Featured

In this category you will discover our best stories and articles featured and served up in one place. Dive in and soak up some of the best New Zealand surfing content right here on your device or computer.

Into The Fire: A QS Rookie’s Journey

Derek Morrison
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 Morrison
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 Morrison
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 Tahapehi
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 Blakely
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......

Winning And Losing With World Number 4 Alexis Owen

Taira Blakely
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: Has The Surf Industry Abandoned New Zealand?

Derek Morrison
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 Blakely
“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......

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