The Surfer's Journal presents Soundings with Jamie Brisick
In-depth conversations with the most compelling people in surfing, hosted by Jamie Brisick.
Episodes
Paige Alms
Paige Alms was born in British Columbia, moved to Maui when she was nine, found surfing, found surf contests, and, around the age of 15, found big waves. They would become her forte, specifically Jaws, located not far from her home in Haiku. She spent a lot of time out there, riding waves of course, but also learning the lineup. It paid off. In 2015, she knifed her way into a bomb, angled high, an
Sid Abbruzzi
Born and raised in Newport, Rhode Island, Sid Abruzzi came to surfing and skateboarding in the early 1960s. In 1969, 18-year-old Abbruzzi drove down to New Jersey to buy a few Rick single-fins, as surfboards were hard to come by in Rhode Island back then. He swiftly sold the boards, then sold another batch, and found a liking for this buying and selling business. In 1971, Abbruzzi opened Water Bro
Harry Bryant
Hailing from Noosa, Australia, Harry Bryant is a frothing, underground charger who'll drive halfway across Australia to hunt for remote slabs. He's also a bonafide surf star—his blond bowl-cutted head recognizable in lineups worldwide. One window into his full throttle operation and persona is 2024's Motel Hell, a full-length surf feature that he made with director Dave Fox. It contains a storylin
Rob Machado
Australian-born, California-raised Rob Machado is known for many things, but perhaps most of all he's known for making it look easy. After an accomplished amateur career, Machado, a member of the New School generation, joined the world tour in 1993. He rose to second overall in 1995, the year he famously high-fived Kelly Slater in the semifinals of the Pipe Masters with the title on the line. He f
Shirley Rogers
The daughter of an American father and a Japanese mother, Shirley Rogers was born in Japan in 1953. She spent her first nine years there, then a few years in Texas. At 16, she moved with her parents to Oahu. At Campbell High School on the Westside, she took photography classes and found a passion for it. She also found surfing—the act of riding waves, the culture, and the community. In 1971, her p
Kai Neville
Born in 1984, Kai Neville came to surfing at age 11 on the Sunshine Coast, where his dad pushed him into his first waves. He loved it, aspired to be a pro, but soon realized he might be better off behind the camera rather than in front of it. He got a job at McDonald's, saved up for a High-8 Sony Handycam, and started creating short surf films, which led to a job making promo DVDs for Australia's
Maurice Cole
Born in 1954, hailing from Victoria, Australia, Maurice Cole started surfing at age 12. He got good fast, and won Victorian State Titles in 1973 and 1976. However, he got busted for possession of hash oil, which, after trial, led to a little over two years in jail. That obviously stalled his competitive ascent, but also proved to be formative. He got out in 1978 and surfed vigorously around the Be
Nathan Florence
Nathan Florence, the middle of the three Florence brothers, was born in Hawaii in 1994. Like his older brother, three-time world champion John, and younger brother, Pipe charger and ace skateboarder Ivan, Nathan grew up in a beachfront house looking out to Pipeline, and made the seamless progression from building sandcastles on the beach to getting spit out of tubes in what was ostensibly his back
Mickey Muñoz
Born in 1937, Mickey Muñoz moved from New York to Los Angeles at age six, started surfing at age 10, and swiftly found Malibu's First Point. He became one of the top surfers out there, and made friends with the regulars—Joe Quigg, Matt Kivlin, Miki Dora. Muñoz eventually moved to Hawaii, where he rode Waikiki and worked restaurant jobs to get by. He soon found his way out to the North Shore, whic
Devon Howard
Born and raised in San Diego, Devon Howard came to surfing at age seven. He gravitated to longboarding—both the wave-riding approach and the culture. A graduate of the University of San Diego, he served as managing editor of Longboard magazine from 1999 to 2004. For the next decade or so, he worked as a freelance writer and photographer, and held marketing positions with Patagonia and Spy Optic. B
Jamie O'Brien
Born in Hawaii in 1983 and raised in a beachfront home on the North Shore, with a view out to Pipeline, Jamie O'Brien started surfing at age three. As an amateur, he went on a contest trajectory—making the finals of the menehune division of the 1995 and '96 US Surfing Championships, and the finals in the 1999 and 2000 World Junior Championships. Most impressive, though, was his close relationship
