Portugese surfer Alex Botelho drowns during closing minutes of the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge. He is then revived in a dramatic rescue by the WSL big wave safety team on the beach at Praia do Norte in Nazaré, Portugal. Botelho, competing with team Portugal, was pulled lifeless from the water......
Monster northern hemisphere storm gives Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge the green light as new teams format is unveiled amid whispers that a new Guinness World Record could potentially be set on Tuesday (GMT). The World Surf League Big Wave Tour issued a Green Alert on Sunday (NZST) for the Nazaré......
Eleven-time World Champion Kelly Slater has confirmed he will launch his 2020 season in New Zealand this March at the 2020 Corona Piha Pro. The Goat, as he is known, is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all-time, with comfortably the most title victories, 11, and no less......
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......