http://www.surferspath.com/features/ Features en http://www.surferspath.com/ Copyright 2008 2008-05-06T08:28:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/kokua-festival-2008 After a whirlwind of planetary touring across land and atmosphere, Jack Johnson arrived home to the island of O'ahu in the deep space of the Pacific Ocean to remind us surfers about love for each other, and love for the planet. 2008-05-06T07:28:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/kokua-festival-2008 http://www.surferspath.com/features/soaring-the-spiritual-journey-of-pioneer-surfer-woody-brown For a long time, altitude was the big thing in Woody Brown’s life. Now it’s all about attitude — an attitude with plenty of altitude. 2008-04-21T14:48:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/soaring-the-spiritual-journey-of-pioneer-surfer-woody-brown http://www.surferspath.com/features/baja-road-trip “Hay Banditos aqui,” Ramon states after a long build up, where we hoped his conclusion would be the opposite. Only a few hundred kilometers down the Baja peninsula, we are camping at a long fenced point break, and the camp security guard has just informed us of the danger just outside the security fence. He tells us not worry, and leaves us La Seguridad, three dogs named Bonita, Negra, and Redondo. In the middle of the night a large truck circles the fence and then shines their lights on us for an extended period of time. La Seguridad do their job well and what looks like a government hummer eventually drives off. Sleep comes hard that night with Ramons' stories and all the recent media coverage of violence in Northern Baja fresh in our minds. 2008-02-27T13:40:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/baja-road-trip http://www.surferspath.com/features/fidel-dont-surf ...But some Cubans do, so I brought a nine-foot gift. 2008-02-20T09:41:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/fidel-dont-surf http://www.surferspath.com/features/mavericks-is-more-a-celebration-of-fellowship-than-boost-for-egos Shoreline visitors shared their usual Maverick's lament on Saturday, unable to see much of the big-wave contest taking place so far out to sea. If they lingered awhile, though, they witnessed what separates surfing from so many other sports. 2008-01-15T09:38:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/mavericks-is-more-a-celebration-of-fellowship-than-boost-for-egos http://www.surferspath.com/features/profile-juan-rodriguez-of-one-world-surfboards-products After producing my film 'Going With The Flow: Classic California Soul Surfing' I was stoked over surfing history and it's roots from the Golden Age and my thoughts wandered closer to home. Just because the Central Gulf Coast Florida shores are notorious for several months worth of flat spells, most local surfers spend their time traversing the globe in search of clean canvases to sink their hungry teeth into. This desire to travel and understand the waves and how they break in various locales around the globe keeps the mind constantly dreaming; what are the best tides, seasons, swell directions, and which surfboards will be best utilized to experience the final act of surfing once there. 2007-10-19T10:17:01+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/profile-juan-rodriguez-of-one-world-surfboards-products http://www.surferspath.com/features/haitian-fight-song Blood and Fire Coral rule in Haiti, and death is a regular guest. Sam Bleakley, John Callahan and a small caribbean crew, skirt Fire Coral and the chaos of one of the world's poorest countries, finding small surf and big spirit. 2007-10-15T08:02:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/haitian-fight-song http://www.surferspath.com/features/dog-eat-dog Do you remember the first wave you ever rode? What it felt like? I remember floating in a Mexican shorebreak, gripping the nose section of a discarded broken board that had washed up. I remember the wave washing over me, my fear as it seemed to swallow me up in churning foam, relief as I shot out onto smooth water, the old board alive beneath me, the sudden realization as I sped across the surface: ‘This is so much FUN!!’ 2007-09-24T08:47:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/dog-eat-dog http://www.surferspath.com/features/the-silver-surfari With a typical Irish glint in his eye and a microphone in hand, Brian Britton recounts how the idea first came to him: “It was around two or three in the morning, and I was having a pint of Guinness with Roci. A few pints actually.” He pauses, grinning at his understatement, “and I thought, why not get everybody together from the old days? Have a big reunion? Celebrate 40 years of Irish surfing and honour those recently departed patrons who had supported us all. A Patrons’ Pilgrimage. Wouldn’t that be grand?” 2007-08-22T11:20:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/the-silver-surfari http://www.surferspath.com/features/mariachi-tecate-waves-and-fish-a-mexican-celebration-of-the-sea The stars don’t shine anywhere else in the world like they do in remote Baja. Under those stars, we sipped the fine Mexican brew Tecate and micheladas – beer spiced up lemon and chili – as we danced on the dirt floor of the fairgrounds alongside the locals of the surrounding fishing towns. Everyone danced side-by-side to the cumbias and mambos of Pautazul, a mariachi band from mainland Mexico, who played in front of a background painted to be an underwater scene. Even “La Reina,” the local beauty queen, wore her crown as she politely danced next to the town drunk. 