Made By Hawaiian South Shore   We surfers are often very protective of our surfboards—and for good reason! Not only are they a substantial financial investment, but they are also a very personal and prized possession. They each have personalities of their own, riding differently and thriving in different waves. And each surfboard has memories associated with them—session with friends, surf trips that we took them on, and specific waves that we rode on them that we will remember forever. For all of these reasons, it is important to treat our surfboards well—to wash them in freshwater after surf sessions, keep them out of the sun, and prevent them from getting dinged and beat up, as much as is possible. One of the best ways to protect surfboards is with a surfboard sock. These soft, flexible board bags provide a layer of padding without adding much bulk. They are light, easy to use, simple to clean, and can help keep your surfboard safe whether it is flying halfway across the world, driving to the beach in your car, or simply sitting on the rack at home. Here at Hawaiian South Shore, we recently developed new surfboard socks that we think are really...

  When it comes time to buy a leash, there are a lot of options available to you—not just in brands, but also in sizes and styles. What you buy depends on what type of waves and board you are riding. Too short of a leash can snap your board back at you dangerously. Too thin might end up breaking. But too big of a leash will create the unwanted drag, slowing you down while paddling and riding waves. In general, when riding smaller waves, try to use a leash that is roughly the same length as your board. Remember that larger boards are heavier and will pull harder on your leash, so a little extra length isn’t a terrible thing. Standard leash lengths include 6', 7', 8’, 9, 10', and super long leashes in the 12' to 20' range. For most shortboards being ridden in small waves, you will likely want to use a 6' leash. While mini-guns (ridden in overhead+ surf) and mid-length longboards (“funboards”) might call for a 7’ or 8' leg rope. Competition leashes are thinner than normal, and are used by advanced surfers who are less likely to fall, and who want less drag for...

The H4 Fin SetFCS Builds the Future The surf media has written thousands of pages on the various attributes of surfboard design, but much less attention has been given to the part of the surfboard that actually steers it. Fins are an essential part of what makes surfboards work, but we have only recently begun to explore their potential, in terms of design, materials, and other features. For the most part, the fins on   today’s surfboards are pretty much exactly the same as the fins that were on surfboards 30 years ago—whether you are riding single fin longboards, retro twin fins, thrusters, or quads. That’s all about to change with the release of FCS’s new H4 fin. This futuristic set of fins combines progressive, intuitive design with space-age materials and technology engineered by a Swiss company to produce the most efficient flex patterns in the fin market. The H4 blends a traditional fin outline with a hatchet-style tip on the side fins, creating extra drive and speed while simultaneously providing for release at the exact point that surfers want it. Meanwhile,the unique, elliptical shape of the center fin lessens drag while providing control and predictability through turns. The process...

When a surfboard works, people usually know about it. Word spreads quickly on the coconut wireless, and the best shapers always have stacks of board orders piled up in their shaping bays. But once in awhile a board gets more official recognition than simple popularity. Occasionally, the industry acknowledges excellence and forward thinking—and in Australia, that acknowledgement typically comes in the form of a SBIA award. The SBIA awards are an annual Australian award that recognizes excellence in the surf industry, with categories like brand of the year, marketing campaign of the year, wetsuit of the year, and sales rep of the year. This year, the SBIA award for best surfboard went to JS’s Monsta Box. The Monsta Box is the go-to high-performance shortboard in Jason Stevenson’s catalogue. A combination of the Monsta 6 and the Blak Box 2, the Monsta Box is the ultimate fusion board, bringing together performance, speed, and paddleability in a one-board-quiver that always delivers. This is Mikey Wright’s go-to board—and considering Mikey qualified for the 2019 world tour on the back of a year full of stellar wild card results, that’s saying a lot. With blended curves to hide volume without sacrificing maneuverability, the Monsta...

It was around seven years ago, on a surf trip to the Coffs Harbour region of Australia’s NSW, that I first started noticing TCSS logos. And no wonder. At the time, The Critical Slide Society was a fledgling enterprise started by two local boys, Jim Mitchell and Sam Coombes. In fact, it was more of a movement than a brand. TCSS started as a blog, and slowly grew into a community. But then things started to gain momentum, and suddenly, less than a decade later, TCSS is a multi-million dollar surf brand. The irony, of course, is that TCSS is sort of an anti-brand as well. The movement started because Jim and Sam recognized that there were others like them out there—people who saw surfing as something much bigger than contests and magazines. These were people who thought surfing was bitchin' in and of itself. They were longboarders, shortboarders, retro riders and body surfers who just sort of wanted to go surf, have a good time, and forget the rest of the hype. As often happens with counter-culture movements, the hype soon caught up with The Critical Slide Company. Today, its understatedly stylish collection is sold all over the world,...

We're stoked to carry Octopus Deck Pads at Hawaiian South Shore! This brand is solid. If you're not familiar with them yet, allow Nate Tyler, Chippa Wilson and Dion Agius to introduce themselves below... OCTOPUS is a technical surf company with a modern aesthetic. We build products that reflect the performance requirements and sensibilities of our team riders. (the) OCTOPUS was founded in 2014 by our group of friends because we wanted to create a new project / experiment / surf company that was owned and run by surfers.  No big investors.  No one to answer to.  No rules to follow. We wanted to take the old idea of creating a core surf company like the ones we grew up with, but look at it from a different perspective in today’s terms.  The core surfer still wants all the products that will make him or her surf to their potential, but they have a more refined sense of style then they did 20 years ago. We put every new product through a rigorous sampling and testing process and simply won’t put out a product unless our founding team riders have signed off on it’s performance, and durability.  We are completely...

Surf industry pioneer,, Jack O'Neill at his cliff-side home in Santa Cruz,Ca - http://www.sfgate.com/ When Jack O’Neill introduced the wetsuit in 1952, he couldn’t have known the impact his new product would have. All Jack wanted was to surf for longer periods of time in San Francisco, where the average water temp was in the mid-50s. But 60 years later, wetsuits have advanced to the point where we can surf water in places like Iceland and Alaska, all the way down to the slushy freezing point. Wetsuits are made by dozens of surf companies and boutique brands specializing in high-quality neoprene, and are even available in environmentally-friendly, plant-based rubber for the tree-hugging wave rider. Japan has long been a leader in technological innovation, and their rubber is no exception. Many of the top big-name wetsuit brands have turned to Japan for their rubber, and with good reason — the quality speaks for itself, and the rubber coming out of Japan is as good as it gets. We aren’t talking about “Japanese” rubber that is actually made in China. No, we mean the real Japanese rubber, made by companies that have been providing surfers, divers, and even the Japanese military with...