Sessions
It was a 50-50 call. The swell could be too small, the long period, at 15 seconds, not enough to compensate. But in the heads of the 10 people assembling in the early morning darkness at the launch point, that was a gamble worth taking. And so another day in......
The Southern Ocean is choked with swell energy right now, but it was an early season long-period pulse that turned the Southern reefs inside out. Dave Lyons managed to document one of the best sessions to take place in the south east corner of our country … so far. Dave......
Filmmaker and surfer Fellipe Valadao brings us this raw edit from the super swell that hit Hawaii over the weekend. “I had the privilege to ride a couple of the best big waves of my life today here on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii,” he told his followers. “This......
Doug Young, Dan Smith and Dave Lyons target an unruly wave on the edge of a reef during the last storm of the season. The ingredients were this: two 180-degree south swells, both 4m at 14 seconds, a west southwest wind that may drop to 20 knots, if we’re lucky,......
Most of the kaumatua of New Zealand surfing will tell you that they’ve forgotten more than we’ll ever know. Assembled around a campfire in the post-surf glow of twilight the stories tumble out like moths attracted to the flames. These are stories that should be treasured, told and re-told. Like......
He may prefer to hide away from the limelight, but Jamie Civil keeps drawing attention to himself in pumping hollow waves. Civil would have to be one of New Zealand’s best barrel riders and this edit by Tim Shaw and Oscar Johns attests to that. Filmed over a winter in......
In 2019 an east swell hit the Otago coastline in the middle of the winter. It was accompanied by a window of unseasonably settled weather, producing eight days of incredible surf conditions. Here’s what the tail end of that run of swell looked like. It doesn’t get much better than......
When a low-pressure system parks itself off the east coast it spins everyone into a frenzy. The recent July swell was no different and Piha photographer, CPL, fresh up for air after a deadline, wasted no time. He picks up the story … “Yes!” That was the emphatic reply I......
A group of Southern surfers chase a record-breaking swell as it lines up a remote reef break buried deep in the Catlins. What transpires has it all: blood, guts, an inhospitable peak and the rise of a new talent in big-wave surfing. New Zealand Surf Journal takes you inside one......
The February swell that swept into the East Coast and drifted south made a direct hit on Gisborne. The wonky, wobbly swell hit with such intensity that only few breaks could properly handle the volume of water moving around. The unusual easterly swell direction added to the confusion. But if......