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Kelly Slater portrait detail

Kelly Slater: How It All Began

Posted February 6, 2022 by Dan Fitzpatrick

The GOAT, days from 50, won his 56th career pro event. At Pipeline, no less. Against a surfer half his age. If you, like us, are still numb from witnessing such a rare athletic achievement, maybe it makes sense to resurface the story of how it all began. It was 1990, and Kelly Slater was an unproven 18-year-old kid from Florida. He and the others who were there describe in their own words what happened next.

 

Live From The 2019 Pipe Masters

Posted December 14, 2019 by Dan Fitzpatrick

What a raucous finish to pro surfing’s 2019 season. Join us here for a live illustrated depiction of the Pipe Masters. (more…)

Issue 3 Q&A

Posted April 26, 2019 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Well this was fun. Stack Magazines asked us to talk through issue 3, and here is what we had to say.  (more…)

The Best Of 2018

Posted January 5, 2019 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Our Best Stories Of The Year, All In One Place. (more…)

Live From The Pipe Masters

Posted December 10, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

We were live on the North Shore of Oahu for a raucous finish to pro surfing’s 2018 season. See here for an illustrated depiction of the Pipe Masters. (more…)

Behind A Famed Ride: Frame By Frame

Posted December 8, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Tom Servais’ November 1991 photograph of a Tom Curren cutback is one of the best known images ever taken of a surfer and a wave. But what came before and after? These 15 images provided by Servais help fill in that picture for those interested in how a skilled surfer navigates one of the world’s best waves. (more…)

Illustration by Ignacio Serrano

Facing Pipeline

Posted November 28, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Eleven accomplished surfers recall their first encounters with the world’s most dangerous wave. (more…)

Breaking The Surface: The Journey of a Beginner

Posted October 14, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

What is it like to try surfing for the first time at age 52? Charlotte Slivka decided to find out. (more…)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Posted May 6, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

What happened the very first time surfers competed in a wave pool? Hint: It did not go well. Those who were there describe the scene in their own words.

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The Audacious, Comical, Tragic and Potentially Redemptive Story Of A Small Town, A Pool And The World’s Best Surfers

Posted May 4, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Pennsylvania Amish country was the unlikely setting for the first-ever pro surfing contest held in a wave pool. Was it a comic low point for the sport? Or a glimpse of the future? (more…)

Kelly Slater portrait detail

Welcome To The Wave Pool Capital Of The World

Posted April 28, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Kelly Slater’s wave pool is as much a curiosity to his new neighbors in this small California town as it is to the rest of the world. 
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Want To Hear About The Time I Almost Died?

Posted January 7, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Will Skudin used persistence and preparation to forge his place in the world of big-wave surfing. Along the way he wrestled with the same vulnerabilities we all face in the water: fear, anxiety and self doubt.   (more…)

Alvar Sirlin illustration detail

Alvar Sirlin: Surfing Portraits

Posted February 4, 2017 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Alvar Sirlin is a New York illustrator well known for his soccer portraits in Howler Magazine. But he is also a recreational surfer who can be spotted on the beaches of Long Island, N.Y. when the conditions are right. Here is a look at his sketchbook, which serves as a showcase for Alvar’s ability to capture the sport at its most dynamic.  (more…)

Kelly Slater wearing orange jersey

A New Beginning

Posted October 26, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Kelly Slater, just days before his 50th birthday, won his 56th career pro contest at the Pipeline Pro in Hawaii.  He is, by any measure, the most accomplished professional surfer in the world. It is difficult now to imagine him as an unproven 18-year-old in search of his first pro victory. But that’s who Slater was in September 1990 as the Cocoa Beach, Fla., high school senior traveled to California’s Lower Trestles to compete for what was then the richest first place prize at the Body Glove Surf Bout III. What happened next forever altered the sport of surfing. (more…)

The Pipeline Sketches

Posted December 8, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Ignacio Serrano produced a remarkable illustration for our second issue that places the viewer inside a wave at Pipeline in a way that no photograph could. The Spanish illustrator relied largely on Internet footage and Pipeline research to construct the point of view. “I discovered a whole new universe of images that I had never seen before.” Explore his process below. (more…)

Behind The Cover: The Pipeline Issue

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

Surfing was a new subject for Taiwanese illustrator Yu-Ming Huang. Yet his image of Hawaiian surfer John John Florence is one of the most powerful depictions we’ve seen of the two-time world champion. We liked its emotional intensity so much we put the drawing on the cover of our second issue. (more…)

Editor’s Note – The Pipeline Issue

Posted December 7, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Fear. It’s a central part of the surfing experience, even if it’s seldom acknowledged. From pros to beginners, all who enter the water know what it’s like to encounter a situation beyond their abilities. We hope to overcome our jitters in that moment. But how? (more…)

Beyond Pipe: Where The Rest Of Us Can Surf

Posted December 4, 2018 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Surfing Pipeline is for experts only, said Hawaiian Water Patrol’s Brian Keaulana. It’s “like skiing down Mount Everest.” So where should the rest of us go? Keaulana, a surf safety expert, and Patrick Caldwell, a surf forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, offer advice on spots more appropriate for beginners or first-time visitors to Oahu.  Even these spots are not without their risks. (more…)

Beneath Pipeline

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

Brad Scarfe, who is part of a New Zealand crew that has studied surfing breaks since the late 90s for academic and protection purposes, charted Pipeline’s underwater turmoil using information gathered by NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (more…)

