While the North Shore has quieted down for Christmas, joining the rest of us in taking a holiday and providing very little to get anxious about on the current forecast, last week was pumping—and just in time for the HIC Pipe Pro, which was a qualifier both for the Pipe Masters and the 2022 Challenger Series. The entire population of the North Shore had been watching the forecast for the past 10 days, with the first properly NW swell of the season telegraphed for over a week by just about every swell model and surf forecast in existent. But the swell ultimately ended up surprising just about everyone, as it came in much larger than the forecasted 5.7 feet at 15 seconds. Of course, we can’t know exactly how big it was, because the Waimea buoy went down a few days before the swell hit. But based on the numbers on Buoy 51101 (which is located 175 miles northwest of Kauai and peaked at around 9 feet at 17 seconds, Oahu saw some legit numbers during this pre-Christmas swell. How legit? Well Sunset was pushing 8-10 foot on the sets during the evening session as the swell filled it, and...

Carissa Moore and Gabriel Medina World Champions Photo Credit to WSL This was a weird year for the WSL world tour. The abbreviated season started at Pipe (it normally ends there), then had events at Sunset and Steamers Lane cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. A four-event leg in Australia got things going again, but then Brazil and Tahiti were cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic, which left only two events on the schedule—the Surf Ranch and Mexico. When the dust had settled, Gabriel Medina and Carissa Moore had both dominated and were way out in front. But to make things just that little bit stranger, they weren’t declared world champions. This year, the WSL sought to increase viewership through a new format that involved a winner-takes-all final event at Trestles. Rather than world tour points contributing toward the world champion’s final tally, it was essentially turned into a qualifying series for the world tour event—the idea being that a single-event world championship would make for great TV and generate lots of hype around a guaranteed champion crowning date, similar to sports such as football and basketball. The problem, of course, is that surfing is not football and basketball. It is...

SURF TERMS THAT YOU MAY OR MAY NOT KNOW OR UNDERSTAND Surfers have our their lingo and it can be pretty confusing for non-surfers or even the most experienced wave riders. I often have people in the shop asking me to explain some of the more fundamental surf lingo. Here are surf terms I’ve defined: What is a wind swell? And what is a ground swell? You often hear people at the beach referring to wind swell and ground swell and saying things like “Hmm, the waves are a bit bumpy and weak. Looks like we only have a bit of wind swell in the water,” or “Wow, that ground swell has really filled in.” But what exactly does this mean? Waves are generated by wind blowing (wind swell) over the surface of the water and when they are first generated, they tend to be somewhat weak and disorganized. The farther these waves travel, the more organized they become. They are all moving at slightly different speeds and as waves catch up with each other they join to create more powerful waves. As the waves join, gaps are created between them. These gaps are measured in seconds and referred to...

The Making of the Waimea Bay River Break 📷 @vwhonolulu Most of us here in Hawaii have seen footage of the standing wave at Waimea Bay, which forms when the river flows out of Waimea Valley and breaks through the beach. Have you ever wondered when and how that standing wave forms, or how long it lasts? We did some research into the formation of the “Waimea River Break,” and what we found out was actually pretty unsurprising. First of all, Waimea Bay is one of the biggest waves on the North Shore—this isn’t really news to anyone. Over the summer and winter, sand gets moved around the North Shore by currents and waves (again, not exactly revelatory news), and since Waimea Bay has some of the biggest waves and strongest currents on the coast, it is no surprise that sand builds up on the beach, making it a great place for people to enjoy the sun, watch people charge huge waves in the winter, and jump off the famous Waimea Jump Rock during the summer. Most of us also realize that winter can be a bit rainy on Oahu—When the rain really gets going, Waimea River starts to flow...

BACK-FOOTED VS. FRONT-FOOTED SURFING 📷 @adam.eyes 🏄‍♂️@bourezmichel If you talk to enough people about surfing, you are bound to hear the terms “back-footed surfer” and “front-footed surfer”. While these terms are self-explanatory, there is a lot more riding on them than their simple definitions. Different surfboards and different styles of surfing work better with front and back-footed surfing, so it’s worthwhile taking a closer look at the two approaches. Prior to the invention of the thruster, most surfboards being ridden were single fins and twins. Most of them were voluminous with the widest points of the surfboard farther forward than midpoint. While these surfboards could be ridden from just about anywhere (and often saw surfers moving their feet around on their surfboards while riding waves), they were predominantly surfed off the front foot. This approach is more driving and forward-focused, while emphasizing down-the-line speed and lateral rail turns. The invention of the thruster turned the entire paradigm on its head. These lower-volume, higher-rockered boards were loose and maneuverable. The cluster of three fins at the back of the surfboard allowed for aggressive, vertical, top-to-bottom surfing. The back-foot surfing approach is facilitated by standing with your back foot over the fin cluster and...