James Nestor
Born in Tustin, California, James Nestor spent his teens surfing and playing in a straight-edge punk band called Care Unit. After graduating high school, he moved to the Bay Area, where he studied art and literature and earned an MFA. Nestor's professional life began as a copywriter. Soon he moved into magazine journalism. His essays and features have appeared in Outside, Scientific American, The
Shaun Tomson
Born in 1955, hailing from Durban, South Africa, Shaun Tomson won the IPS world title in 1977. He did 14 seasons on the world tour, and won 12 events, including the 1975 Pipeline Masters, in which he made giant leaps for backside tube riding. He starred in many '70s and '80s surf films, among them Free Ride, where he's seen pumping through the barrel at Backdoor and Off the Wall—an entirely new th
Ozzie Wright
Born in 1976, hailing from Narrabeen on the northern beaches of Sydney, Oscar "Ozzie" Wright burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s and swiftly ascended to global surf fame—never in contests, but nearly always doing something imaginative, like flying through the air, doing spell-casting things with the tube, or surfing remote Indo in a pair of handcrafted bat wings. Wright appeared in a number of
Danny Kwock
Born in Hawaii in 1961, Danny Kwock rode his first waves at Waikiki when he was ten. Surfing took a brief hiatus when he moved with his family to the San Fernando Valley, but picked up soon thereafter when they moved to Newport Beach, right at Wedge, which is where Kwock made his mark, charging big waves and becoming one of the brightest, flashiest surfers of the Echo Beach scene, wearing pink boa
Sachi Cunningham
For more than two decades, Sachi Cunningham has been training her lens on women and the pioneers of big-wave surfing. After earning a BA in history from Brown University and a Masters of Journalism from UC Berkeley, Cunningham started the first video team at the LA Times, where she produced the award-winning series Chasing the Swell, which documents the first ever Big Wave World Tour. She was the
Randy Rarick
Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1949, Randy Rarick moved with his family to Hawaii when he was five. He started surfing at age 10, under the tutelage of the Waikiki Beach Boys. He was a Hawaiian state junior champ, and made the semifinals of the 1970 World Championships in Australia. In 1976, at age 26, Randy and 1968 world champion Fred Hemmings founded International Professional Surfing, aka th
Ross Clarke-Jones
Hailing from the central coast of New South Wales, Australia, Ross Clarke-Jones joined the ASP world tour in 1986, at age 19. He was good in the small waves that the tour typically competed in at that time. But when the surf jacked up to 20-plus feet in the 1986 Billabong Pro at Waimea Bay, Clarke-Jones heaved himself over leadges and exited the water as one of the world's great big waves surfers—
Bob Hurley
Surfwear tycoon Bob Hurley spent his early days around Huntington Beach, California, shaping for labels like Hot Stuff, Infinity, Wave Tools, and Lightning Bolt. After spearheading Billabong USA from 1983 to 1998, Hurley transitioned to the creation of his namesake brand, centered around an ethos of innovation that he observed in the youthful counterculture of Southern California at the time. Whil
Pauline Menczer
Born in 1970, raised in Bondi Beach, Australia, Pauline Menczer found her way to the surfboard at age 14. Actually, it was half a surfboard—a snapped hand-me-down from her brother. Four years later she won the 1988 World Amateur Champs, hopped on the ASP world tour, and finished the year ranked fifth overall. Her surfing was loose, springy, full of hurled tail. She won lots of events, and, in 1993
Chris Burkard
Born in 1986, Chris Burkard grew up on California's Central Coast and knew from a young age that he had to get out. Photography became the avenue. Primarily self-taught, Burkard won the Follow the Light Foundation grant in 2006, and away he went, working as a senior staff photographer for Surfline, Water magazine, and Surfer magazine, as well as freelancing for The New Yorker, National Geographic,
Jeff Hakman
Born in California in 1948, Jeff Hakman's father introduced him to surfing at age eight. Four years later, the family moved to Oahu, and the year after that, at the age of 13, Hakman surfed Waimea Bay for the first time. In 1965, he was invited to the inaugural Duke Kahanamoku Invitational, held at Sunset Beach. Hakman was 17. He won. In the ensuing years, on his Dick Brewer-shaped boards, Hakman
