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.
Bobbing around on a jet ski near a reef off the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island it dawned on me that I had been drawn here like a moth to a flame. Each passing set of waves grew in size and intensity and started to look more like......
There is no question that the Gold Coast of Australia has become the hotbed of surf talent in the Southern Hemisphere. It has such a concentration of talent that when one of its fabled sandy points break, no waves go unridden and the menu is barrels, airs and fully buried......
One of the greats of New Zealand surf photography, Cory Scott, has taken ownership of New Zealand Surfing Magazine after 10 years as an employee with the magazine. The title has been produced consistently since 1985. Cory bought the title in June this year from Pacific Media’s Steve Dickinson. Cory......
Back in 1966 a 13-year-old Christchurch boy stared out to sea and decided that surfing was going to become a part of his life. Photography soon consumed a young Warren Hawke and nearly 50 years later he is one of New Zealand’s best surf photographers and still chasing swells from......
Friday is our last day in Fiji. It is a day of mixed emotions. Firstly, it is sad to leave the friends we’ve made but nice to know we’ll soon return to our families and friends. Our boatman Felipé has a tear in his eye as he hugs each of......
Under The Clouds is a beautiful film that was released by surfer and filmmaker Jonathan Smit in 2015. It features, the single fin, the skater and the shredder in a piece of cinematography that will stand the hairs up on the back of you neck. Sublime edit....
Ian Ross makes art that has a lifespan as long as a tide. And that doesn’t faze the talented surfer and nearly 40-year-old Californian artist. Sand art, as he describes it, is a series of shapes etched with a rake into the intertidal sand zone. Ian is a master of......
When it comes to the New Zealand surf industry there are very few long-lived brands and manufacturers beyond our cornerstone surfboard shapers. So it was a real privilege to meet Paul Zarifeh and his team at the Seventhwave Wetsuits factory in Christchurch back in the depths of winter in 2015.......
“I’ve got a local character for you,” laughs muso and surfer Shakes in the carpark at Whareakeake. “You have to meet this guy,” he smiles. “His son has a sign on the door that reads: ‘don’t worry about the dog, beware of the Cog!'” Shakes leads me over to one......
When we first saw Homa Mattingly’s crazy collection of boards we thought he must be experimenting with lots of new shapes and designs. They seemed very, very radical. On closer inspection we discovered a talented backyard shaper taking a different direction completely. Homa has been retracing a few apparent “dead-ends”......