This article ran in the August 22 issue of Teenagers’ Weekly magazine, published out of Australia. The magazine cover shows a group of surfers on the beach (young Midget Farrelly is front and center), with a cover blurb reading “Australian Wins International Surfing Championship in Peru.” Bob Pike had indeed just won the small-wave event...

The first issue of SURFER is a strange little creature, a 36-page work of outsider art that, depending on your age and station in 1960, when the magazine hit the stands, might either be venerated or tossed. At some point in the not-too-distant future, I’ll take a closer look at how that original SURFER magazine...

This short film came at me right out of left field a few years back and became my favorite bit of deep-underground surf media. For sure it has the wackiest opening you’ll ever see in a surf movie: Hollywood star Eddie Albert, 59 and very shirtless, taking a break from his Green Acres duties, looks...

The article ran in the February 1968 issue of Petersen’s Surfing. Dick Graham was Surfing’s publisher, editor, and top photographer; Duke Boyd, better known as one of the original surfwear magnates, was the magazine’s managing editor. This article below has been slightly edited and shortened.  *  *  *  The contest of all contests is over....

This article ran in the August 14, 1909, issue of Collier’s magazine. Author Alexander Hume Ford is best known in the surfing world as the founder of the Outrigger Canoe Club, and for launching writer Jack London into the surf at Waikiki in 1907.   *  *  * There are long rolling billows on both of our...

“Haole Go Home” ran in the January 1970 issue of SURFER, with a short introduction from the editor as follows: “Relationships between the Hawaiians and the haoles (newcomers, non-residents, visitors) have not always been smooth, surfers included. Lately, stories of beatings, stomps and punchouts by angry locals have been widely circulated. Often the punchout comes...

Full-page Quiksilver ad from the October 1993 issue of Surfing. North Shore surfing legend Marvin Foster, while serving time on a weapons charge, sent this letter to Quiksilver exec Danny Kwock. Foster was released not long after, but soon broke parole, went underground (sort of; he competed in the 1995 Quiksilver-Eddie contest), returned to prison,...

Tim Baker’s 1994 profile of Hawaiian underground surf legend Marvin Foster is so good it deserves to be read in full. What sort of a man carries terrorist weapons in the trunk of his car? I was about to find out. Marvin Foster had been out of jail for a week after serving almost a...

Derek Rielly of BeachGrit emailed last week to tell me about a big-budget Aussie-based drama series called Barons, which goes into production next year and will track a semi-fictitious group of surf industry players who (according to Mediaweek), “from their tiny garages and surf coast shopfronts . . . create billion-dollar empires.” When Derek and...

This article originally ran in the May 1966 issue of SURFER. It has been slightly shortened and edited. *  *  *  Yes, from the viewpoint of the guy out there in the water with the numbered T-shirt, the Makaha contest is the worst in surfing competition: a glaring example why surfing doesn’t have the acknowledgment...

“I’ve Just Got My Head Above Water: Shane Powell’s Quiet Fight for Survival,” by Nick Carroll, ran in the December 1997 issue of Australia’s Surfing Life. This version has been slightly edited and shortened.   *  *  *  Shane Powell is the only surfer in history to have combo-ed Kelly Slater in a WCT final. He...

“Creature of the Night,” by Andrew Farrell, ran in the December 1998 issue of Australia’s Surfing Life. Farrell and Powell were both of an ASL-launched surf and camping trip to Western Australia, along with Taj Burrow, Martin Potter, Maurice Cole, Ross Clarke-Jones, and Pancho Sullivan. This article has slightly shortened and edited.   *  *  *  Shane...

“In Trim: Mark Martinson,” by Drew Kampion, ran in the September 1999 issue of Longboard. This version has been slightly shortened and edited.   *  *  *  I met Mark Martinson in April 1968, at the first-ever AAAA surfing contest, which was held in extra-clean waves at the San Lorenzo Rivermouth in Santa Cruz. It also...

We already know and love Duke Kahanamoku for his wildly propagative surf skills, his dignity, graciousness, and heroism, and his set-to-stun good looks (one admirer called him “the most magnificent human male God ever put on the earth”—suck it, Bradly Cooper!), which makes me wonder if it is even possible for us to expand our...

“People literally hung from the rafters of the Dana Point Community Clubhouse, [as] the brilliant future of an eleven-million-dollar small craft harbor for that area was outlined and unanimously approved Friday in a public hearing, conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers. (Santa Ana Register, March 8, 1959) Summer 1964. Some friends and I laugh...

This article originally ran in the December 1989 issue of Surfing magazine. It has been slightly edited.  *  *  *  Vetea David is not your average pro surfer. “Jeez, he’s the full flower child, isn’t he?” one pro said when I mentioned I was going to hang out with Vetea for a week in Tahiti....

Surf Legends of Jax Beach is a short DIY documentary on Bruce Clelland, Larry Miniard, Joe Roland, and Dick Rosborough—the four guys who turned Jacksonville Beach into a surfing powerhouse in the mid-’60s. The archival footage was shot by David Silver, a local kid whose parents fully indulged his interesting in photography. At the beginning...

SURFER’s profile of Keala Kennelly ran in 2002, when she was 24. This version has been slightly edited and shortened.  *  *  * My name is Keala Kennelly and I have a story that no man wants to hear. Because I am a woman in the world of professional surfing. I am supposed to be...

Matt Warshaw’s article on the Slater-Irons’ rivalry ran in the February 2011 issue of SURFER. It was written three weeks after Irons’ death, and Slater’s 10th world title win.  *  *  *  Before Andy Irons died, I don’t remember thinking that his long mid-career rumble with Kelly Slater was the absolute final word on surfing...

“Clockwork Blue: the Strange Journey of 1970 World Champ Rolf Aurness, by Drew Kampion, ran in the Spring 2001 issue of The Surfer’s Journal. This version has been slightly edited and shortened.  *  *  *  In May of 1970, a tall, lean 18-year-old California goofyfoot named Rolf Aurness became the World Surfing Champion by overwhelming a...

This untitled article by Geoff Luton was the main feature of Surfing World’s 1970 “World Titles” issue. It has been slightly shortened and edited.  *  *  * The fifth World Surfboard Riding Contest commenced unofficially on May 1, 1970, with a procession of all international team members, complete with national flags and banners, through the...

Bruce Valluzzi’s article on Morocco, with photos by Art Brewer, was the cover story for SURFER’s August 1982 issue. This version has been slightly shortened and edited.  *  *  * A sarcastic wind ruffled the bay as traffic jostled aboard the boat in Algeciras. Our tickets said “Africa Flash.” How true. The passengers were a...

The Hollywood surf movie starter pack begins with waves, obviously—preferably big waves. Add a young surfer on the cusp of a life-altering experience in those waves, a love interest, a bad guy (or at least a bad influence), and plenty of out-of-tune surf dialogue. Last but not least, you need the guru—someone to direct our...

With any luck, I’ll end up like one of those old hobbled blind dogs who can get around the house okay just from having trod the hallways and rooms a million times in the past. Except instead of going from the food bowl to the doggy bed, I’ll be slow-walking my way back and forth...