CATEGORIES

60 Years Ahead

We had a whole plan for this year. Funny, right? Surfer's 60 year anniversary volume was going to be filled with stories nodding to SURFER’s past, with cover concepts paying homage to the magazine’s most iconic imagery. Our new Page One depicts something that’s never happened in surfing before, let alone on a prior SURFER cover. And our table of contents was completely scrapped and replaced as we reacted to the fizzing, sparking, roiling world around us. In other words, 2020 happened to SURFER, just like it happened to you.

A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong

You don’t make 60 years of magazines without dropping some balls. Here are a few

THE LGBTQ+ WAVE

Surf culture has a long history of marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community, but a new generation of queer surfers is working to change that

For Generations to Come

Rockaway’s Lou Harris is spreading the stoke to Black youth and leading surfers in paddling out for racial justice

Christina Koch, 41

Texas surfer, NASA astronaut, record holder for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman

END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING

By the time the pandemic is done reshaping the world, will the World Tour still have a place in it?

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

After decades of exclusive access to Hollister Ranch, the most coveted stretch of California coast is finally going public

What They Don't Tell You

How does becoming a mother affect your surfing life?

Four Things to Make You Feel A Little Less Shitty About Everything

Helpful reminders for the quarantine era

The Art of Being Seen

How a group of black women are finding creative ways to make diversity in surfing more visible

Surftech

Everyday surfers weigh in on Surftech’s newest models, and the Best of the Test was the “Untitled” by Haydenshapes

THE PERFECT STORM

The Brazilian Storm cracked the code to competitive surfing dominance, but Brazil’s next generation faces an uncertain forecast

WARRIORS OF THE BIGHT

In beating back Big Oil, the misfit crew of surfers behind the Fight for the Bight have done more than save Australia’s southern coast—they’ve created a movement for bigger fights to come

Shane Dorian, 47

Father, hunter, one of the best ever in waves 2-feet to 60. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

A WORLD AWAY

Traveling, surfing and escaping in the time of Coronavirus

SECOND COMING

After a series of near-career-ending injuries, former aerial innovator Wade Goodall finds new ways to channel his erratic creativity with his film “Pentacoastal”

SONS OF THE REVOLUTION

Fifty years ago, the Shortboard Revolution saw the most radical design shifts in the history of surfcraft. Today, that same experimental spirit is alive and well in the surfing and shaping approaches of Torren Martyn and Simon Jones

Jodie Cooper, 55

First Openly-Gay World Tour Surfer, Big-Wave Charger, Assault Survivor, Zero-Shit Taker North Coast, New South Wales

When Surfing Isn't Enough

Surfing seems like it should be a salve for mental health problems, so what happens when it isn’t?

The Kids Of Queens

In the birthplace of modern surfing, a young crop of Waikiki surfers who call themselves “The Grom Squad” are redefining Hawaiian style and taking the longboarding world by storm

Surf Media's Grom-In-Chief

Those who think print is dead have never met Tanner Bromberg, the Hawaiian surfer who edited and published a grom-focused surf magazine when she was only 8 years old

Wisdom - Peter Schroff, 65

Shaper, artist, philosopher San Pedro, California

Scions Of Style

From classical trims to punk-inspired punts, these six young aesthetes are drawing some of the most interesting lines of surfing’s new generation

A Podcast for Shred Heads, Wax Heads, Kooks and Barnies

Ain’t That Swell co-hosts Jed Smith and Vaughan Blakey discuss their wildly funny and utterly Australian audio episodic

Going Off Script

Matt Wilkinson’s transformation from party boy to world-title contender proves that competitive surfing today is more unpredictable than ever.

At Your Own Risk: Finding Waves In Dangerous Waters

Reconciling the perfect waves and terrifying truths of Runion Island's shark-laden coast.

Alternate Origins - Surfing In Morotai, Indonesia

In the vacuum of an isolated Indonesian island, a different kind of surf culture has taken shape.

Spirit Animal

For Dane Gudauskas, relentless optimism and unbridled enthusiasm aren’t affectations; they are the key to surfing fulfillment

Return of The Patron

How one of Central America’s premier surf destinations became the object of a bitter, decades-long land dispute

Brave New Coral

Human activity has wreaked havoc on coral reefs around the world. Now, under the threat of climate change, coral’s best chance for survival may be human creativity.