekend. The event was relocated to Fitzroy Beach with the pending weather for the day looking ominous. However, the surf ranged between 1.0m –......
Momentum for the environment may be building painstakingly slowly within the surf industry, but not for the three New Zealanders driving Spooked Kooks recycled surfboards out of Bondi. It was during a morning session at Sandy Bay, that I had my first encounter with a Dead Hippy. It was under......