Featured Archives: the best of the best - New Zealand Surf Journal

Into The Fire: A QS Rookie’s Journey

Derek MorrisonDec 24, 2024December 24, 20240

George Roberts’ move to Australia to give the World Qualifying Series a crack in 2024 reveals just how brutal they can be, but also how those first round knockouts fuel his drive. Surfing competitively in New Zealand is a pathway fraught with potholes. While the junior ranks are relatively well-catered...

Watch: The War on Style

Derek MorrisonDec 19, 2024December 19, 20240

After competing on the Freeride World Tour, and transitioning into a new career in nursing, Hank Bilous brings us an exposé into the relationship between different passions, the skill sets behind them, and the self-expression that mastery of them allows. In his directorial and producing debut, Hank adds another qualification...

Watch: Days Between

Derek MorrisonNov 27, 2024November 27, 20240

Filmmaker Damon Meade brings us his latest gem of a film Days Between a New Zealand surfing showcase featuring a talented crew in action at some of the finest locations the country has to offer. Damon, who brought us Under the Weather in 2013 and the Maz Quinn-centered The Beaten...

Photo Essay: Inside The Hīkoi

Morgan TahapehiNov 26, 2024November 26, 20240

Surfer and surf photographer Morgan Tahapehi is renowned for her body of work: Surfers of Aotearoa. Morgan has whakapapa to Tainui, but the reason she decided to hīkoi was to document the voices of New Zealand using her gift as a photographer. This is her story. Ko Tainui tōku waka...

Verdure Surf: The Future Of Flex

Taira BlakelyNov 1, 20240

Jack Candlish and team at Verdure Surf just might be the future of surfboard manufacturing. Operating on the cutting edge of sustainable surfboard development, they seem to have found accessible solutions to the environmental flaws plaguing the surf manufacturing industry. They’ve already won over top surfers and shapers, and they...

Watch: Stormwater Deep South Strike Mission

Derek MorrisonSep 30, 2024September 30, 20240

Like all good sessions, it was a last minute decision to give chase. I didn’t even know if there would be surfers on the hunt. The chance to shoot a clean, long-period swell with perfect winds at dawn was enough to invoke that sense of hopeless FOMO – the type...

Winning And Losing With World Number 4 Alexis Owen

Taira BlakelySep 12, 20240

It’s an average Tuesday in Dunedin, New Zealand. The after school rush is in full force as I navigate traffic on the way to the St Kilda Surf Lifesaving HQ. The sky is blue and the air is almost warm – remarkably mild for a winter’s day in Dunedin. The...

Special Report: How To Get Sponsored

Derek MorrisonSep 11, 20240

So you want to get sponsored? We ask a handful of New Zealand’s leading team managers what you need to do and the steps you should take. Firstly, sponsorship has never been in a worse state in New Zealand (you can read our story on the surf industry state of...

Special Report: Has The Surf Industry Abandoned New Zealand?

Derek MorrisonSep 11, 2024September 11, 20240

If it feels like the surf industry has abandoned New Zealand then you’re kind of right. We look into the state of play of the industry and where the rubber meets the road here In New Zealand. I first started writing and photographing surf around 1993 – guys like Munga...

Seer Surfcraft: The White Pointer Must Die!

Taira BlakelyJul 31, 2024August 15, 20240

“I never wanted to make surfboards for other people,” says Homa Mattingly, founder of Seer Surfcraft. As we walk through his backyard shaping bay, it becomes clear to me that he’s failed – at least on that front. The contents of his shaping area have invaded his living space, and...