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28.6

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On the cover: Framed in the strobes of citified light, Hawaiian surfer-chemist Cliff Kapono reflects silently at the fountainhead of surfing life: Waikiki. Inside the flaps, the new issue journeys from the wood mill that launched surfing’s balsa revolution and to modern caravan camping in Western Australia, from atoll searching in remote French Polynesian to surf-skating concrete pipes in the Arizona desert. The ocean-infused artwork of John Millei, Waikiki under the blanket of night, and Nolan Hall’s photographs of surfing’s offbeat “athletes” add visual high points.

Features
Photograph by Alastair McKevitt

Page 22
GENERAL VENEER

How a timber processing facility in Los Angeles became the nexus between surfing’s balsa revolution and the U.S. aerospace industry.

By Richard Kenvin

Photograph by John Respondek

There’s a certain patch of reef that stretches for hundreds of miles, and it has a reputation for a lot of activity. People lose fish as they’re reeling them in. We saw feeding frenzies from the ski, and even got circled.

Page 36
LANDSCAPE PAINTERS

In the bone-blasted outback of Western Australia, the desert becomes you.

By Taj Burrow & John Respondek

Photograph by Patricia Von Ah

Page 48
ACTION HERO

John Millei drags the surfing experience—still dripping—back to the studio killing floor.

By Alex Weinstein

Photograph by John Hook

In the background: an array of lights, windows, transactions, and the great tourist horde. In the foreground: a black ocean empties of its masses save for these few, nighttime sliders. The context and contrast can’t be escaped.

Page 56
COCKTAIL HOUR

Photographer John Hook shoots the lights out in Waikiki.

Introduction by David Wong

Photograph by Matt Titone

Page 66
THE BACK-FORTY OF THE RIVIERA

At Home With Jeff Johnson.

By Ethan Stewart & Matt Titone

 

Photograph by Steve Pingleton

While lacking the aesthetic, sensual, and purity level of riding waves, this was comparable to all but the very best surfing sensations. And it was here everyday.

Page 66
EVERY DESERT HIDES A WELL

In the late 1970s, a crew of California surf-skaters got wind of the Central Arizona Project, bringing the concept of a surf trip to the Sonoran Desert.

Photograph by Ben Thouard

Page 86
THE EYES OF RA’IVAVAE

Described as “Bora-Bora with wind,” a French Polynesian waypoint in the Austral Islands offers raw-boned nature, zero luxury, and decent odds of reef pass solitude.

By Michael Kew

Photograph by Nolan Hall

Hall creates powerful images by his use of subject, science, technique, and his own eye to immortalize a frame you might not have noticed, even if you were there. He resuscitates passing moments in time, which is itself a lost art in the digital world.

Page 94
PORTFOLIO: NOLAN HALL

Spooning surfing’s decisive moments from the soup of our rebel origins.

Introduction by Travis Ferré