Holly Wawn
Born and raised on the northern beaches of Sydney, Holly Wawn's father started pushing her into waves at their local Bungan Beach when she was three. She started competing in her teens, won local events, and won the 2012 Australian Junior Titles at age 15. From 2015 to 2019, she competed full-time on the 'QS, bagged a few thirds, but came to realize that she was happiest surfing outside of the con
Derek Hynd
From Newport, New South Wales, Australia, Derek Hynd is known for his unconventional approach to surfing and all else. Hynd was a pro surfer in the late 1970s and early '80s, making his name both for his surfing in a jersey and for the pieces he wrote for the surf mags of the era. In 1980, while competing in South Africa, he suffered a brutal injury that resulted in the loss of vision in his right
Cheyne Horan
Born in 1960 in Sydney, Australia, Cheyne Horan joined the pro tour in 1977 at age 16, and finished second in the world four times, in 1978, '79, '81, and '82. He surfed with an urgency and potency, weaving in and around the pocket on his needle nose, fat-tailed Lazor Zap single-fins. His boards had vibrant, elaborate airsprays. His wetsuits were bright and loud. His hair was peroxide blond. He be
Kelia Moniz
Born and raised on Oahu, Kelia Moniz is a two-time world longboarding champion, freesurfer, wife, mother, and entrepreneur. From a deeply rooted surfing family, Moniz rode her first waves around the time she learned to walk. She started competing at age 15, racked up a string of victories, and turned pro shortly thereafter. She is the 2012 and 2013 world longboarding champion. She spent much of th
Tom Pohaku Stone
Born in Honolulu in 1951, Tom Pohaku Stone made a name for himself at Pipeline in the early 1970s as a stylish goofyfooter. Around that time, he was imprisoned after a drug bust. While incarcerated, he found books and higher learning. He studied, and, after his release, got a job as a lifeguard and enrolled in college. He got his BA in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaii in 1998 at the
Michele Lockwood
Michele Lockwood is an artist, writer, photographer, clothing designer, mother, activist, and environmental scientist. She grew up in the boroughs of New York City and started sneaking out to hip-hop gigs, house music clubs, and punk shows while in high school. She hung out at the Brooklyn Banks in the late 1980s, and played the character "Kim" in Larry Clark's 1995 film Kids. The X-girl logo, des
Bob McTavish
Born in 1944 in Queensland, Australia, Bob McTavish started surfing at age 12 on a 16-foot plywood paddle board. Best known as a surfboard shaper, he started working with Sydney's biggest board builders at age 17, then became a major player in the shortboard revolution. He worked closely with George Greenough and Nat Young, helping Young design "Magic Sam," the thinner, lighter, shorter longboard
Mark Healey
Born in 1981 on Oahu, Mark Healey started surfing at age three, turned pro by the time he was 17, and made his name in heavy, scary waves, first in Hawaii, then around the world. But big-wave surfing was only part of it. An avid diver, Healey won the World Cup of Spearfishing in La Paz, Mexico, in 2008. And then there were sharks. In 2011, he traveled to Mexico's Guadalupe Island to dive with grea
Kylie Manning
Kylie Manning is a painter, surfer, and fisher based in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were both art teachers, and, while she was growing up, the family moved between their home in Juneau, Alaska, to various regions in Mexico, which would inform her artwork—and her surfing. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts with a double major in philosophy and visual arts. While she was g
Jeff Divine
Born in 1950 in San Diego, California, Jeff Divine is one of surfing's preeminent photographers and photo editors. Divine began photographing anything and everything around his hometown of La Jolla, California, as a teenager. Surfer magazine first published his photos in 1968, and by the early 1970s his work was all over the surf sphere. He shot everything—water and action, portraiture, lifestyle,
Lee-Ann Curren
Lee-Ann Curren is a freesurfer, musician, and artist. She grew up and lives in Biarritz, in the southwest of France. Her father is three-time world champion Tom Curren. Her mother is Marie-Pascale, a top-ranked European surfer in the 1980s. Her grandfather is the late Pat Curren, one of the pioneers of Waimea Bay and shaper of big-wave elephant guns. Her aunt Marie-Paul is the 1967 French national
