Halloween is a real terrific night. We get to put on costumes and step into another self. Some are conceptual and cumbersome—the Statue of Liberty or the state of Florida,...
There’s a Bob Dylan lyric for every mood. And there’s a Miki Dora story to illustrate every facet of the surfing kaleidoscope. This one involves contests. At one event,...
In my wetsuit-rashed and sea-ulcered early teens, an older friend said something that I found hard to believe. We were riding in the back of...
Magic boards are a rare thing in the surf world. When they come around they take us to new heights in performance, they show us a deeper connection with the...
Just when you think it’s coming to a close, a bonus month or two of sunshine and warm water. Indian summer is like found money. Unlike June, July, and August,...
As Executive Director of Waves For Water, Christian Troy’s job description varies. In hurricane-ravaged Guerrero state, Mexico, he led about 75 people in what was essentially a human chain across...
Surfing has been over-romanticized—the tube compared to the womb, the high-line streak likened to flying, the vertical lip bash called “kissing the sky.” Tom Blake dubbed it “The Church of...
You eye your shoes on the way out the door but think, Nah. You hit the driveway with a trot, feet find board, slash in the corner of the driveway,...
Julie Lyons chews her pencil. Steve Bishop fingers a paper football. Ellie Lamoreaux does a little fingernail dance atop her backpack, starting with her index finger and working slowly to...
In the ‘70s and ‘80s, California surfers Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson went on a global odyssey that included Senegal, Ghana, Liberia, Morocco, France, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, Barbados, and Fiji....
Lee LeGrande was a top professional beach volleyball player before shifting his focus to family, real estate, and a life of quality and purpose. He grew up in the Manoa...
It started in the ‘30s. Car lovers modified their rides, making them their own. They weren’t custom, they were “kustom”—the word itself tweaked and individualized. Kustom would soon become about...
Birdwell and RVCA have long enjoyed what might be called an “apparel crush.” The RVCA kids have looked over at Birdwell and thought, How did they manage to get it...
Artisan. Handmade. Local. Ethical. These are words that carry big cache in today’s world. Birdwell has been working this way since the very beginning. I got a firsthand taste of...