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"Natxo Gonzalez falling out of the sky at Pe'ahi in 2016. Photo: WSL/Richard Hallman"   Natxo Gonzalez Paddles Historic Barrel at Nazare Challenge The Nazare Challenge went down in near-flawless conditions last week, with 15-20+ waves and light offshore winds. Spanish charger and surf explorer Natxo Gonzalez was one of the standout performers, making the final and ending up in third place (which also positions him well for the world title race, since there are only three events each year). And while Grant “Twiggy” Baker ended up winning the event, Natxo stole the day with what most agree is the...

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...

Credit: @ WSL / Poullenot After an epic late summer/early fall, winter has started off pretty slow here in Hawaii. Town is heading into its winter slumber, and while there have been a couple of decent pulses on the North Shore, none of them have really set the buoys off. But that’s not to say that the big wave season hasn’t started. In fact, over in Europe, Nazare has been going ballistic for the past two weeks—and things are about to ramp up even more today. The World Surf League has called the Nazare Challenge on for Friday the 16th, and...

THE BLUE ZONE IN OKINAWA David Kelly | Owner, Hawaiian South Shore Most of us have heard of “blue corduroy” (the wave lines that stack up on the horizon during major swell events), but not as many have heard of blue zones. Blue zones are specific areas around the world that have been identified as places where people live much longer than average. According to research by Dan Buettner, blue zones have been identified in several places around the world and includes Loma Linda, California, Icaria, Greece, Sardinia, Italy and Okinawa. Having grown up in Okinawa, I found it interesting...

CATCHING UP WITH SURF HISTORIAN ROGER HOLMES PINCHES    A while back we had the opportunity to sponsor the Lost and Found Collection event here on Oahu. This event featured a collection of old photographs of legendary surfers that Doug Walker stumbled upon at a flea market. Interestingly, our blog post about the event ended up getting us in touch with another surf historian via comments on the blog thread. I’ve spent some time getting to know Roger Holmes Pinches via email and found his story to be an interesting one. Roger was born in South Australia, which is 60...

WHAT !!! WHO’S GOING TO KELLY SLATER’S SURF RANCH?  Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California is currently one of the most sought-after and exclusive experiences in surfing. The perfect, private-access only wave pool is on just about everyone’s bucket list. Normally the Surf Ranch is kept locked up tight and only pros, celebrities and Kelly Slater’s friends get to take the waves for a test ride. In December, you can add our store manager Brett Martin to that privileged list! Brett will be representing Hawaiian South Shore, at the FCS’s visit to the Surf Ranch, in recognition that our...

Too often our obsession with surf can cause us to become myopic, and dare I saw a little selfish. We paddle out and want to make sure we get our waves, even if its at the expense of others in the lineup. And our fixation on waves can lead to deprioritizing relationships, responsibilities, and all sorts of other things that can end up suffering at the hands of our surf addiction. Fortunately, surfing also has a lot of good to offer, which is why we keep coming back to it day after day, year after year. And every once in...

Over the past few months, it seems like the world has gone crazy for wave pools. Between the Founder’s Cup and then the world tour event at Slater’s Surf Ranch, the multiple air shows and air contest at Waco’s BSR water park, and then the subsequent amoeba scare in Waco, wave pools have been all over the news lately. And here at Hawaiian South Shore, we are even getting in on the action, with our store manger Brett scheduled to visit the Surf Ranch in December. This week yet another chapter unfolded in the battle of the wave pools, as...

The Quiksilver Pro and Roxy Pro France ended this week, and with them came some major developments for the world title race. First, on the ladies’ side, Steph Gilmore had a chance to make history. She has won six world titles already—just one shy of Layne Beachley’s record of seven—and is widely considered to be the greatest female competitive surfer in history. The opportunity was there for her to clinch her seventh title in France—all she had to do was finish one round ahead of Lakey Peterson, who trails Steph but is still mathematically in contention for the title. But...

WHO AND WHAT IS THUNDERBOLT TECHNOLOGIES David Kelly | Owner, Hawaiian South Shore Mark Nelson founded Carve Sports, Inc. / VERITAS SURFCRAFT in 2014. Since that time, Mark and his team have partnered with Yu Sumitomo of Thunderbolt Technologies and elite longboard surfers including CJ Nelson, Harley Ingleby and Ben Skinner. Together with their shapers, this team has created exceptional lineups of high-performance and classic longboards. These boards have fun shapers and an established distribution of their boards in most major surf markets around the world. Brands include, CJ Nelson Designs, Harley Ingleby Series by Tolhurst Surfboards, Skindog Surfboards and...

This summer and fall seem like they’ve had more tropical storms than ever before—not a week goes by that there isn’t a hurricane bearing down on Hawaii or spinning off the coast of Mexico, or a typhoon running over Guam or the Philippines. All of that tropical storm activity means a lot of interesting swells from unique angles, and this week’s Walaka swell was no exception. The last remnants of the Walaka swell are slowing fading away, but there is already another hurricane churning in the east Pacific, and this one looks like a doozy. Hurricane Sergio is currently sending...

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...

KOMBUCHA: GOOD HEALTH THROUGH GOOD DRINKS David Kelly | Owner, Hawaiian South Shore   I’ve been drinking kombucha for the past two years now. I usually drink one bottle of kombucha every day, and I really like it. The probiotics (a.k.a. good bacteria) that grow in kombucha help to ensure that our digestive systems have good bacteria that are necessary for optimal health. Especially in an age when antibiotics are prescribed liberally throughout the world. It is quite common to lack these healthy probiotics, so it is important to find ways to replace them. I’ve always been conscious of the...

KOMBUCHA: GOOD HEALTH THROUGH GOOD DRINKS David Kelly | Owner, Hawaiian South Shore I’ve been drinking kombucha for the past two years now. I usually drink one bottle of kombucha every day, and I really like it. The probiotics (a.k.a. good bacteria) that grow in kombucha help to ensure that our digestive systems have good bacteria that are necessary for optimal health. Especially in an age when antibiotics are prescribed liberally throughout the world. It is quite common to lack these healthy probiotics, so it is important to find ways to replace them. I’ve always been conscious of the fact...