Innholdsfortegnelse for #376 - Spring 2025 i Surfing Life

Nhundu wanhtharra, and welcome to the “spring” edition of Surfing Life’s 40th anniversary year. Spring balances climate extremes. We escape winter’s icy stare and avoid summer’s scolding glare. There’s a spring in our step—no need to dash across numbing sand for a dry towel and a heated car. By mid-spring, daylight becomes as long as night. Time seems to decelerate, allowing us to soak in the scenery: billowing clouds meander across the cobalt sky, a temperate breeze rustles the native grey-green grasses protecting the dunes, and groms explore the expansive shoreline. Their merriment fills the evening air, along with muffled conversations of picnickers sipping chilled bevvies beneath the remnants of a molten sunset. Spring, the renowned season of birdsong, begins each day with a battle of the ballads. Is spring…

Sun safety is a top priority for surfers, especially in Australia, where prolonged exposure to the sun significantly increases the risk of skin damage and skin cancer due to UV radiation. Equally as important is protecting our sports field: the ocean, marine life and reefs. Recent research has shown that there are few sunscreen solutions, such as Sun Zapper, that meet these legislative safety standards. SL: We have been using sunscreens for years now, and many people are unaware of the dangers associated with some of these products. Could better legislation address this issue? DP: Yes, the short answer is that small amounts of direct sun exposure daily is safe to assist the human body in triggering the production of Vitamin D. However, as we have seen with the recent…

Teetering in the unknown, travel is both exhilarating and uncomfortable. The journey marks your memory, and these new experiences, people and places forever change you, like a gnarly scar you proudly bear—the mark of a wanderer, an empty vessel wistfully wanting to be filled. No matter how many places one visits, there’s a respectful emptying of expectations and comparisons, before being filled with new cultural experiences. And this is not new for Ean and Willis Droomer, the father and son surf-travelling duo. The Droomers, however, embark on their maiden voyage to Masokut Island in the northern Mentawai Island chain, off the western Sumatra coast of Indonesia. Padang, the province’s capital, is where the final flight lands. The Fast Ferry across the Mentawai Strait is the home stretch of our journey,…

It’s rare to be out the back, straddling a board in a crowded lineup, watching lumps of swell roll beneath us and break unridden on the shore. Another empty right-hander peels off. No one paddles. We aren’t here for wave riding today. We’re here to defend our playground. Our sea. Hours earlier, the car park is full. Cars are double-parked, and people spill onto the sand like ants on a kitchen bench before a summer storm. Each of us is carrying our crumb for the cause. The sun is bright, the sky a clear stretch of blue. A light cross-shore breeze dances across the water’s surface with just enough chill to remind us that while summer is coming, it isn’t here yet. The woman next to us drove to the…

There are iconic surf breaks in the world, like Teahupoʻo. Heavyweights of the surfing arena, due to the thick, hollow, macking barrels that break over shallow coral reef. Get pitted in this holy grail, and people will remember your name. Aelan Vaast is one such name; her artform is crystal-orb surfing. Born and raised in Tahiti, Aelan is a naturally skilled and regular-footed glass-surf-smith. This twenty-year-old is often seen inflating the molten glass-blown tubes of Teahupo‘o. Did we mention Aelan is currently ranked number one (numéro un in French), on the 2025–26 Women’s Qualifying Series? We’ll let you settle in and get acquainted with Aelan Vaast. SL: Welcome to the 40th anniversary of Surfing Life. Let’s get straight to it: are you a Tahitian local? AV: Yes, I’m born and…

Empty waves have hypnotised surfers for eons. Waves are liquid fingerprints, belonging to the body of ocean. Unique and, unlike human prints, short-lived. The sea has been a terrifying protagonist throughout history and cultures worldwide. Characterised by amplitude, wavelength, frequency and speed, a wave is a transfer of energy through matter or space. Waves are moments when we continually “borrow and return” power from our briny companion. These mesmerising entities beckon swell-seekers from every corner of the globe. Itchy-feet surfers, hearts brimming with hope, scratch famed waves onto their “life list”—that secret desire to rendezvous in person, wax underfoot. The sea has drawn humanity since time immemorial. Zenadth Kes, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands located between Cape York and Papua New Guinea, is the homeland of Australia’s…

Not an artist? Can’t tell a Rembrandt from a Picasso? No need! This step-by-step guide is for you—the apprehensive not-an-artist type. It’s simple and fun, plus if Blake Neka can do it in two hours, we are confident you can too. What’s the worst that can happen? Mistakes are creative opportunities—add more paint, or if you despise it more than a dog-chewed slipper, go to “Old sled prep” and try again. This type of art therapy foreshadows ocean therapy. It’s a soul-nourishing, self-expression, arty session. When it comes to art forms, freesurfer and local Gold Coaster, Blake Neka, considers himself more of an editor of surf clips than a full-blown surfboard artist. He has spray-painted many boards—even the concept of adding mystic quotes to his magic sled isn’t new. “I’ve…

Pipe is a complex entity: crystal-clear water, a band of galloping white-maned brumbies, charging past an elusive rainbow misted by a sea-cloud. Eight to ten foot of long-period energy (from the west) pushes through—enough for many of the top pros to feel uneasy, particularly at Backdoor. The more west, generally, the more Pipe is suited to going left. However, Laura Rapp waits confidently for the rights, takes the drop and leads the Backdoor stampede ... adding more sea mist to the spectral-coloured triumphal arch. Surfer: Laura RappAperture value: f/2.8Exposure time: 1/1600Focal length: 22 mmISO speed: 100…

The trajectory of a surfing career for any coast-nourished grom seems linear—straightforward. Surf until you’re good enough to gain a sponsor, compete at a boardriders club, then at the Quey, maybe represent your state or nation, and finally, take your magic sled and travel the globe on the dream tour. However, for Cooper Davies and his effervescent personality, that straight line has split into a metaphorical fork in the road. Will Cooper take the one less travelled by? SL: When did your surfing life begin? CD: My surfing life began competitively in about 2014. I would have been 14 at the time, a 2000 baby. My main sport growing up was tennis, and I followed it for 14 to 15 odd years. Even as I started surfing, I was still…

Inhale. Exhale. Breathe in. Breathe out. You are doing it right now, just like every other person on the face of this planet. When we’re born, breathing is one of the first things we do, but no one tells us how to do it properly, especially how to use it to get the most out of ourselves in a physical, emotional, mental and therapeutic manner. As surfers, we spend our time in the ocean, where we can only breathe in half of the playing arena. Whether it’s one foot or 100 foot, or you’re performing or cruising, breathing (or a lack of breathing) is an essential part of the surfing experience and an element that many elite wave riders are tapping into for a vast array of benefits. Matt Grainger…