Innholdsfortegnelse for #375 - Winter 2025 i Surfing Life

Nhundu wanhtharra, and welcome to the “winter” edition of Surfing Life’s 40th anniversary year. Cyclones rewrite our surfing lines. Sand swollowed. Banks needing re-investments. New peaks entice old friends. Renowned favourites reinvent themselves. As the daylight and temperature decrease, our animal instincts snarl—howl. Bone-weary Southerners migrate north to escape winter’s fangs. The chilly night stalks; many hibernate, reclining in the buttery glow of a fire with a book in one hand and a warm drink in the other. Others embrace the season of coldwater therapy. Cladded in seal suits, fuelled by sheer determination, ’cos once we take the drop, adrenaline kicks in, overriding the cold. Remember those round pools in the eighties and nineties? For those who couldn’t get to the beach, your mate’s pool was the public one for…

SL: What will surf activism look like in the future? PL: It’s looking very promising! I think there is a growing shift from compliant and complicit relationships between athletes, their sponsors’ companies and the surfing industry towards a healthier, more resilient model, where surfers are telling their own stories and choosing purpose before profit. I really believe that raising your voice to community, friends, or a sponsor when we look at pay equality, climate decisions, ocean conservation, strengthening First Nation communities, and more is such a powerful way to advocate. It’s been a pleasure seeing athletes divest from these once-very-accepted mindsets into the freedom of supporting and being supported by people who are not only taking care of the future of surfing, but also the ocean planet. It’s how we…

“Sometimes you just have to surrender to it, you know? Get all floppy,” twenty-nine-year-old McKenzie says, sitting beside his younger brother Tanē, bouncing along the western South Pacific Ocean in a banana boat. (In the Solomon Islands, “banana boat” refers to an open-air “long boat” around fifteen-foot long and powered by an outboard motor.) Those of you who know McKenzie from the ’Gram as @mrthankyouplease_ will appreciate that he has some pretty oily hips. But if you’ve just returned from a ten-year Ayurveda sabbatical meditating in the Himalayas, McKenzie and Tanē have turbo-dexterous dance moves that make the scenes from Footloose and Stomp the Yard look mundane. However, those without dance-dynamic bodies know a two-hour boat ride thumping along small, consistent chop makes the bones groan louder. With McKenzie’s wise…

In today’s “civilised” chaotic culture, establishing your personal “brand” trumps all social constructs. Influencers jump queues and gain advantages. Pro surfers must perform to maintain sponsors, and each athlete is contractually required to produce and manage their social media platforms with high-grade, audience-savvy clickable clips and photos. High-performance surfers showcase their power carves, full-throttle finners, and that calm stance while rocketing through a barrel. Clips are entertaining: humorous, cool or quirky. The limelight is now a compact iPhone-screen size. Extraverts thrive in these environments. Powered by likes, views and comments. What about pros who re-energise away from large gatherings—the introverts, the quieter, deep-thinkers and life analysers? What if self-promotion isn’t a part of your culture? Or what if you’re an original gentleman despite any era you’re born into? “We sometimes…

SL: When did you start shooting surf photography? TJ: It was late 2017 when I first picked up a camera. I’d had some personal turmoil in my life preceding this period, and I realised I’d been supporting the dreams of those close to me, but I was neglecting any of my own. I was nearly 33, and although I had a respectable job, I hadn’t done anything in life like I envisioned growing up, and my basis for happiness was what other people thought of me, as well as partying on weekends. So, I decided to do something for myself and took up photography. The trials of life had turned me into a bit of an “I can’t” person—full of excuses. But as the process wore on of teaching myself…

Board packing seems obvious, but how often do boards arrive at their destination à la busted? Adding more abrasion to this kookrashed situation, the surfboard’s nose-job could have been avoided with a few, simple steps. Even seasoned travellers struggle if they haven’t considered every packing solution like a Tetris master. This is a simple how-to on getting your prized possession to your travel destination in one piece with as few dings and busted noses as possible. These packing tips are based on the countless Surfing Life Board Tests conducted all over the globe, dragging up to twenty boards at once. We also chat with Regional Qualifying Series competitor Nathan “Cookie” Cook to collect some of his hot tips. FRAGILE AND NOT-SO-FRAGILE ZONES Although the entire surfboard can be quite fragile,…

Moana Jones Wong is aptly named the “Queen of Pipeline”. No other female sits as deep as her in the lineup and commands as much respect from the hoards of pros who inhabit the place. She paddles out with a smile and says “hello” to the water photographers and surfers, but it’s game on when she finds her position in the lineup. She knows the waves that she wants and actively hunts them down. Nothing is given in that lineup, and it is by her sheer ability, grit and determination that she is able to surf the waves that she does—a true inspiration. Surfer: Moana Jones WongAperture value: f/18Exposure time: 1/1000Focal length: 15 mm FisheyeISO speed: 320…

Shapers are a foundational part of surfing—more so for surfers on the pro circuit. There’s one shaper who’s rarely thanked, never immediately appreciated and is often avoided in social settings, in competitions—in every moment. Adversity is its name, and Sophie McCulloch has become best mates with this shaper over the past few years. Sunny Coast-reared Sophie qualifies for the 2023 World Tour, but before surfing her first heat, she breaks her leg at Snapper on a little two-foot day. Good ole Snapper backwash, hey? After missing two events due to that injury, Soph falls off Tour. On the road back to requalifying, that shaper mate revisits—adversity has an unenviable task of shaping surfers and their futures. Sophie breaks her vertebrae on Finals Day while surfing The Box during the Margaret…

If you’re like most of us, you’re not surfing pumping waves on the regular. No matter how much we would like to be, for the average surfer across the globe, the junky, ocean dance floor is where most of our aquatic boogieing goes down. We groove in inner-city, urban beach breaks tainted by small-scale summer swells and prevailing onshore winds. And while the finite resource of cooking waves is enough to drive surfers into a frenzy of scheduling ridiculousness, your surfing cue still needs to stay sharp in between bouts of hollow perfection. Surfers don’t dream about flat sections. Or pumping between lumps. Or needing to do all the work themselves in cross-shore dribble to find the speed for a half turn. But the ability to shapeshift in these crappy…