Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2017 i Surfing World Magazine

MIRACLE ON MARINE PARADE Owen Wright just won at Snapper Rocks – you might have heard – a soaring miracle of neuroplasticity, the human spirit, and some barbed backhand hooks. We know why his win was miraculous, the brain injury and all, but what we’re just starting now to get a sense of is exactly how miraculous it was. We’re just now becoming aware of how badly Owen Wright was hurt. How badly his brain was bounced inside his skull at Pipeline. How close he came to never quite being himself ever again. We’re just now getting a sense of how far Owen’s come… as is Owen himself. I’d interviewed Owen the day before the accident, 15 months ago in Hawaii. He talked life and the road ahead. He was…

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Some people and most cats are not thrilled at the idea of water falling from the sky. “Hiss to that!” they hiss whenever rain clouds threaten to disrupt their haughty cushion time in the afternoon sun. However, like frogs, Surfing World campers welcome rain with great excitement and expectation. Why? Because it fills the ponds, brings the swells and, best of all, weeds out the pussy cats who don’t like it. They know that camping in the rain fully rules! Unless your tent leaks, then it sucks like hell. Shoulda got a Poler! For the two years previous, the Surfing World Camp had been blessed with bluebird days. Cloudless, UV soaked, postcard dreaminess from sunup to sundown with shoulder high swells fanned to perfection by light offshore breezes. In the…

Everyone knows Futures Fins drastically improve the performance of your surfboard and make you shred heaps better. It’s maths and science and religion all coming together to form an undeniable fact. Now Futures have released Alpha – a first of its kind molded carbon fiber fin that will take what you think you know about fins and punch it into a new dimension. Lightweight and totally resilient to fully loaded grab rail hacks, the Alpha is yours to have totally free if you subscribe to SW this month. That’s 12 issues of the best mag in the universe delivered to your door and the Futures Fins Alpha, ($303.00 value) for a measly $109.95. Get onto it!…

Domination is a decent description of the decade. But at what cost, the Slater phenomenon? The rivalries, the confrontations, the desperation – all of which marked swathes of the 80’s, gone except for a shard in 98. One thing about history is that the things that linger longer settle into the framework. In Kelly Slater’s case his rise came with technical evolution from athletic talent to the boards he rode, and to the will he imposed on others. It’s the other pros who provide the hiccup. The effect of their respective arrivals was different. They came with established affluence and were more part of an entertainment troupe than athletic spearhead, the Momentum crew seeping between Slater’s lines to ramped media effect – but not lifting as the peers they could…

August 1992. Southwest France. At no point in pro surfing’s history has generational change been so stark. It was a month that would shape the next decade of the tour. But what went down on the beaches of Lacanau, Hossegor and Biarritz was so much more than an historical line in the sand. There were some wild life swings in progress at the time. Like, wild. Amplified by the passing of Mark Sainsbury, several surfers experienced an existential crisis on the plage. There were also big undercurrents flowing through the tour itself. The party was coming to an end and being “pro” no longer meant you could win your heat without having slept. Then there was the rise of the surf brands and the shift of power from the surfers…

This year, three was the magic number for REELERS – our annual short film festival. For starters, three years on we’re still receiving A-grade surf clips from filmmakers the world over. Next, there were exactly 90 entries this year (that’s 3 x 30 in genius terms) and for the third time in recent memory Vaughan Blakey cleverly foiled the lifetime ban of the Steyne Hotel in Manly. The format was simple: three minute films, three categories and three expert judges. Filmmakers were given a choice of Action, Story and Youth, with each appraised by one of the greats of surf cinema; Kai Neville, Taylor Steele and Jack McCoy. In this fashion, each judge would handpick five finalists for the prezzo. And thanks to some elusive ‘E’ characters, the numeral three…