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.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Surf League (WSL) has made the decision to cancel the 2020 Corona Piha Pro Challenger Series event in Auckland. After postponing the event in the days before it was due to commence in mid-March, it has become clear that the inaugural Piha event......
What happens when the world’s hungriest World Qualifying Surfers are suddenly cut-free from their commitments when the 2020 Piha Pro is postponed due to COVID-19? Well, if Paige Hareb is involved then there is only one solution: grab a handful of good people and indoctrinate them into the ways to......
Bored in lockdown and struggling to stay out of the water? You’re not alone, but in this Covid-19 tarnished world there is a bright side: get creative like these southern surfing girls did. The South Island Surfing Championships were supposed to have been held this past weekend (and the waves......
Surf artist Daryn McBride has taken the lockdown message of community into his own hands. Now in his late 40s he’s offering New Zealanders a window into his art through a series of his colouring-in drawings. Daryn McBride is a living legend in the longboard scene. He’s a true talent and......
Most of the kaumatua of New Zealand surfing will tell you that they’ve forgotten more than we’ll ever know. Assembled around a campfire in the post-surf glow of twilight the stories tumble out like moths attracted to the flames. These are stories that should be treasured, told and re-told. Like......
Michael Gilling has been creating wooden surfboards for the past three years. Today, it’s finally time to show them to the world. He gathers his two close friends together on a road trip to show them his three-year secret. Michael shows us his creative process from tree to craft &......
New Zealand’s surfing communities have been asked to stay out of the water for at least the next four weeks to play their role in curbing the transmission of Coronavirus COVID-19. While it’s a hard pill to swallow and certainly not a well-communicated component of the lockdown, leading surfing communities......
The 2020 Corona Piha Pro has been postponed as World Surf League puts into action its sweeping reaction to the Coronavirus pandemic, halting all of its March events throughout the world. The Corona Piha Pro organisers apologised to stakeholders, residents, surfers and fans in a statement released today. “We ask......
Six young series champions were crowned by Australian surfing legends Mark “Occy” Occhilupo and Ryan Callinan at the Billabong Grom Series presented by Oceanbridge, which concluded at Piha, Auckland yesterday. The culmination of three events was played out in solid 1.5m waves with strong cross-shore winds offering up new challenges......
Elliot Paerata-Reid and Billy Stairmand have kicked off their 2020 World Qualifying Series campaigns in stellar form, both landing in the same semi-final heat. Paerata-Reid managed to repeat his effort from the Nationals in Dunedin, holding off an in-form Stairmand to book his finals berth at Boomerang Beach, Great Lakes,......
