WSL World Tour Starts at Pipeline on January 29 Photo By @adventures_ofjess   After an abbreviated 2021 season and a three-month hiatus, the world’s best surfers are dusting off their jerseys this month and getting ready to battle it out for the 2022 world title. While the world tour historically ended in Hawaii, the WSL adopted a new schedule last year that sees the tour start here on Oahu instead. The first event of the season kicks off at Pipeline with a waiting period from January 29 through February 10, and the world’s best are already in town warming up. After an epic showing at Da Hui Backdoor Shootout last week, both world tour competitors and local wildcards alike are fired up to compete at the heaviest wave on the planet, and with the epic run of surf and pristine conditions we have had all month, there’s a good chance the waves will be firing for the event. After Pipe, the second event of the season will be contested at Sunset Beach, which means that the rankings will be well-established by the time the tour leaves Hawaii. Based on his performances over the past few months (winning both the Haleiwa...

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...

Surf Blog: Rain Swell and Last Contest of the Year PHOTO CREDIT TO WSL It has been a rainy, unruly week here in Hawaii, with a huge, super northerly swell intersecting with raging Kona winds and lots of rain. The entire state has been put on a state of emergency, Big Island had a blizzard conditions at high elevations with upwards of a foot of snow, and a handful of surf spots fired under the rare conditions, while everywhere else was pretty bad. But amongst all the chaos, the World Surf League got down to business, completing the last Challenger Series event of the year at Haleiwa. The Challenger Series is the new qualifying series, so there were a lot of people whose tour aspirations hung in the balance at this event. Despite the fact that the event was held in big, crazy conditions at Alii Beach Park, the cream ended up rising to the top. At the end of the day, Hawaiians and world tour surfers dominated, and a new crop of rookies earned their way onto tour.   PHOTO CREDIT TO WSL   In the men’s event, it was all John John Florence all the way through. No...

Introducing Ben “Skindog” Skinner Once in awhile, top-level athletes and influencers sneak under the radar, whether due to their geographical location, a lack of desire for self-promotion, or any number of other factors. But it is only a matter of time until talent and style catch up with them, and eventually, the world knows who they are. Ben “Skindog” Skinner is one such athlete. A surfer and shaper from Cornwall, England, Skinner originally grew up on the island of Jersey, located between England and France. Not a lot of people know where that is, so surfers from the island don’t exactly get a lot of press. But by the age of 13 Skinner had two British shortboard titles to his name, and by 18 he had won every category in every major British longboard event. With that sort of success in his back pocket, it was only a matter of time before notoriety came knocking. Skinner ended up getting the support of major sponsors, and eventually expanded his growing media following into a market for his newest passion—shaping. Now one of the UK’s top surfer/shapers, and a renowned style master on a longboard, Skinner has gone international, traveling extensively and...

Taylor Jensen - TJ Pro Model in Thunderbolt Technology Taylor Jensen has won three longboard world championships, with back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, and a third in 2017. Throughout his career, he has competed on his signature model, the TJ Pro shaped by Dan Mann, which is available in Firewire Timbertek, and will be available in Thunderbolt Black (carbon fiber) and Red (Xeon fiberglass) starting in April. To get us hyped up for the release of this high-performance longboard in Thunderbolt, we invited Taylor Jensen himself to come into the shop and talk us through the dimensions and design. The TJ Pro comes in a stock 9'0" length, with a single concave stretching from the nose through the center of the board, then transitioning to a double concave and eventually a vee out the tail. The bottom contours blend smoothly, creating for a seamless transition from rail to rail and maneuver to maneuver while surfing. Taylor rides the board as a 2+1, with a 6.875-inch middle fin and 4.25-inch side fins, which are essentially standard shortboard fins. These smaller side fins provide drive and maneuverability, which is exactly what you want when you are shredding a longboard on your...

When Kai Sallas decided to start his own production line of longboards, he knew he wanted them to be as advanced as possible. As a respected high-performance longboarder with an ISA world title to his name and numerous top-three finishes on the WSL Longboard World Tour, Kai knows a thing or two about progressive surfing and progressive surfboards, and when he borrowed one of Harley Ingleby’s Thunderbolt boards, he immediately fell in love with the construction. Kai’s surfing is heavy-footed and aggressive. He weighs around 200 pounds and surfs with raw power, so he needed boards that could hold up underneath of him. He also loves charging bigger waves just as much as ripping small waves, so strength and lightweight construction were both important to him. Of course, you usually have to sacrifice strength if you want to go light or sacrifice weight if you want to go strong, and most people end up compromising between the two. But with Thunderbolt Tech, Kai found that he could have the best of both worlds, along with proprietary flex that gives longboards added life and drive. Ever since he started working with Yu San and getting his boards made in Thunderbolt Tech,...

