Hey All, Looking at the week ahead, I am grateful for Tom Carroll’s continued smiling and ever-viral presence in the world of surf, and happy to note that this year his birthday (59) falls on Thanksgiving. Which means nothing to Tom, of course, because Aussies don’t celebrate Thanksgiving and because on Thursday he and brother Nick will be paddling around Tasmania for their daily workout. The ne...
Hey All, The 2020 Encyclopedia of Surfing fundraiser begins now with a special Spinal Tap video kickoff, but if you want to skip ahead, click here to donate, and here to subscribe or send a gift sub. A brief update on where Encyclopedia of Surfing stands, and where it might go in 2021. We added just over 500 subscribers this year, and there are now 2,500 of you, give or take. That is enough to ...
Hey All, Mike Purpus is our only blue-chip surfer better known for his accouterment than his wave-riding. All you old salts know the Purp-approved checklist as well as I do: XXL puka-shell necklace, Tom Selleck mustache, Katin trunks year-round (layered snugly atop his fullsuit in winter), Aqualid, wide-brim Ladero hat. Mike strapped Velcro-soled Claws to his feet for traction. He went all-in on ...
Hey All, Surfing has a knack for fragging itself with embarrassment. Always has. Cheap canvas Duke Kahanamoku signature tennies. Droopy soul surfing platitudes. Surf Ranch Pro. I may roll my eyes and complain a little, but none of these misdirected surf-world outgrowths really bother me, for a couple of reasons. First, gorgeous as it is, surfing has always tricked people into thinking that, as a ...
Hey All, In 2007, as I began researching History of Surfing, I got an email from 1965 world champion Felipe Pomar, of Peru. I’ve known Felipe since the late ’80s when he revealed to the SURFER staff and the sport at large that Peruvian fishermen were riding waves 3,000 years ago on small and incredibly cool-looking dagger-shaped reed boats. After hearing about my surf history project, Felipe offe...
Hey All, Sydney surf-industry pioneer Barry Bennett, 89, dropped through the ceiling of his Bennett Surfboards factory last month, broke his fall on an unfinished longboard, and didn't pop right back up but is going to be fine. It was an uncharacteristically spectacular move for Bennett, who has spent the better part of seven decades (not a typo) producing high-quality boards and materials and pu...
Hey All, There’s a lot of surf fiction out there, short and long, and damned if I can recall a single passage that gets anywhere close to a bullseye in terms of actual wave-riding. Tim Winton’s Breath, maybe—the early chapters, before it all goes big-wave-life-or-death-psycho-sexual-triangle. But as a rule, you will sooner lasso a cat with a piece of string than you will capture the rush of a lat...
Hey All, In 1972, at age 12, I wanted to grow up and be Jeff Hakman or Jerry West, flip a coin. Instead, I grew up to be the editor of SURFER, which is one of those consolation prizes that turns out to be better than the thing you wanted in the first place. I was hired in 1985. Creatively speaking, the magazine was in middling-poor shape when I arrived and middling-good shape six years later when...
Hey All, Hang Ten beachwear cofounder Duke Boyd died last week at age 85. I never met Duke, but from the photos you can tell that his former business partner was on the money when she called him a “handsome California surfer,” and by all accounts Boyd was a smart, creative, generous, good-humored man. His legacy, though, is very blind-men-and-elephant. Those early Hang Ten trunks, for example, de...
Hey All, Jack Murphy, the handsome surfer-playboy jewel thief—that’s what Nora Ephron would have you think, anyway—died last week at age 83, from heart failure. Murphy was born in L.A. but belongs to Florida. That’s where he made his mark as a surfer, winning the ’62 Daytona Championships and briefly running Murf’s Surf Shop in Indialantic. And that’s where he began thieving professionally, as a ...