Tom Carroll
Thomas Victor Carroll is a surfing godhead from Newport Beach, Australia, known for his radicality, focus, and power. He competed on the world tour from 1979 to 1993, winning the world title in 1983 and 1984, and taking home a total of 26 event victories, including the Pipeline Masters in 1987, 1990, and 1991. In 1988, he made history by signing surfing's first million-dollar contract. He won the
Ed Templeton
Ed Templeton is a professional skateboarder, contemporary artist, and photographer. A teen skate prodigy from Orange County, California, Ed turned pro in 1990, just before graduating high school. He did a lot of touring for skate demos, along the way picking up a camera and documenting the scene around him. He painted and drew, and later incorporated his artwork and graphics for Toy Machine, the s
Leah Dawson
Leah Dawson grew up in Florida, and moved to Oahu to attend University of Hawaii, where she earned a BA in Creative Media in 2008. Soon after, she started work as a production assistant for the Vans Triple Crown, launching her into a career behind the camera. As a surfer, Dawson's approach is grounded in freedom of expression and dance, on all manner of crafts, with nods to the surfers who have in
Matt Warshaw
Matt Warshaw grew up surfing in Los Angeles at a time when surf and skate culture were beginning to meet in Venice Beach and Santa Monica. After a stint as a pro surfer in the 1980s, Warshaw became the editor of Surfer magazine. In 1990, he left his editor's post at Surfer to attend UC Berkeley, where he got his BA in History in 1993. He remained in the Bay Area, parking himself in an apartment in
Torren Martyn
Born in 1990 in Bangalow, Australia, not far from Byron Bay, Torren Martyn is hailed as one of the great stylists of our time, riding all manner of surfcraft, and with a special penchant for twin-fins. He's also one of surfing's great explorers. In 2016, he and his filmmaker pal Ishka Folkwell spent three months circumnavigating Australia in a Land Rover, riding A-grade waves and documenting their
Carolyn Murphy
Carolyn Murphy is a supermodel, actress, and environmental advocate. Her Vogue shoot with Steven Meisel in the late 1990s launched her into a fruitful, three-decade long career. In 1998 she was named VH1/Vogue's Model of the Year. She played Dubbie in the 1999 feature film Liberty Heights, directed by Barry Levinson. She was also one of the "Modern Muses" on the November 1999 millennium cover of A
Darrick Doerner
Darrick Doerner is a big-wave surfer, tow-surfing pioneer, Hollywood stuntman, and former North Shore lifeguard. He grew up surfing in the LA area in the 1960s and '70s, moved to Hawaii his senior year of high school, and discovered himself joyous and at peace in heavy water. Hungry for waves too big to catch manually, Doerner and his pals Laird Hamilton and Buzzy Kerbox started experimenting with
Scott Hulet
A writer and editor from San Diego, California, Scott's known throughout the surf sphere for his work with The Surfer's Journal, which he edited from 1999 to 2019, and where he remains as its creative director. Hulet was drawn to words from a young age. At six, Hulet was experimenting with making his own hardbound, nail-stapled books. As a college student, Hulet became well-acquainted with the wor
Ryan Burch
Hailing from Encinitas, California, Ryan Burch is a goofyfoot, a shaper, a husband, a new father, a free surfer, and a free thinker. His approach to wave-riding might be described as experimental, both in the lines he draws and the surfcraft that he rides—everything from asyms to gliders to old-school twin-keeled fishes to sawed-off chunks of raw foam. Burch shaped his first board at age 20, loved
Robert Trujillo
Robert Trujillo grew up on the westside of Los Angeles, where he found music, skateboarding, and surfing at a young age. He first rose to prominence as the bassist for Suicidal Tendencies, which he played in from 1989 to 1995. He was a member of Ozzy Osbourne's band for a number of years starting in the late '90s. Since 2003, he's been the bassist for Metallica. He played—and still plays—with the
Carissa Moore
Five-time world champion Carissa Moore started surfing at age 5 with her dad in the hallowed waters of Waikiki. As an amateur, she won 11 national titles. In 2008, at the age of 16, Moore became the youngest winner of the Triple Crown of Surfing. She qualified for the WCT in 2010, and won world titles in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019, and 2021, with dozens of event wins along the way. She was the first-e
