On the Cover: Mark Healey dropping through critical airspace at the 2023 Eddie. “I shot this photo from a helicopter using a long lens,” says photographer Mike Coots. “As we arrived above Waimea, it was obvious these were some of the biggest waves I’d seen in my life. I can only imagine the adrenaline running through Healey’s body as he lunged from the sky into this giant.” See more entry points from inside the issue below.

On the Cover: For Frederick Wardy, surfboard building was art and art was an extension of craftsmanship. Prime sample, 1965. Photograph courtesy of Frederick Wardy.

Beyond the flaps, we track Wardy’s transition from shaper to fine artist, the bountiful score of a four-deep Aussie crew, and the impetus of a Central Californian slab hunter and land steward. We also tap into the wisdom of a 93-year-old surfer and hop continents with an enthusiastic surf progeny. Other stops along the way include the sea smoke-filled frames of a New England-based shooter, traffic-snarling art, and one writer’s search for the caretakers of aloha in modern-day Waikiki.

On the cover: Nic von Rupp with his foot on the accelerator in Portugal. “He drove down from the western tip of Europe to meet this swell,” says photographer João Bracourt. “The forecast was supposed to be solid—6 feet with 22-second intervals—but Nazaré and Ericeira were onshore, and I guess getting shacked in pristine conditions was his next option. The sets took a long time to fill in. Eventually he found this one.”

Other threads in this issue include a high-yield strike in the North Sea, a late world champ’s last days at home, and a twin-fin devotee’s Down Under homestead. We also dive deep into a well-traveled shooter’s archive, track a Mexican logger’s origin, roll through NYC with a resourceful sculptor, and examine photos by a seemingly fearless North Shore waterwoman.

On the cover: Shaun Manners, achieving low orbit somewhere in the Australian desert. “I love getting down to the dez,” says photographer Josh Tabone. “It’s cold. It’s raw. It’s a little bit eerie, and it kind of sorts the men from the boys.”

Other glide paths inside include one woman’s inexplicable draw to the world’s deadliest wave, trafficking contraband via foam and fiberglass, the collision of aerospace and surf culture in a champion-breeding town, a freewheeling French Caribbean export, high-horsepower fabrications, and a low-brow artist’s big-wave motif.

On the cover: Mason Ho, mid-expectoration at Backdoor.

Viewpoints inside the magazine include the mindset of a big-wave bodysurfer, North Shore snaps by a skateboard icon, a chase for birds and swell in Southern Europe, the arrested development of a 1970s surfing playboy, the purist standards of a big-board surfer and shaper, impressionistic brushstrokes, and organics ringed by hyper development.

On the cover: The mirage-like Palmetto Point, in all its “everything aligns” glory. With access and, potentially, natural sediment distributions at risk due to big-moneyed interests, Barbuda’s already ephemeral wave could become nonexistent, wiped out in place of vacation estates and tee boxes. It’s the rare cause worthy of spot exposure in the name of preservation.

On the cover: Simon Murdoch, making every use of his residential knowledge and hanging on by the tip of his single-fin against the sundowner winds, somewhere in the 805.

Other drop-ins include the peer study of a shaper’s half century in the game, the surf holdings of an island in the Bering Sea, and channel bottom masters showing proof of work. Cultural check-ins include the contemporary surf scene of a once-romanticized Mexican beach town, an in-depth look at a Southern California landscape in 1950, a folk-rockstar’s Atlantic-set island redoubt, and more.

On the cover: John John Florence at Rockpile, brushing up against what Hunter S. Thompson called “The Edge,” conjuring an ocean-based version of fanging it on a Vincent Black Shadow. Pistons and gears inside the issue include the arc of Dane Kealoha, Indonesian isolation amid a pandemic, the physics of tube riding with Mike Stewart, and toolbox analysis with master shapers.