Giving Slaps

$3.99 / Member Price: $3.19

Log In to Receive Your Member Discounts.

Not a Member?

A reader-supported surf publication founded in 1992, The Surfer’s Journal is vivid, authoritative, and independent. The goal of each 132-page bimonthly edition? A completely resolved composition. Balance. Color. Story. And purist surf energy from Page One to close-of-book.

In addition to delivery direct to your door, you'll receive unlimited access to every article we've ever published and discounts on TSJ apparel, merchandise, accessories, and more.

Join Now

Watercolorist Ron Croci has been around the block. As an artist, he’s a hell of a storyteller. His decades of scene watching, creedler monitoring, and dialogue harvesting have found him imbedded squat in the middle of various locals-only situations, where justice is meted via the back of a hand. Now, his tales and paintings scan anachronistic. Where meritocracy, respect, and hierarchies once defined the line-up, the modern free-for-all of adult noobs, mass marketing, and litigation have rendered the surf world as safe as milk. While he’s clearly no fan of thuggery, you can’t help but read between the lines, feeling almost nostalgic for the days when a line-up violation could land you a sock in the jaw.