Tabla de contenidos para February 2018 en Surfer

For most workaday surfers, injuries in the water are rare. Sure, we occasionally collide with our boards, fins, a chunk of reef or a stranger (mostly the latter if you surf Trestles). But throughout our surf lives, most of us receive relatively few injuries in the lineup, and fewer still that have any lasting effects. Pro surfers, on the other hand, are paid to push themselves as hard as humanly possible in the water, which leads to moments of brilliance above the lip if you’re a world-class freesurfer, or inside a cavernous tube if you’re an unhinged big-wave rider. It also typically leads to a laundry list of injuries. DANE REYNOLDS Take Dane Reynolds for example: Reynolds is known for sending himself skyward on the most daunting sections, and contorting…

The Caribbean had solid surf earlier in the season, but it didn’t hold a candle to this. With the trade winds down, cerulean glass met focused power radiating from Hurricane Irma toward Puerto Rico in 16-second intervals. For San Juan-based surfer Otto Flores, this was as good as it gets: late drops into dreamy, overhead caverns. “It was like a year’s worth of great waves in a day,” Flores remembers. “When hurricane swells come from that direction, there isn’t a drop of water out of place.” For many who live and die by Atlantic-borne swells, hurricane season is a celebration. But while a given storm system may seem like a gift for one coastal resident, it’s often a curse for another. After his Hurricane Irma super sessions, Flores learned that…

The August 1974 issue of SURFER magazine featured a satirical piece by Drew Kampion titled “How I Surfed And Won In The 1984 Olympics,” mocking the fast-approaching era of professional surfing. It opened like this: “When the Olympic Games came to Hawaii in 1984, the Union of States, as has always been the custom, was allowed to name a new sport to the Program. Because of vast popular support in the Islands, and for many other reasons, the sport selected was Surfing. “A huge Artificial Wave machine was constructed in a sleek concrete stadium; a Variable Reef and Wave Dissipator were added; Hawaii upped its promotion of Surfing. All competitive organizations within the organism of Surfing expressed delight with the elevation of the Sport to new heights of recognition and…

It might seem like surf photographers have the most enviable job in the world. But when the waves are pumping, they’re often faced with a kind of Sophie’s Choice: do they paddle out with their friends and possibly miss a great shot, or do they sacrifice a few good waves for the sake of their work? “I originally went out there for a surf trip of my own,” says photographer Mark McInnis of his journey to Nova Scotia. “I had been surf starved for months and just needed some waves. Before I left, I told Noah Cohen, Nico Manos and Pete Devries [pictured here], ‘Hey, I’ll shoot a little bit, but I’m coming to surf.’ But when you have light like this, waves like this and three professional surfers in…

List of Works (All oil on canvas) 53 “California Revisited,” 48" x 30", 2011 55 “Afternoon,” 30" x 50", 2017 56 “Narcolepsy,” 24" x 48", 2013 57 “Mother’s Sky,” 30" x 50", 2016 57 “Memories of Yesterday,” 36" x 36", 2013 58 “Beauty School Drop Out,” 18" x 12", 2015 59 “Paddling Lesson,” 40" x 12", 2008 Tyler Warren stands in the back of his San Juan Capistrano, California, garage-turned-art-studio, holding a painting of a woman in a vintage bathing suit. She’s adrift in the ocean, lying comfortably on a longboard as a spire of surreal cumulus clouds climbs up from the horizon behind her. The woman’s closed eyes and calm face paired with the strange cloud formation gives the painting a dreamlike feeling, as if the colorful world she…

In the middle of the South Pacific, there’s an island chain gilded with reefs known by a select few surfers to sculpt big northern hemisphere swells into beautiful, rifling barrels. Along these perfectly situated isles, there’s a specific wave that very few have ever glimpsed in person. As far as surf trips go, it’s the kind of ultra-perfect, ultra-exclusive, ultra-expensive escape that we all fantasize over, but know fully well isn’t in the cards. Well, unless you’re the greatest surfer of all time and his rock star friend, that is. Right before the 2017 Quik Pro Gold Coast, Kelly Slater saw a swell pop up on the charts, spiraling towards this far-flung paradise. The combination of swell angle and wind direction looked promising, but the window was tight—if everything went…