Surftime Magazine

Human Nature, Self-Destruction and Collective Responsibility Thinkers have long reflected on humanity’s struggle against itself, knowing that our conflict with nature is a war against ourselves. Forget about saving the world, it has always been able to do that itself. It just needs a break from us humans. And the way things are going, it’s going to get it. These reflections emphasize that environmental destruction mirrors our pitiful internal human condition. That avarice and vicious economics alone will destroy our chance to save ourselves. And that the ultimate danger in today’s internet-obsessed, self-serving world is the assumption that someone else will intervene. Nature doesn’t need us… we do. My God, what have we done?

Punishment and performance were applauded as two days of competition came to a close at the 3rd annual Earth Island Surf Fest at Bali’s Pererenan Beach. The waves were big and unruly during both days, making for challenging conditions but riveting surfing for the spectators. Finals Day began with more lined-up conditions. But as the day progressed, the bombs started going off again. After the second round of the Team Challenge, the Men’s and Women’s Longboard divisions took their turns before the Team Challenge semifinals decided the finalists, ultimately whittling the field from 14 teams down to four. At the awards presentation, it was announced that JS Industries had taken out the Team Challenge Final by a significant margin with a total score of 32.54, leaving BGS (29.47) and Legian Boarderiders (29.33) in a tight contest for second and third place, while Quiksilver finished fourth (23.96). JS Industries’ Dylan Hallyer was all smiles after joining the team to receive their award...

Before the sun awakens over the vast Indian Ocean, peacocks begin calling through the trees, monkeys crash across bungalow roofs and the humid air slowly fills with the sounds of another day beginning. The sweet scent of incense drifts through the village as morning offerings are quietly placed outside homes and temples, adding another layer of tranquillity to a place that already feels worlds away from the rush of modern life. By the time the first boards are strapped to the roof of a tuk-tuk, the jungle has already decided the rhythm of the day. I first arrived in Arugam Bay just before heading to university in the UK. I’d only recently fallen in love with surfing and, like so many others, had become obsessed. Indonesia filled the pages of every magazine I owned. Perfect reefs, heavy barrels and legendary line-ups were the dream, but deep down I knew I wasn’t ready for them. Then I found Sri Lanka. I had no idea that one decision would quietly shape the next chapter of my l...

Troy Hirst had a profound effect on surfboard manufacturing in Indonesia. He was a great surfer who fell in love with the Indonesian waves and was deeply passionate about building surfboards. As one of the hardworking backbones of Bali’s exploding surfboard industry, Troy helped transform Indonesia into a global hotspot for surfboard manufacturing. He taught and mentored young Indonesian board builders, creating an elite team of shapers, glassers, and sanders to pump out an incredible volume of surfboards of the highest quality. Troy was also key in helping local surfers obtain access to world-class surfboards, elevating our now hyper-talented local surf community. He helped kick-start our local surf team, starting with his son Westen, then Dylan Wilcoxen, then Kalani Ryan, Kya Heuer, Philip Duke, and more. With our annual trips to the Kandui resort, every year we got more local kids on the program: Alin, Irfan, Jayden, Izrel, Alif and then a bunch of kids from Lakey Peak. While mo...

For most surfers, Tahiti begins and ends with Teahupo’o. For David Biner, it was just the beginning. Based in Indonesia, working under the moniker INDOEYE, David recently spent a month travelling through French Polynesia. His resulting film, South Pacific, captures the waves, landscapes and characters he encountered along the way. As he examined the thundering waves of Teahupo’o, David also took the time meet the locals and their approach to life on Tahiti. He came away with a film that not only impresses with pinpoint focus, music and editing in the surf, but with a film that celebrates the generosity of the island’s people, the depth of their connection to the ocean and the sheer scale of the environment. South Pacific is a surfer’s film. Not just a series of endless clips. For any real surfer, it is not to be missed.

Padang Padang Bridge, Bali, Indonesia, 27/08/2026, 7:05am Knowing that the Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup is on is a force that draws you out of bed. You feel like a kid on Christmas morning. After all, this day, if the swell abides, comes only once a year. For competitors, the gift they are given is an empty line-up at Bali’s best barrel. And for you, it’s a show unlike any other. Padang Padang Cliffside, 9:15am Making your way through the acacia trees that form a dry, thorny tunnel leading to the judging and broadcast compound, you hear the waves before you see them. Each barrel unloading onto the reef drowns out the new sounds of the modern Bali that you have left behind today. The buses, the motorbikes, the groaning cement trucks, the pounding beach clubs, and the ever-present screeching of the rampant construction that is scarring this landscape forever. And in this moment you are reminded of what you came to Bali for. The shared elation of it all, the smiles, the waves and th...