  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...

  George Greenough is a visionary force in surfing. Over the years, he has been responsible for a number of innovations, including prototypes for camera housings, early shortboard shapes, iterations of the surf mat, the Spoon shape, vertical surfing, and early fish designs. But perhaps his greatest influence has been through the creation and refinement of the modern surfboard fin. His high-aspect ratio fin was based on the fin of a tuna fish, and helped bring about one of the biggest performance leaps in surfing history. Today, Greenough continues to think outside the box, tinkering and refining all matter of surf craft and accessories in a life-long pursuit of perfection. His newest collaboration with Marc Andreini True Ames fin company is a hatchet-style center fin called the Power Blade. This fin seeks to blend style with performance, producing projection through flex generated in the fin’s head. At the same time, the fin’s narrow base results in less resistance as the board passes through the water, resulting in speed and maneuverability that are rarely seen in a single fin. The Power Blade is the result of years of experimentation and embodies Greenough’s obsession with the flex characteristics of fins. For those...

  It might seem like the simplest of questions, but the reality is that many surfers don’t actually know where their waves come from. And little wonder. In an age of computer-guided swell models and customized spot forecasts, it’s easy to live from surf reports to surf reports rather than understanding the science ourselves. But 20 years ago the idea of an online swell model didn’t even exist, and 20 years before that the only surf reports in existence were word of mouth from the guy who got to the beach earlier than you. Go back a couple of hundred years and waves were the stuff of legend, their origins inspiring confusion and wonder, or at the very least leading to myths such as the ever-popular “full-moon swell.” But swells have always been much simpler than that—although they are created by powerful, destructive forces, they certainly aren’t the handiwork of gods and demigods. Instead, they are easily explained by science, which is exactly why we are able to have such consistently accurate forecasts. Waves are caused by the action of wind over the surface of the water. As all of us have seen on breezy days, wind causes ripples on...

Surfboard Fins 101   Tom Blake Picture from www.surfmuseum.org When Tom Blake put an abandoned boat keel onto his redwood surfboard in 1934, he had no idea the innovation explosion he was about to spark. The addition of a fin made boards infinitely more maneuverable, which led to progression both in how waves were approached and what waves were approachable.   Keel fin Picture form True Ames Fins Bob Simmons improved on Blake’s keel fin in the 1940s, building a more raked keel that is still in use today on some types of boards. He is also credited with building the first twin fin. Then George Greenough created a narrower fin that looked more like a dolphin’s dorsal, adding flex to the tip and in part ushering in the shortboard revolution. True Ames Greenough 4-A Single fins and keeled twins (such as Steve Lis’s fish design) dominated modern surfing well into the 1970s, when Mark Richards modified and modernized the twin and proved the design by winning four world championships between 1979 and 1982. These new boards were able to perform radical maneuvers in the pocket, but still sacrificed power inlarger surf.   Simon Anderson Simon Anderson’s performance on a...

The Hawaiian model – Coming Soon! We’ll have 9’2, 9’4, and 9’6 coming in. First time hearing about this model? Not many know about it, so read on to find out a little more!   TALKING BOARD DESIGN WITH DONALD TAKAYAMA   Donald Takayama has been a legend of our sport for decades, enjoying a success-ful competitive career and a second career as an influential shaper. When we lost him half a decade ago, we lost one of surfing’s greats. His influence both on a surfboard and behind a planer can never be fully quantified. He surely touched thousands of lives throughout his lifetime. I was fortunate enough to be one of those people. The time I spent chatting with Donald made for some of my favorite memories and taught me so much about surfing and surfboards in particular. A few years before Takayama passed away, I had an opportunity to chat with him about board designs. At the time, his In-the-Pink model was one of my favorites. In-the-Pink is a high-performance nose-rider that is probably the most popular model in Takayama’s range, and it definitely worked for me. However, on bigger, windy days, I found that the nose would sometimes...