2007-07-25T08:30:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/mariachi-tecate-waves-and-fish-a-mexican-celebration-of-the-sea http://www.surferspath.com/features/appreciate-all-you-have Eating in Indonesia is always an interesting and mostly enjoyable experience. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re eating, but it sure tastes good. Take the lamb, or what I thought was lamb. It was, in fact, goat. It’s very good, but I wasn’t so sure about the kidney bits. 2007-07-09T09:24:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/appreciate-all-you-have http://www.surferspath.com/features/google-earthspots Searching the world from the comfort of home... Is this the grooviest, easiest, safest and most eco-friendly way to explore the planet? Or is Google Earth's immense power a sanitised, slightly spooky sign of our demented times? We're not sure, but we know this: our planet's shorelines make for some fascinating and often beautiful viewing, even when seen from cyber space. 2007-06-19T14:43:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/google-earthspots http://www.surferspath.com/features/hollow-board-building-on-the-edge-of-the-atlantic Last summer I get this e-mail… "We run a boat building school in the west of Ireland. Would you like to come to Ireland to teach a course?" Hmmmmmm… Let’s think about this for a minute. Go to Ireland to teach a class? Ireland, always green. Ireland, famous for it’s honest to the earth people. Ireland, a land of points, reefs, bays and beaches. Ireland, open to the raw swells of the Atlantic... 2007-06-13T12:44:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/hollow-board-building-on-the-edge-of-the-atlantic http://www.surferspath.com/features/confessions-of-a-stand-up-paddle-surfing-addict My name is Olaus McLeod. I am one of the first Stand Up Paddle (SUP) Surfers in the UK. I first learned about this fantastic new form of Surfing last Summer, with the news that Laird Hamilton had just paddled across the English Channel on a Stand Up Board (SUB), as part of a major endurance challenge. 2007-06-12T12:58:02+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/confessions-of-a-stand-up-paddle-surfing-addict http://www.surferspath.com/features/hollywould Truth sometimes turns us into strangers. And in our quest for truth, many look towards inspiring figures like surfing rock stars to lead the way in the media lunacy of Hollywould. I sought truth at Kokua Festival 2007 in Waikiki (featuring musicians Jack Johnson, Eddie Vedder, Matt Costa, The Girlas, and Ernie Cruz, Jr.), an environmental awareness fundraiser for the Kokua Hawai’i Foundation, a non-profit group that teaches kids in Hawai’i more about sustainable living via interactive education. 2007-05-21T10:11:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/hollywould http://www.surferspath.com/features/the-epic-swell Here’s one man’s story of how a much-anticipated trip to Fiji led not only to an excess of dream surf for him and his friends, but also a rare encounter with the mighty Pacific at an absolute peak of majesty, a surfer capable of rising to it, and an industry reality that potentially diminishes us all. 2007-02-07T06:25:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/the-epic-swell http://www.surferspath.com/features/a-march-of-feces-then-april-fools Welcome to March madness 2006 in Hawaii, where 40 days and 40 nights of continuous rainfall spurred more flashfloods than Whirlwind Menehunes charging down landslides. The initial floodwaters hit worst on windward Oahu from Crouching Lion to Kamehameha warriors’ burial grounds, submerging roads and stranding locals. Waikiki beaches: closed. Kailua beach: closed. Ala Moana Bowls: closed. Then the Kaneohe Bay sewage plant burst, sweeping thousands of gallons of sewage into currents moving towards the North Shore. 2007-02-05T10:04:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/a-march-of-feces-then-april-fools http://www.surferspath.com/features/thank-god-you-cant-build-fences-in-the-sea Cape Town surfers have been enchanted by rumours of perfect, uncrowded waves in the Namaqualand diamond reserves for decades. Discovered by diamond divers, these are supposedly some of the finest waves in a country known for an embarrassing wealth of world-class surf. Over the years, a trickle of surfers have made the pilgrimage, and their whispered testimony has slowly seeped into our collective surfing consciousness. 2007-02-03T13:57:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/thank-god-you-cant-build-fences-in-the-sea http://www.surferspath.com/features/the-joy-of-bodysurfing It’s kind of hard to explain the feeling. There’s something else in there that puts you much more in touch with nature when it’s just your body and the wave. No board, just you, a pair of fins and a wave (and your speedos, of course). 2007-02-01T13:38:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/the-joy-of-bodysurfing http://www.surferspath.com/features/big-wave-dave I’m checking the waves from the cut at Ditch Plains. I’ve been ill and haven’t surfed for two months. Big Wave Dave, a New York City fireman, walks up to me. I haven’t seen him since our mid-August surf session at Block Island – an incredible day. Large waves from an offshore hurricane and a near-death experience for both of us. 2007-01-30T13:46:00+00:00 http://www.surferspath.com/features/big-wave-dave