Can I do it again? Can I win the Quiksilver Air Show for the second time in one year? On the beach in Canggu, these were the questions running through the mind of Alfan, the Sumbawan Lakey Peak boy with alot on the line. Winning once is one thing. Defending that title is another. Every early morning session, every wave, became part of the same question. Not for fame, but for his family, for Lakey Peak. From the very first practice session, Alfan wore the yellow jersey from the previous year. Alley-oops, frontside reverses, backside rotations, and sushi rolls flowed one after another. It wasn’t just surfing anymore; it was choreography, every air rehearsed with the same purpose, to be ready when the contest started. The days blended together. The peaceful rhythm of Lakey Peak was replaced by the chaos of Canggu. Loud music drifted from the beach clubs, scooters buzzed through the streets, and tourists crowded every corner, but none of it distracted him. Even in his sleep he was s...

Peter Pan, the famed book by J.M. Barrie about a boy who never grows old, is a door to a universe “where dreams are born and time is never planned.” And nothing could better describe the life that the Mentawai kids are living in this moment. The book overflows with magic and is seen as a wellspring of entertainment for little dreamers and rebels. Yet a closer look at this timeless novel reveals that entertainment is actually its least important element. And that its world of pirates, fairies, and mermaids serves as an artful disguise for a parable about the tragic nature of human life. A child, according to the author of Peter Pan, is someone who can be happy without a reason. A person who lives in the present, delighting in each moment. When the forever-young Peter Pan hears the call of challenge, he is “standing on a rock, facing challenge once again with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him.” That drum is the heroic fantasy of his readiness to live, or with...

“My dad was one of the pioneers of United Kingdom surfing, and he had me and my two brothers riding waves as soon as we could swim. I was born and raised on the North coast of Cornwall, high cliffs, sandy coves, little fishing villages like St Agnes. Where I grew up, winters get battered by huge North Atlantic storms, and that’s when the waves are at their best, though the cold is brutal, with water dropping to a bone-chilling eight degrees. England’s not exactly known for its surf, but stuck out in the North Atlantic between France and Ireland, it’s no wonder Cornwall’s breaks can be as good as anywhere in the world. I spent my teens, twenties, and most of my thirties there, and honestly couldn’t have wished for a better place to grow up as a surfer.” - James Hendy, President Director, Rip Curl Indonesia - A JETHRO HAYNES PORFOLIO/ WORDS BY JAMES HENDY

“You might never fail on a giant scale, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all. In which case, you fail by default.” -JK. Rowling-

“And tell me, wasn’t that the best time, that time when we were young and on the sea. The sea that gives nothing, except hard knocks and sometimes a chance to feel your strength” -From Great Writers and the Sea, Joseph Conrad, “Youth”-

“Christa is probably the person who shoots the most, especially on big days,” says Hawaiian big wave master Mark Healy in the new documentary, First In, Last Out. The documentary details Christa’s story from her beginnings as a competitive swimmer to joining the Coast Guard and her determined rise through the ranks of A-list surf photographers on surfing’s grandest stage, Oahu’s North Shore. With her hair flipped over her helmet, and her head bobbing in the channel as she swims for hours, she makes for a unique site in male-dominated lineup. Nathan Florence says, “We’ll go out for a morning session and surf for a few hours and then go in. “When we come back out, hours later, Christa’s still out there; she’s out from dark till dark.” Here she is discussing the journey of her life and the making of the film. On Beginnings: Christa Funk: Well, I didn’t just hop into the water at Pipe right off the bat. I started with small days at Sandys, then small days in town, small days a...

This spring I got my first taste of surfing in British Colombia, and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind since. The people, the place, the waves, the water, the Canadian surfing experience is something special. It cuts down to the core of why we all started chasing waves in the first place. Adventures into the unknown, abundant wildlife, wild weather and the opportunity to create some deep, core surfing memories. Even if it does take full wetsuit booties and gloves. A few weeks ago Canadian photo ace Marcus Paladino reached out to me and shared that he was holding some nice shots from the last couple months. Indulging my newfound love for Canadian waves, I asked him to send some photos along. His trove of A-plus images didn’t disappoint. In fact, it did quite the opposite. It inspired me to go back. I’m based in San Clemente, California, and summertime in Southern California can be a bit of a drag. Traffic, clogged lineups. And to be honest, the surf this summer has b...

It’s odd that, historically speaking, the tube remained uninhabited territory for so long. The conventional line is that it was the board’s fault, that those big, heavy balsas and longboards were too crude, too ungainly to fit into that hollow space between the lip and the face. I’m of the opinion that it wasn’t a failure of the board, but of the imagination. Case in point: two examples of what would someday become the modern tube ride, filmed in the early 1960s and featured in Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer, the most successful surfing documentary of all time. In the film’s Waikiki sequence, surfer Wayne Miyata is shown doing what Brown describes as “the ultimate thing,” wheeling his big board in from behind the peak at a hollow little wave called “Garbage Hole,” pulling in under the lip, completely disappearing from view, then exiting the curl cleanly; Miyata even gives us the first modern claim. Why Town surfers didn’t start riding Kaisers Bowl in the same manner for another fiv...