Mark Cunningham
Mark Cunningham, aka The Human Fish, is hailed as one of the greatest bodysurfers of all time. He grew up in Hawaii, became a lifeguard in the mid-'70s, and for nearly 30 years guarded primarily at Ehukai Beach Park, with a view straight into Pipeline's barrel. Through the '70s, '80s, and '90s, Cunningham won nearly every bodysurfing event he entered. But, as Cunningham would be the first to tell
William Finnegan
Award-winning author and The New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan came to surfing early while growing up between Hawaii and Southern California. He helped bring surf writing, as a genre, to the literary fore in 1992 with the publication of his two-part essay "Playing Doc's Games" in The New Yorker, which chronicled both his and "Doc" Renneker's pursuits at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. His 2015
Shane Dorian
A core member of the Momentum Generation and an 11-year veteran of the world tour, Shane Dorian is best known for his big-wave accomplishments over the past 20 years. Born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii, Dorian received his big-wave education under Brock Little, Todd Chesser, and others after relocating to the North Shore as a teenager. Today, with multiple XXL Awards under his belt and a
Jaleesa Vincent
Hailing from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, freesurfer Jaleesa Vincent leads a life deeply immersed in explorative practices of self-expression and connection with nature. If she isn't hunting for waves, she's playing music, painting, cooking, writing poetry, and experimenting with taxidermy. Over the past few years, her output has helped define a new generation of paradigmatic Renaissance surfer
Nate Tyler
Born and raised in Central California, Nate Tyler eschewed the world of competitive surfing in favor of pursuing the path less trodden as a teenager, building a free surfing career defined by a steadfast dedication to filming, traveling, and artistic exploration. His profile rose through the aughts and 2010's, due in no small part to his performances in some of the most cult-classic surf films of
Jack McCoy
A preeminent figure in surf filmmaking, Jack McCoy started surfing when his family moved from Los Angeles to Hawaii in 1954. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with film and photography and, in 1976, released his first film, Tubular Swells, produced and directed with Australian photographer Dick Hoole. What followed was a four-decade run filming, directing, and producing classics of the surf gen
Darryl "Flea" Virostko
A three-time Maverick's champion and a central figure in Santa Cruz's explosion onto surfing's main stage in the late '90s and early '00s, Darryl Virostko learned to ride big, heavy surf as a kid at Steamer Lane. His introduction to Maverick's, the wave that defined his career, came when it was still considered a myth in surfing circles. His fast success and notoriety within surfing, and the big-w
Aska Matsumiya
Born in Japan to a mother with a profound passion for classical music and a father whose singing and guitar resounded throughout her early childhood, Aska Matsumiya was playing music before she could talk. Allured by her family's player piano as a child, she became a proficient classical pianist by age 3. But after a move to Orange County, California, at 12, Matsuyima was introduced to the haywire
Gordon "Grubby" Clark
The mastermind behind large-scale production of the surfboard blank, Gordon "Grubby" Clark's pioneering of polyurethane foam in constructing the modern surfboard enabled the progression of surfing as a culture. Enthralled by materials from a young age, Clark received a combined degree in math and physics from Pomona College before working as a glasser at Hobie Surfboards and as an apprentice to To
Cliff Kapono
A molecular scientist with a PhD in marine conservation and sustainability from UC San Diego, Cliff Kapono devotes himself to putting his two greatest passions—science and surfing—into productive conversation. For Kapono, a Native Hawaiian from the Big Island, surfing necessitates meaningful, intimate care for one's environment and is a practice deeply embedded in the familial and social histories
Steve Olson
Steve Olson honed his skateboarding expertise sneaking into swimming pools across Southern California while growing up in the 1970s. His skating was wedded to a surf-centric childhood at a time when the crossover between the two was at its height. Olson earned a sponsorship by Santa Cruz Skateboards in 1979 and quickly became notorious for introducing a punk rock aesthetic and cool defiance to the