Illustration by Xiao Hua Yang

The Hazards Of Hawaii

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

If you travel to Hawaii in search of surf there is a lot to know before you go. We asked Brian Keaulana of Hawaiian Water Patrol to identify common hazards that first timers overlook. Visitors, he said, frequently underestimate Hawaii’s dangers. “People are coming here to fulfill their fantasies and dreams and escape reality of everyday life. The warm weather, blue skies and rainbows. They see the beauty but don’t see the beast within the beauty.” (more…)

John John with flag

The Portuguese Pipeline

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

John John Florence grew up surfing Pipeline, a wave on the North Shore of Oahu that breaks in his backyard. When he clinched his first world title he was more than 7,000 miles away, in southwest Europe. But it happened on a Portuguese wave that looks a lot like his home break. “Supertubos” produces Pipeline-sized tubes and breaks close to the beach, just as Pipeline does. Portuguese photographer Ricardo Santos Luis was there in the port town of Peniche to witness what happened. (more…)

A Rivalry In The Making

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

John John Florence and Gabriel Medina turned pro the same year. Florence now has two world titles and Medina is trying to match that same trophy count this month. Those who follow pro surfing expect the rivalry between the Hawaiian and the Brazilian to define pro surfing over the next decade. Here is how the two stack up.
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Tom Curren by Tom Servais

A Lucky Moment In Time

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

During the final months of 1991 Tom Servais captured two images that remain the best known Pipeline photos ever taken. One, of Australian Tom Carroll, came during the height of pro competition with hundreds watching. The other, of American Tom Curren, unfolded in the fading light of afternoon with few people around. Servais explains the circumstances surrounding the images and why they still resonate with surfers more than a quarter century later. Servais, now 65, is at Pipeline this winter for the 37th time, in search of more such moments.
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View from Volcom House

Gerry’s House

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

A short walk along the beach from Warren Harlow’s house will take you to what may be the most important address in surfing: 59-363 Ke Nui Road. (more…)

How To: The Pop Up

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

Getting to your feet is the most basic maneuver in surfing, yet for many beginners it can feel like an insurmountable obstacle. We asked Adam Dufner, an instructor affiliated with the Hurley Surf Club and Skudin Surf, for a tutorial. He suggested that anyone who is new to surfing follow these steps with a longer, more stable board.  (more…)

Warren Harlow photo

Seeing Red

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

For more than half a century Warren Harlow has been watching Pipeline from his front porch, offering him a rare view of the wave’s potential for extreme violence. (more…)

How To: Picking The Proper Wetsuit

Posted December 4, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Knowing what wetsuit is appropriate for certain conditions can be confusing for anyone, especially beginners. So we asked Body Glove, which made its first wetsuit in 1953 using neoprene, an insulating material found in the back of refrigerators, to walk us through the basics. Wetsuit designer John Federoff was our guide. (more…)

John John Florence

The Physical Demands Of Surfing

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

Surfers have a laid back reputation. But Physiologist Olivier Farley, who has a PhD in the science of surfing, has documented the extreme physical demands of the sport by studying what surfers do when they are out in the water. Surfers need lots of arm strength and aerobic endurance to perform repeated short powerful bouts of paddling as they position themselves in the water and catch waves at a crucial take off point. (more…)

album cover image

Our Trip To Trestles

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

Baseball has Fenway Park. Football has Lambeau Field. In the world of surfing a Southern California wave named after a railroad bridge occupies a similar place of honor for those who love the sport. We visted during the Hurley Pro in September. Click here for a view of what we experienced. (more…)

A Trek Through Trestles

Posted December 3, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Thousands travel to Trestles each year to surf its world-class waves and experience one of the last untouched sections of southern California coastline. We asked California photographer Chris Ortiz to take a visual tour of this iconic American place. (more…)

Great Moments At Trestles

Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick

Many of pro surfing’s greatest moments occurred at Trestles. Illustrator Alvar Sirlin brings four to life. (more…)

Trestles Map - Sirlin

Editor’s Note – The Trestles Issue

Posted December 1, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Fifty miles north of San Diego is an expanse of ocean front, sand and cobblestones named after a railroad bridge. How did this spot, called “Trestles,” become the most important place to surf in the continental United States? We thought it would be fun to explore that question in this debut of Twenty, a magazine for anyone curious about the sport of surfing. (more…)

How Trestles Works

Posted November 21, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

We asked Dr. Falk Feddersen to explain why Lower Trestles is one of the world’s great waves. Not only is he an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, but he is a surfer who has paddled out at Trestles roughly 10 times. (more…)

Nixon illustration

Surfer in Chief

Posted November 18, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Why Richard Nixon Is Responsible for One of The World’s Greatest Waves (more…)

Onshore Workout

How To: Onshore Workout

Posted November 5, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Kevyn Dean of DSC Performance Physical Therapy and Fitness trains some of the best surfers on the professional world tour and serves as medical director for the USA Surf Team. We asked him to offer advice to beginners or casual surfers who are entering the water for the first time. He advises establishing proper movement and stability first. Dean says you can do the following exercises at home or as a warm up routine at the beach. Each step is meant to approximate different elements of the surfing experience. (more…)

Go Deeper on Kelly Slater’s First Pro Win

Posted November 1, 2016 by Dan Fitzpatrick

Go below the surface of Kelly Slater’s first pro win with this addendum to “A New Beginning.” (more…)