Gear
Nothing enhances the surf experience like having the best gear and technology under your feet and wrapped around your body. We thrash the best gear available so you can make better purchasing choices and ultimately surf better. Check out the latest technology for boards, wetsuits, fins and any other hardware you need to enhance your next session.
Combining the talents of filmmaker Stacy Peralta, with the inimitable Gerry Lopez is a recipe for success. The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez explores the life of one of the most influential surfers and surfboard shapers of all time. Gerry is presented as an entrepreneur, a family man, a......
Dunedin surfer Jimi Crooks remembers the day well. There was a powerful swell at the Black Head quarry break. The waves were hollow and intimidating. Heavy. So heavy a lot of the young gun surfers from the area chose not to go out. It was about nine years ago. Veteran......
After more than 10 years of swimming around lineups with this housing we decide to give the DC-5 housing from Aquatech a thorough review. The DC-5 is designed for the Canon EOS 5D range of cameras and we ran in ours a 5D MkII, 5D MkIII, 5D MkIV and the......
Can Darren Handley’s Phoenix EPS breath life back into a 40-something’s small-wave froth? Well, it worked for Mick Fanning. We’ve been looking for this board for a long time … but does it meet our small-wave expectations? Like a lot of surfers in their 40s and with a bunch of......
We test out Billabong’s custom design your own wetsuit concept using two of its women’s Synergy 4:3 steamers. Yep, you can choose your own panels and colour ways – be the designer of your own suit. Seems so good it surely can’t be true … The idea of choosing the......
We’ve come to expect a lot from a top of the line winter wetsuit, but we didn’t expect Billabong’s Furnace Comp 4:3 chest zip steamer to catapult itself this far into the very top echelon of technology leaders. Billabong has changed. The brand used to be so cool that it......
C-Skins is relatively new in the New Zealand market, but if the brand’s ReWired 3:2 chest zip steamer is anything to go by then we expect its going to play a bigger role in years to come. We put the new steamer to the test from February right into the......
When it comes to wetsuits, women and children usually draw the short straw: below-tier taping, average linings and warmth, comfort … seemingly not so important. O’Neill’s women’s Hyperfreak 4:3+ Chest Zip turns that on its head. The 2019 O’Neill Hyperfreak designed for women really changes the game. It takes O’Neill’s......
New Zealand Surf Journal is excited to launch our nationwide Search For New Zealand’s Underground Chargers … powered by Emerson’s Brewery, of course. Yep, you read that right. We’re on the hunt for those surfers in New Zealand who drop tools when the swell starts maxing out. We’re talking big-wave......
Hughes Surfboards, Link model, is the result of multi-generational shaping minds, but is this the board that’s been missing in your surfing journey? We send the 40-something-year-old Derek Searancke out on one to find out. My scenario is not uncommon among a generation of surfers entering their late 40s. Given......