The Surfers Journal
Inside the book, TSJ 29.2 treks through the Western Australian wilderness looking for empty setups, tests twin-fins at an off-grid Mexican beach break, and recounts some of surfing’s most notorious travel disasters. Essayist Ralph Sneeden’s reflections on bi-coastal identity and shaper-artist Trey Edwards home in Daytona Beach hit on cultural points, while Todd Glaser’s underwater photography and John Respondek’s highlights from six weeks in Indonesia provide visual counterbalance.
Inside TSJ 29.1, we run up the coast looking for surf in the Travel Advisory Level 4 zone of Sinaloa, offer a retrospective on Jimmy Metyko’s captures of Santa Barbara’s 1980s “progression era”, and trek across volcanic rock to find empty pointbreaks in the Eastern Atlantic. A retelling of Rob Machado’s disaster-plagued biopic benefits from longform treatment, while a look at the legacy of the world’s most famous wave print hits on wider cultural interest points.
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.
On the cover: What happens along a patch of reef when you mix decades-spanning family ties and countless hours in the water? Effortless positioning on any wave you want. Mason Ho, Rocky Point. The interior of 28.5 explores the North Shore’s culture of youthful goading in heavy surf, dodges gun-toting property owners in search for slabs in New England, and relays the foreign scams and scandals of Nat Young and Miki Dora. Profiles of twin-fin artist Torren Martyn, tattooer Ben Grillo, and cross-stepper Josie Prendergast add personal touches.
On the cover: Counterbalance—not posing—is the taproot of surf style. You sure as hell feel it here, all subtly elemental, as Levi Prairie coaxes a higher line from a tracking rail. The inner workings of TSJ 28.4 stretch from Hank Warner’s lifelong ride with surfing’s most revered icons to a local-level look inside the DIY Cuban surf-skate community. Modern interpretations of George Greenough’s edge board designs, the 1970s photography of Dan Merkel, and Jack Coleman’s lo-fi cinematic creations round the issue into shape.
On the cover: The Antarctic Ocean heaves against a glacial structure. Features inside anatomize Matt Wesson’s underground eyeball of Los Angeles, Waimea and Pipeline icon James Jones’ style mechanics, and the viscera of a road journey through West Africa. Artists Thomas Campbell and Alex Israel, water photographer Zak Noyle, and the homespun architecture of Lloyd Kahn add connective tissue.
On the cover: Dion Agius removes the right amount of serenity from a lonely, aquamarine bank on the east coast of Tasmania. Story points inside hack through the thickets of a rhythmic West African pointbreak, the machinations of procuring the perfect two-board quiver, and David Darling’s 1960s lens-work in Hawaii. Hayden Cox’s self-renovated perch in Sydney, and Chris Klopf’s traditional-minded subjects add a touch of the domestic. More below.
On the cover: Multi-disciplined surfboard artisan Joe Roper. Features inside the book include a Mexican wave zone lost to time and interest, a glacial-fed A-frame, and a surf playground amid an atomic testing range. The animation and comic paneling of cartoonists Stephen Hillenburg and Roy Gonzalez, plus the creative outputs of Josh Martin, Denis Stock, and Nate Lawrence add additional facets and textures.
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