Indice dei contenuti per March 2016 in Surfer

There’s no single right way to ride a wave, and while we’re used to seeing certain stock-standard maneuvers, the surfers who challenge convention tend to turn heads and capture imaginations. Take this frame from Indonesia, for example: most surfers would likely skate around this crumbly section and back onto the open face. The slightly unhinged Mason Ho, however, saw an opportunity for a floater garnished with a stylish cross-step. Who says you have to be a loger to display some fancy footwork?…

It would be hard to fathom just how much time surfers have collectively spent watching and re-watching the video of Kelly Slater surfing his perfect artificial peeler. At this point, we probably have every turn, barrel, and air committed to memory. And it’s not at all surprising that the video has resonated so much with surfers. We’ve all dreamt of a future when man-made waves could be built to our lofty standards of perfection. Well, it seems that the future has arrived. Kelly Slater explains how we’ve come this far and where we’ll go from here. TP You said that this has been about 10 years in the making. What was the catalyst for you? What made you want to get involved in creating man-made waves? KS I think we all…

Tall and loose-limbed, all bony shoulders and wavy blond hair, Ryan Burch is standing directly in a wash of yellow light pouring in through the big windows of his spacious, bohemian-chic apartment above downtown Encinitas, California. He’s laughing and scratching his head, trying to remember where he’s put a surfoard I asked to see. It could take him awhile; there are plenty of nooks, crannies, and rabbit holes here that could swallow a board forever. Burch rents an apartment on the bottom floor of the 128-year-old Derby House, the second-oldest building in town. It was once a hotel, but now serves as a sprawling, cozily ramshackle compound for artistically minded surfers. Although no one can say for sure, rumor has it that Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan once stayed here;…

It’s nearly sunset on an early November day in mainland Mexico, and Colin Whitbread is tearing the house apart, frantically looking for something, worried this gorgeous light is bleeding out with the day. “Have you guys seen the detonator?” he asks, panicked. The sky above Saladita is a million shades of pink and orange. We’re just a short walk from a left-hand cobblestone point that has been doing its best impression of a reverse Malibu for the last five days. It’s 95 degrees out, brutal even with the sun falling behind the trees and a stiff sea breeze blowing. Whitbread looks like a leading man from 1950s Hollywood: square jaw and bright-green eyes, his hair thick with pomade and slicked cleanly back. Right now he’s sweating freely, which is to…

Te first thing that I feel when I step off the plane is a wave of fresh air; not only the obvious kind, with tropical fragrance and humidity, but the kind when a local Fijian sweeping the floors stops to say hello and welcome you to his beautiful country. He doesn’t know where you are going or how long you are staying, but the gentle giant knows that you just arrived in paradise. I do too. I enjoy the simplicity. The Fijians have a time of their own - “Fiji Time” - no hurry, no worry. At Matanivusi Surf Resort our days are relaxed yet filled with fun and adventure, good waves or poor. Waking up with the Fijian sunrise never gets old; and having a coffee, fresh fruit and…

When I call Sterling Spencer at his home in the sleepy Gulf Coast town of Pensacola, Florida, our conversation starts in a typically tonguein-cheek fashion. Spencer is quick to slip into character during interviews, and he talks about his new mockumentary surf film, Gold, as if it’s based in fact. Spencer claims to have ridden custom surfoards shaped by Bob Saget, been kidnapped by 11-time world champion Kelly Slater, and fathered big-wave icon Laird Hamilton. But as our conversation continues, Spencer starts to reveal the cracks in his comedic armor, and the man behind the online persona shows through. Over the last few years, in the wake of losing his father and one of his best friends, Spencer has fought hard battles with depression and anxiety. But the more serious…

The best surf photographers often go to great lengths in pursuit of new, creative perspectives. Jeremy Koreski, for example, decided to take his camera gear to high altitudes to get this shot of Canadian Peter Devries dropping into an icy cavern somewhere along the coast of Vancouver Island. “Jeremy is always looking for unique angles on this spot,” says Devries. “He climbed to the top of a cedar tree, about 50 feet up, so that he could overlook the point from above. Usually he’s flying around in a helicopter, so I guess this is the cheap way to do it.”…