Rolling hills, pastoral settings, empty lineups, and A-grade surf, apparently Tasmania has everything the wandering surfer with too much time on his hands could want. Only catch, it’s at the bottom of the world, and the weather’s not always the most pleasant. But whoever let that stop them?

Part rock star, part TV star, part dedicated big-wave lunatic, Australia’s Ross Clarke Jones is a lot of things. But over his 30-plus years of chasing surf around the world his one motivating factor has remained consistent: charge as hard—if not harder—than humanly possible. Although it is fair to say, sometimes the nightlife trumped that ethos.

Life in Alaska is hard no matter what you do, but for those that ply the icy waters in search of ridable waves, it’s an adventure unto itself. Be it the onrush of deep low pressure systems, the tremendous flux in tides or the very fluid nature of the coast, being a surfer in the 50th State takes tremendous diligence and dedication, but you don’t have to tell that to Scott Dickerson and his boat the M/V Milo.

At home with Los Angeles-based architect and man of the world Harry Gesner.

Journeying far off the well-worn path, Grant “Twiggy” Baker and a handful of his South African cohorts uncover a bounty of slabbing diamonds in the rough. Well versed in the contradiction that exploratory pro surfers face, Twiggy surmises, “Some will support us, some will loathe us, but right now we have not other choice.”

Ruminations from the California coast.

Australia’s Whale Beach has remained a quaint, boat-building community since Frank Gonsalves first rented slip space at Carl Gow’s boatshed in the early 1960s. Time drifts on, and today Gow’s son, also named Carl, runs the boatshed. When he’s not grinding away on the sanding wheel, chances are Carl’s out surfing at Kiddie, in for a quick dip to rinse away some of the grime and keep his sights set on the horizon.

As the surf industry was birthing itself in and around the South Bay in the early to mid 1960s, Torrance Beach morphed from sleepy beach town to hot bed of talent, and maybe none were more emblematic of the evolution of the sport than the family Irons. From resident hot doggers to Hawaiian transplants to eventual world champions, even today the pedigree is far reaching.

Gaining acclaim in the mid-1960s for his cartoon in surf mags and advertising illustrations, Bill Ogden’s art has come a long way. His latest undertaking carried him up the Central Coast, where he was able to apply, as he puts it, “Skills and techniques I’d always wanted to use but never had been given the opportunity.”

The photo editor of Surfer Magazine for the better part of the last decade, Grant Ellis opens up his personal stash of images and shares a few of favorites.