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.
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......
Trying to find your way through the quagmire of fins available these days can do your head in. New Zealand Surf Journal sits down with Hughes Surfboards shaper and Raglan Surf Co owner Luke Hughes to tap into his wealth of knowledge. In this film, Part 1 of 4, Luke......
New Zealand Surf Journal asks Primal’s lead surfboard shapers, Glen Carkeek and Steve Hamlyn, to share their insights on what’s coming next in surfboard design, technology and manufacture. With a combined 60 years of experience in the shaping bay and a bunch of shaping innovations already under their belt, we’re......
Life on the edge of a desert is simple living. Especially on Western Australia’s remote coastline when a swell begins pushing across the reefs and points. Laurie Towner reminds us all of the importance of the simple life. A renowned big wave surfer, the very laidback Towner, steals a chance......
Southern surf photographer, Hayden Campbell, ditches his hood, steamer and booties in favour of some Pacific Island charm in the form of the crystal blue waters of Cloudbreak. Camera in tow, here’s his first story for New Zealand Surf Journal, directly from the coral heads of one of our most......
He may prefer to hide away from the limelight, but Jamie Civil keeps drawing attention to himself in pumping hollow waves. Civil would have to be one of New Zealand’s best barrel riders and this edit by Tim Shaw and Oscar Johns attests to that. Filmed over a winter in......
Chris Malone and Zhana Hutchieson surfed to victory at the Aotearoa Maori Titles at the end of October and in doing so claim two of the coveted trials slots for the Piha Pro scheduled for March 2020. Malone and Hutchieson fought off some tough opponents with excellent surfing on the......