Coco Ho
From one of surfing's most accomplished and recognizable families, Coco Ho was raised in the thick of the surf universe on the North Shore of Oahu. As a kid, she quickly gained notoriety as a high-performance surfer in her own right, winning multiple junior titles before eventually joining the Championship Tour while still a teenager, where she posted solid results and year-end rankings for over
Nat Young
Dubbed "The Animal," Nat Young has spent nearly 60 years as one of surfing's most influential and esteemed figures. At the forefront of surfing's stylistic evolution during the 1960s, Young's victory at the 1966 World Championships in San Diego on his self-shaped "Magic Sam" helped cement Australia's place as a budding progenitor of high-performance surfing. In the decades since, he's maintained i
John John Florence
Two-time world champion John John Florence looms large in surfing's landscape. The eldest of three brothers, Florence grew up on the North Shore, where his mom took the family to the beach every day after school. He quickly made a name for himself as a kid, inching his way from bodyboarding the shorebreak to sitting center peak in the lineup at Pipe. His knowledge, talent, and skillset extends bey
Keala Kennelly
Keala Kennelly grew up on Kauai in a geodesic dome built by her parents and began surfing at the age of five, a contemporary of the Irons brothers. Through the 1990s and early aughts, she was consistently ranked top ten on the World Tour and was the first woman to tow Teahupoo. She has since pursued successful careers in both acting and music. Kennelly's life has been also defined by her pushing b
Brad Gerlach
His father an olympic diver from Hungary, his mother a professional water skier, Brad Gerlach drew inspiration and drive from his parents' athletic accomplishments and competitive mentality. He gripped professional surfing by the horns in 1985, when, as a rookie on the tour, he took out the tour's major players to emerge victorious at that year's Stubby's Pro. Victories continued to color Gerlach'
Thomas Campbell
Surfer, artist, and filmmaker Thomas Campbell's unique perspective was informed by upbringing in Dana Point, California, his background as a skateboarder, and his experience serving as editor of Skateboarder magazine in the 1990s. His films The Seedling (1999), Sprout (2004), and The Present (2009), which function loosely as a trilogy, aestheticize surfing on the basis of its inherent capacity for
Jock Sutherland
One of the shortboard revolution's seminal figures and a Pipeline pioneer, Jock Sutherland hails from a family of watermen: His mother swam the northern coast of the island of Molokai, a journey which she later detailed in her 1978 book, Paddling My Own. His father, a World War II navy officer, was a seasoned kayaker, fisherman, and surfer. Sutherland and his family moved to Hawaii from Long Beach
Michael Scott Moore
Journalist and author Michael Scott Moore's interest in piracy emerged from research conducted for his first novel, 2010's Sweetness and Blood, which traces the history and spread of surfing from pre-colonial Hawaii to the rest of the world. His interest in the issue spiked when a trial of ten Somali pirates began in Germany in 2010—the first time in 400 years that pirates had appeared in a Europe
Takuji Masuda
From Kamakura, Japan, Takuji Masuda has been a progenitor of surf culture since the 1980s. After traveling the surfing world and competing professionally with the Oxbow Longboard team, whose members included Joel Tudor, Duane Desoto, and others, Masuda pursued an interest in storytelling and cultural production. In the 1990s, through his reverence of surf and skate magazines and inspiration from t
Chris Malloy
The oldest of three brothers, all with prodigious surfing talent, Chris Malloy grew up riding waves between Point Conception and Point Mugu, where he learned how to navigate its competitive lineups. By the early 1990s, he was a core member of the Momentum Generation. An injury, however, forced him into the role of observer and ignited a career in filmmaking, resulting in projects like Thicker Than
Ashley Bickerton
Born in Barbados and raised between Hawaii and California, the late Ashley Bickerton was a surfer, thinker, and artist whose mixed-media practice explored themes of identity and meaning, often critiquing consumerism, modernity, and social communication. He achieved early success in New York in the 1980s, alongside the likes of Jeff Koons and Peter Halley. In 1993, Bickerton abandoned the New York
