Current Issue

33.5

On the Cover: J Riddle, on location in El Salvador, earning stunt rates via period-correct positioning and equipage during the filming of John Milius’ Big Wednesday. For more on the writer/director’s filmography and impact on wider pop culture, read “Child of the Bomb” on page 70. Photograph by Merkel/Lost & Found.

In this issue, we also open a South Oz shooter’s catalog, dive for bluewater gold in the California Bight, glean wisdom from a revered surfing elder, conduct recon in the Eastern Mediterranean, and more. For the full 140-page experience, pick up a copy of TSJ 33.5.



Past Issues

33.4

On the cover: Noa Deane, Off The Wall. Photo by Ryan Craig. In this issue, we pull into an understudied zone in South America, an outer-island hand-built home in Hawaii, and Paris’ 18th arrondissement—where an artist is hellbent on “transgressing surfing’s codes.” We also track a South African father and son’s experimental roots, study a Japanese artist’s interpretation of the human experience, and remember a late San Diego shaper’s indelible legacy. For the full ride, pick up a copy of TSJ 33.4. 

33.3

On the cover: Artist Ralph Steadman’s surf demons, pulled from his and Hunter S. Thompson’s 1983 book The Curse of Lono. In this issue, we examine the duo’s gonzo aesthetic applied to Hawaii.

Other drops include a Noosa-raised champion’s wide-ranging skillset, photographer Larry “Flame” Moore’s deep cuts and greatest hits, and a conversation with an industrious DIY bodysurfer. We also flip through a well-traveled lensman’s scrapbook, view a Euro shooter’s idyllic images, and study responsible surf travel models that benefit locals. For the full ride, pick up a copy of TSJ 33.3. 





33.2

On the cover: A view from the back line at Dungeons for Matt Bromley, Fabian Campagnolo, Frank Solomon, and Twiggy Baker. Photograph by Ant Fox. Other vistas in this issue include one photographer’s 30-year Indonesian archive, an epochal rancho California trespass, and the intense ephemerality of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. We also slide frictionless with a West Oz-based surfer/shooter duo, log Malibu with a deft fashionista, and talk mid-life shredding with a ’CT alum. Cultural studies include the endangered species of high-production handshapers, one painter’s destructive process, walking away from a head-on collision in Baja, and more. 

33.1

On the cover: Aussie mongrel and TSJ 33.1 profile subject Harry Bryant leaves one of his distinctive animal tracks in North Africa. Photograph by Thomas Robinson. Other lines in the issue include an arbiter’s subjective ranking of 100 postmodern wave riders, a pop-cultural misappropriation of surfing, and the obsessive nature of noseriding. We also talk survival with a seasoned Pacific Northwest local, ride full-speed with a contemporary shredder, and browse a prolific graffiti writer’s flicks. Imagery ranges from paradisiacal Earthly wonders to the Wild West-era North Shore, and more.

32.6

On the cover: Eurico Romaguera, redirecting his 9'9" Gato Heroi “Killer” off the top of a Moroccan runner. “The cat does not offer services,” wrote William S. Burroughs, a former Tangier International Zone denizen. “The cat offers itself.” Photograph by Simon Fitz.

Further down the line, we check in with an alt-shaper designing in the extremes, view the work of a ’70s photo duo, critique a modern French impressionist logger, swot how a shaper and surfer are reinvigorating a bypassed theory, cruise with a zeitgeist surf auteur, survey an absolutely no-go Pacific island, and more.

32.5

On the cover: Maritime idyll in French Polynesia. “Well, it’s all the same, the surfing and the sailing,” said Phil Edwards to TSJ co-founder Steve Pezman in 1973. “They’re all nature’s free ride.” Photograph by Kirvan Baldassari.

In this issue, we go berth to berth on four separate voyages with surfer/sailors, pin two-strokes through the desert, and examine a self-taught artist’s mixed-media rodeos. We also tap into the mindset of a seven-time world champion, explore Long Island through the lens of a New York nomad, and drift into an assemblage of on-wave stimuli and peripherals from the best shooters in the game. Hop aboard.

32.4

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.

32.3

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.

32.2

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.

32.1

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.

31.6

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.