Earlier this year, I went up to the Noosa Festival of Surfing for a couple of days. Friends of mine were competing so I wanted to watch and support them and as an extra added bonus, the waves were amazing!! The days were spent surfing, chatting, sitting, eating, drinking and teasing each other mercilessly (some [...]
There are few more satisfying feelings in the world than that waterlogged, salty, muscle-aching, red-eyed, stoked exhaustion after a really, really, really fun surf. You know when you stay in the water until you are not even sure you can make it in and you decide that this is your wave in, and then that [...]
In the past, I’ve alluded to the fact that, as surfers go, the word that best describes me is “polite”. I tend to follow the rules, give up waves, smile, hoot for other people and try keep the tone in the water mellow. I was not that person today. I take that back. I showed [...]
I see dolphins a lot. I know that is connected to spending time in the ocean, but I honestly seem to be a magnet for sea life. Especially dolphins. The other week I was driving into town from the highway when I looked up and saw this cloud that looked disarmingly like a dolphin jumping [...]
Some days, it all just works. Some days it feels right. You have flow, inspiration, motivation, enthusiasm, energy and it all comes easily and without effort. Your ideas, thoughts, excitement, heart, mind and body all spill out through your fingers, hands and feet. They move out through the things you create and easily become lines, [...]
Surfing has been mythologized in many cultures, and with good reason. From an athleticism standpoint, it’s an incredibly difficult sport and requires someone to be in pretty decent shape just to learn. To be truly good at surfing one has to be in peak athletic condition, and to do it as much as possible. It’s [...]
Moving north from Byron Bay to live and work and study in Brisbane for the past few years has meant a big shift in my access to surfing. In the past I would surf at least once every day and had an ongoing and real relationship to conditions, banks and spots that were working. I [...]
You never know what Mother Nature can and will do. After these many years of surfing, I have never experienced two surf days (or sessions) that were alike! I love picking up my board, I love packing my wax, towel, and wetsuit, I love the smell of the ocean, I love feeling the wet sand between my toes, [...]
A few years ago I spent a year living in Hawaii on Oahu. I was going through a rough patch…the adage “release that which no longer serves you” was an elusive intangible notion that I wasn’t ready to apply to my life. I took up surfing, longboarding to be exact. I was more into the [...]
The rules of surfing are eternally unwritten. They undulate from break to break like the surface of the water, but like the water, they adhere to the laws of nature – the delicate balance between gravity and surface tension. There are no referees in the water. There are no cops, supervisors, principals or mommies to [...]
A few days ago I was waiting at the water’s edge for a break in the swell, trying to organise my timing so I could get out past the massive wash that was about to hinder me as I paddled out. The swell was solid and the sweep was still really strong and there were [...]
I’ve been renting a beach house in Montauk, Long Island for ten years now. After a few years of watching the surfers there with envy, I decided I’d become one myself. So I grabbed the vintage 60s Bing surfboard from our rusty shed, thinking if I was going to learn to surf, I wanted to [...]
SPF is Not Enough Protection … get it in your heads! Ingredients matter – learn if your brand leaves you overexposed to damaging UVA rays, if it breaks down in the sun, or if it contains potential hormone-disrupting compounds … in the meantime, here are 5 very important things you need to know about sunscreen [...]
(… above is a great clip of the king of longboarding, and undisputed style master, Joel Tudor, showing us how it’s done!) … My name is Kaya, and I am a longboarder. Up until the arrival of stand-up paddle boards, longboarders were looked upon by most shortboarders as wave hogs and dangerous log riders in [...]
In surfing, you’re either a right foot or a left foot – meaning the foot you lead with and the one you attach the leash to. The rear foot you use for balance. If you lead with your right foot, you’re a goofy foot. I used to be a left foot (regular stance), but then [...]