Selema Masekela
When Selema Masekela, storyteller and son of South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela, moved to Carlsbad in high school, surfing became his doctrine. He spent years working odd-jobs to fund his habit until he began producing and commentating for Transworld Skate, before he found his calling as an action-sports commentator and storyteller, using his voice to broaden the scope of representation in
Lisa Andersen
Lisa Andersen's surf story began in the mid 1980s, at age fifteen, in her Florida hometown, where surfing—especially women's surfing—was an underground endeavor. She soon ran away from home and wound up in Huntington Beach, California. By the turn of the decade, she was a professional surfer, turning heads with an elegant and aggressive style that stood out among the ranks of both genders, and cha
Gerry Lopez
Hawaiian stylist Gerry Lopez couldn't make a takeoff during his first time surfing Pipe in 1963 at age 13. Today, at 74, he is still widely known as Mr. Pipeline, after having devoted most of his life to the infamous patch of reef. His approach is the expression of a life lived in pursuit of stillness, mindfulness, and regard for the natural world. Sixty years after that inaugural and fateful sess
Mick Fanning
On stepping off the world tour, grief, finding solace in competitive surfing, and dealing with the aftermath of his near-shark attack at J-Bay.
Raymond Pettibon
On purism and art making, punk, surf culture, misheard song lyrics, art world disenchantment, what keeps him going as an artist, and Black Flag.
Kathy Kohner aka "Gidget"
On the Gidget enterprise, surfing Malibu in the 1950s, feminism, Malibu's cachet among the Hollywood intelligentsia, the beach, and boys.
Mikey February
The South African on Cape Town's surf landscape, stepping away from competition, his film endeavors, and finding the freedom to be oneself.
Barton Lynch
The '88 world champ on anarchy, his childhood at Whale Beach, hitch-hiking, method-acting as an athlete, and being disciplined in the pursuit of your dreams.
Kassia Meador
The California native on the Malibu parking lot scene, the Noosa wave that changed her life, harmonic resonance, walking away from her fifteen-year Roxy sponsorship, Malibu's perfect wave, her surfing influences, and the lessons she learned from Donald Takayama.
Yvon Chouinard
Outdoorsman, self-taught blacksmith, and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard never wanted to be a businessman. Rather, it was from his desire to innovate, change the status quo, and protect the environment that Patagonia was born. A craftsman to the core, Chouinard started applying industrial design principles to making outdoor-clothing as a blacksmith shortly after high school. His recent decision t
Joel Tudor
For loggers, jiu-jitsu practitioners, and the international surfing community at large, the name Tudor rings loudly. The youngest surfer to ever win an ASP event, Joel Tudor has gone on to win world titles in 1998, 2004, and 2021. His foray into jiu-jitsu began during a hiatus from competitive surfing after the birth of his son, Tosh. He quickly progressed in the sport with a characteristically ni
Tom Curren
The stylist on his foray into professional surfing, his proudest moments, commercialism, The Search, the California waves that shaped him, surfboard design, and his biggest inspirations. Santa Barbara-native Tom Curren championed athleticism in surfing with his emergence on the ASP World Tour in 1983. Highly regarded for his humility and integrity, Curren has served as one of the most inspiratio
Mason Ho
The magnetic freesurfer on manifestation, picking reef out of his teeth, hanging with Tom Curren, surfing IQ and the tour education, music, transitioning from landing airs at his home break to surfing big waves, and growing up as part of the Ho surfing dynasty. For Mason Ho, surfing has been a source of happiness since before he can remember. Son of professional surfer Michael Ho, brother to Coco
Dibi Fletcher
The Fletcher family matriarch on what fuels her endlessly-inspired disposition, watching her sons pit themselves against nature, the virtues of being fearless, challenging social norms, and what excites her about technology. Dibi Fletcher, the self-described progenitor of a "gene pool of cool," has mastered living life to the fullest. An artist, writer, and entrepreneur, her vivacity, lust for fre
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