It’s six in the morning. Kuta wakes you up slowly. Not with alarms, but with heat. The kind that pushes through thin hotel curtains and stale fan air. The smell of frangipani drifts in from somewhere outside, sweet and unmistakably Balinese, and before long the streets begin calling. A quick Bali coffee. A rushed breakfast. Then the familiar march toward the beach. Jalan Legian is already alive. The coffee leaves that earthy bitterness on your teeth as scooters buzz past and last night’s memories flicker in fragments. Bintangs, neon lights and bad decisions dissolving into the humid dawn. In Kuta, nights blur at the edges. Every few meters someone calls out an offer. “Massage, boss?” “Transport?” “Bintang towel?” The soundtrack never changes. Then, finally, past the imposing stone beach gates, warming in the dawn, and then feet hit sand. Boards get waxed under a rising tropical sun while the first empty waves roll across the inside section at Kuta Beach. The surf isn’t perfect. You...

The grommets, both girls and boys, came from every corner of Indonesia and, even better said, every corner of the planet, with participants from Ukraine, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, China, Russia, Taiwan, and Italy, among others. Transforming the event into a true celebration of youth surfing. From the opening heats of the first day the last heats on day two. The beach buzzed with excitement as spectators gathered to witness the next generation of surfers showcase their skills on Bali’s world-class waves. But it was the local surfers who came out triumphant, claiming six of the top podium positions by the end of the competition. Phillipe Duke took top honors in the Under 18 Boys division, while Kya Heuer secured victory in the Under 18 Girls division. In the Under 16 division, Taiwan’s Lee Tsechen earned first place, while Paris Nalendra claimed her maiden win in Indonesia in the Under 16 Girls category. The Under 14 Boys division was dominate...

There was something special in the air during the Bali Surfers Gathering at Drifter Surf Shop, Uluwatu. The place was filled with stories, laughter and generations of surfers who helped shape what Bali’s surf culture has become today. We felt so much gratitude for being able to host an evening dedicated to the people who paved the way long before surfing in Bali became what it is now. Legends and pioneers like Ketut Menda, Wayan Gantiyasa, Mangku Weta, Wayan Sudirka, Nyoman Radiasa and Wayan Sujana joined us for a night of connection, storytelling, and reflection on the history of surfing in Bali. These are the people whose passion, courage, and love for the ocean helped create the foundations for the generations that followed. One of the most meaningful parts of the evening was seeing younger surfers sitting alongside elders, listening closely to stories from the early days. Tales of simple beginnings and the journeys that these legends have gone through over the decades. Respect ...

STOKEHOUSE GILI Air is more than just a retail store — it is a true surf lifestyle destination that brings together the spirit of the ocean, adventure, and tropical living in the heart of Gili Air. As the official flagship store for internationally recognized surf and lifestyle brands Vissla, Amuse Society, and sisstrevolution, STOKEHOUSE GILI Air has become a must-visit spot for surfers, travelers, and beach culture enthusiasts from around the world. What makes this store even more special is that it proudly represents the 8th STOKEHOUSE location, marking another exciting milestone in the growth of the STOKEHOUSE family. Built with passion for surfing, creativity, and coastal culture, the store reflects the energy and freedom that define life by the ocean. Every detail of the space is designed to create a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere inspired by island living and modern surf culture. Inside the store, visitors can discover a curated selection of premium apparel, swimwear, board...

Eighteen-year-old founder Daan van Rooijen set out to change safety standards in surfing forever. The result is Mamuli-Surf, a next-generation surf helmet engineered specifically for the water, without sacrificing comfort, performance or style. The story behind the brand is personal. On July 10, 2024, Daan’s sister Guusje was hit by another surfer at their home break in Bali. She suffered life-threatening skull and brain damage. It changed everything. “I realized that in snowboarding, skating, biking and every other extreme sport, wearing helmets is the norm — but in surfing it isn’t. I set out to create a helmet surfers actually want to wear: one that feels comfortable, performs, and looks good in the water.” Sixteen months later, that idea became reality. Mamuli-Surf launched on Kickstarter on April 7, 2026, with a goal of funding 300 helmets for mold production — and hit that goal. The Mamuli-Surf helmet is confirmed for market launch in early 2027. Key Features: The helme...

What might at first appear to be simply an evocative photo of a pack of surfers strolling along a Hawaiian beach in the late-1960s is, in fact, a remarkable portrait of the greatest single heat in competitive surfing history. Snapped at the 1969 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational at Sunset Beach, Hawaii, this semi-final matchup featured (back-to-front) Californian super-stylist and celebrated proto-free surfer Billy Hamilton, big wave legend and future Duke winner Eddie Aikau, 1965 World Champion Felipe Pomar, four-time Peruvian national champion Sergio Barreda, 1963 Peru International and ’69 Makaha men’s champion Paul Strauch, 1968 World Champion Fred Hemmings, number-one WSA 4-A men’s and 1970’s world champion, Rolf Aurness, 1968 Duke and Peru International champion Mike “Ironman” Doyle, and multiple Makaha International men’s champion Joey Cabell. Fierce competitors all, no doubt, yet judging by the collective casual demeanor of this phalanx of uber-talented surfers, take a guess who w...