  2x World Champion Born in Coffs Harbour in 1983, Harley Ingleby started surfing as soon as he could walk. His surf-mad father Mark encouraged Harley from the beginning, and also happened to have one of Australia’s more interesting surfboard collections, a collection that wasn’t just for looking at. Harley was encouraged to try all kinds of weird and wonderful surf-craft, and by the time he reached his teens, he could ride anything from a 5-foot fish to a 10-foot log. Once he decided to focus on longboarding, Ingleby’s progression began to accelerate. By 2005 he was one of a small group of surfers dominating Australian longboarding. Like Josh Constable, Ingleby managed to incorporate elements of his shortboard surfing into his longboard repertoire, with extraordinary results. He explains that shortboarding opened his mind as to what was possible, while longboarding improved his overall strength and technique. Ingleby won the Australian longboard titles in 2005 and 2007, all the while edging closer to a world title. In 2009, the world title was decided over two events. Harley won the first in Japan, then clinched the title in the Maldives when he finished second. In 2014, he claimed his second WSL World Longboard...

Taylor Jensen’s TJ Pro Good surfers win the contest, but good boards help—and Taylor Jensen’s TJ Pro has helped him collect three longboard world titles. Designed with shaper Dan Mann, the TJ Pro is Taylor’s go-to competition board, and comes in a stock size of 9'0". Originally available in Firewire Timbertek, the TJ Pro will also be available in Thunderbolt Black (carbon fiber) and Thunderbolt Red (Xeon fiberglass) starting in April. The Thunderbolt Red provides a bit more flexibility and responsiveness, whereas the Thunderbolt Black is stiffer and provides more control in larger, more powerful waves. Regardless of the materials used in the layup, the TJ Pro comes with a stock design and dimensions that offer consistent performance. The Thunderbolt versions of the board have one liter more volume than the Timbertek version, but otherwise, they are all exactly the same, with a single concave running from the nose through the center of the board, then blending into a double concave and eventually a bit of vee out the tail. This smooth combination of contours allows for flowing transitions between turns, while still supporting traditional surfing from the nose and high-performance ripping from the tail. The board’s fin setup is...

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...

John John Dominates Margaret River With Historic Performance The Rip Curl Bells Beach starts today, but the world (and the world tour) is still in shock from John John Florence’s performance last week at Margaret River. Main Break is notorious for being one of the most difficult waves in the world to surf well, and that point was proved time and again last week as the world’s best looked to be surfing…well, not quite at their best. The wonky, fat walls of Main Break simply don’t lend themselves to exciting, high-performance surfing, and more often than not leave competitors looking lost and uncoordinated. Unless those competitors are John John Florence, that is. John John put on a clinic at Margaret River that still has his competitors reeling. Even Kelly Slater acknowledge John John’s mastery, stating, “I can assure you every surfer on tour is questioning either their talent or approach after watching that, and will all need to step up or step aside.” That’s a heavy statement from the greatest surfer of all time. So just how dominant was John John’s performance? Well, numbers don’t lie, and the numbers from Margaret River were stratospheric. John John scored a “measly” 13.67...

What is THUNDERBOLT TECHNOLOGY Available CHISHOLM CJ NELSON Models and TOLHURST HARLEY INGLEBY MODELS Audio Harley Ingleby: (Start 1:49) - Billy Tolhurst and I have worked really closely for over 15 years. And, we’ve not only always tried to push ourselves about shapes and designs, but also with different blanks and laminations. We’ve been working for a couple of years behind the scenes with Thunderbolt Technologies. It’s just been amazing to work really closely with them and push that to a new level. I’ve worked with other sandwich constructions before, which have been okay, but to be able to work with Thunderbolt Technologies and I’ve really had to focus on how it actually feel under your feet and the response you’re getting back and all that sort of stuff, it’s just been next level. (3:06) - It’s been really good not being stuck with the one exact lay up or exact flex pattern from board to board. Different boards, cruiser or whatever, they’re all developed for different kinds of waves. The others slightly tweak the layouts and stuff for a performance for their cruisers or small wave board. (3:28) Thunderbolt Technologies are PVC, double sandwich construction with varying amounts of carbon pressed in there as well....