Surfing Life

(Cough.) Hello. Errr … HELLO. Sorry, bit loud. (Cough.) That’s better. Hi. Hi, there. (Perfect.) My name is Jed Smith and I am a journalist and radio presenter. I have been chosen as your captain—that is, editor—for the foreseeable future, so let me

Nestled in an industrial nook just a stroll down the road from Currumbin point on the Gold Coast, sits Shapers Australia. A family-run company that has provided materials, resins, technology and tools for everyone from humble backyard shapers to inte

The mind boggled. It just didn’t seem possible. Gabriel Medina’s 9.73 to take command of this year’s final at the Corona Open J-Bay was one of the most improbable waves ever surfed in a world tour event; up there with CJ Hobgood’s Tahitian tube ride

It was like a dream. As the sun set on a cosmic day of surfing, the vastly underrated NSW Far North Coast surfing purist, Chippa Wilson, struck a high-line soul arch, on a golden backlit Uluwatu grower, that might have elicited the loudest roar of th

The objective was simple enough. Ride a 17 pound (7.7 kg) single fin with 10 000 cigarette butts glassed into it through an eight-foot Cloudbreak chamber. Thus making a monumental statement about humanity, the impact of capitalism, materialism, nihil

Even if you think pro surfing and everything that goes with it is the spawn of Satan, you’d have to have a peculiar form of blindness to not notice the boys from Brazil—the so-called Brazilian Storm—have almost completely dominated the sport in the l

Matthew “Wilko” Wilkinson is one of Australia’s favourite sons and the froth levels were through the roof when he agreed to be our test pilot for our Sled Review. Wilko has strutted his stuff on the world stage winning several world tour events. Matt

SHAPER: ALEX CREWS ARTIST: BRETT PALMER SANDER: THE GLASS LAB 5’6” x 19 ¼” x 2 7/16” 28.3 L This is a really fun board, it has a fair bit of foam up the front and then it kinda rides a little longer than it is. It’s 5’6” and I rode it in some pretty

SHAPER: STEVE DEL ROSSO ARTIST/RESIN TINT: RICHARD McGARRY SANDER: AARON ABRAHAM 5’6” x 19 ⅞” x 2 ⅜” 29 L I really enjoyed this board. It has all the traditional things you look for in a twin-fin. It has the little bevelled rolled down nose, which is

SHAPER: JYE GUDENSWAGER ARTIST: ADRIAN TURNER SANDER: GARRY HUBBARD 5’11” x 19” x 2 ⅜” 28 L This board was super nice, a high-performance, small wave board. In fact, it was a little bit more high performance than most of them in the bunch. It was gre

SHAPER: PAUL GRAVELLE ARTIST/RESIN TINT: PAUL GRAVELLE SANDER: PAUL GRAVELLE 5’8” x 19 ¾” x 2 ⅜” 29 L This is the first Asym I have ever tried. It’s got two beautiful tails on it (laughs) and was a really fun board to ride, but not exactly the same o

SHAPER: BOYD PURDY ARTIST: BOYD PURDY SANDER: BOYD PURDY 5’7” x 20 ¾” x 2 9/16” 29 L The HB has a super traditional wide tail with some not quite traditional channels that run all the way up the front. It’s definitely a summer board. You’re not going

SHAPER: IAN BYRNE ARTIST: WILLY NICHOLLS SANDER: RYAN MacDONALD 5’10” x 20 ¾” x 2 9/16” 29 L I’ve never ridden a curve channel twinnie or a curve channel anything before. It was really impressive to see how well it held. I surfed it in waves that you

SHAPER: GORDON SMITH ARTIST: NONE SANDER: JAMISON 5’9” x 20” x 2 5/16” 29 L This board was a lot of fun. When you’re up and riding, it’s got a lot of foam up the front, under your chest and at the front foot. The foam up the front is well hidden and

DESIGN: RYAN CAMPBELL - SHAPER: STUART CAMPBELL RESIN BLEED: STUART CAMPBELL SANDER: STUART CAMPBELL 5’8” x 19 ⅝” x 2 5/16” 28.4 L This is another super fun summer board with a fair bit of thickness in the tail which gives you the feeling that the bo

SHAPER: DAN MANN ARTIST: NONE SANDER: FIREWIRE 5’6” x 19 ⅜” x 2 ⅜” 28.7 L This is a very high-performance small wave board. They’ve done an amazing job of hiding the foam, and the amount of foam that’s in it. It feels like quite a small board but the

SHAPER: FEDERICO PONSA ARTIST: BRENT TURNER SANDER: FEDERICO PONSA 5’5” x 20 3/16” x 2 7/16” 28 L This board has my favourite spray. All the Aussie animals are so cool. I think the favourite thing about the board is, it’s like it’s got a couple of je

As all surfers know, every board needs fins, wax, tail pads (unless you’re left back in the ‘70s), legropes (because we firmly believe in the safety of others), and a board bag to throw them all in. Our Sled Review was no different, and we needed the

When we head off into the wild yonder like the very first explorers, we expect to do it in air-conditioned comfort like the first explorers use to … didn’t they? Oh well, for this trip we certainly did and thanks to AirAsia and World Surfaris for mak

Aaron has been a sander for four years, but his experience in the world of surfboard manufacturing goes much deeper. Having started out helping Gold Coast shaper Wayne Lowen at his store in Miami, Aaron eventually made his way over to Steve Del Rosso

After starting out sweeping floors after school for Gold Coast shaper Murray Bourton, Adam Wessel has gone on to carve out a small empire with his manufacturing company, The Glass Lab. Since forming in 2009, The Glass Lab now spits out hundreds of bo

Ryan MacDonald is a second-generation surfboard manufacturer. His father, Ken MacDonald, boasts more than 40 years’ experience as a shaper and the pair now work as a father–son duo at the Mt Woodgee factory in Currumbin. I can’t yet call myself a san

Surfing Life: First things first, talk us through the perfect ten in the quarter-finals. Owen Wright: Right, I can go back in my memory. I can do that now (laughter). It was the first heat of the morning and I was out there getting a feel for it befo

Would you pay top dollar for a board made out of trash? What if it “went like a rocket” as the creator of Australia’s first ever up-cycled trash board, Adam Baldwin, says his does? As the global population begins to truly reckon with the vast amounts

After winding through a maze of roads on a rainy NSW North Coast night, Luke Daniels’ rustic double-decker timber homestead reveals itself via a banged-up caravan in the front yard next to an active chicken coup. His van, which has plastic taped over

Are you getting lost in this image of Laura Enever at Shipsterns? Does it boggle the mind? Did you ever think you’d see the day when women were riding waves considered too heavy for the world’s best men a couple of decades ago? Did you get lost in th