Beschen felt that tour surfing was lacking the excitement—the sensations of awe and risk and wonderment—that drew him to stepping on a surfboard in the first place.
Page 26
Black Sheep DNA
Shane Beschen spent his professional surfing career raging against complacency. Today, the SoCal firebrand turned North Shore kama‘āina finds plenty left on tap through a blend of family and business ventures.
Many Indonesians considered the primordial forest of the Blambangan Peninsula to be angker (haunted or taboo) and believed that the area should be entered only for devotional purposes of the purest intentions.
Page 66
Fortune Favors the Bold
Grajagan’s legitimate origin story finally comes to light.
Page 46
Gin Joint
Treading the line in Morocco.
I could see that the Nixons were in the back seat—his wife, Pat, on my side, Dick on the driver’s side. The limo slowed to a virtual crawl as it rounded the corner. And then, as the car slowly took the corner, virtually grazing my knee, I had a sudden impulse and leaned into the open window, grinned at the prez, and spoke rather forcefully, “Hello there, Big Dick!”
Page 38
Florsheims in the Sand
In 1969, Richard Nixon moved next door to Surfer-founder John Severson. The newly elected president saw the Western White House as a seaside retreat. Sevo saw a story. The San Clemente beach wasn’t big enough for the both of them.
Page 102
Portfolio: Kim Feast
Finding equilibrium behind the lens in the untamed wilderness of Western Australia.
I don’t like to surf anywhere else but home these days. And even at home I avoid the “good days.” I really can’t explain it.
Page 20
What’s A Cornishman To Do?
An interview with artist Danny Fox.
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Page 84
From That First Wave
Artist DJ Javier infuses the surf with the street.
The van sputtered a few parking spots down to where the next potential board order stood. What exactly was being hawked to me? This backyard shaper allegedly possessed decades of surfboard design, research, development, and history boiled down into a two-dimensional piece of Masonite—a template, a memory stick of curves.
Page 56
Outlining the Experience
How physical templates map a surfboard’s very genome.
Does Meadows ever feel like he’s backed himself into a corner? Like he’s stuck in the Baltic, chasing ghosts? Sometimes. But mostly he feels like it’s his calling.
Page 92
The Baltic Heart
Questing for Valhalla with Swedish surfer Freddie Meadows.
Surfing rewires your mind to conceptualize time close to how your ancestors thought about their days. And you can take this episodic time back onto land and see your day as a series of actions as opposed to capital—deciding on the activities that are worth doing for their own sake.
Page 16
Essay: Melt That Clock
Time is money, as they say, but it’s really worth even more. That’s where surfing comes in.
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Page 120
Undercurrents
The issue’s departments fold leads off with our life’s topic plastered against the most famous skyline on Earth. For all of Hollywood’s faults and missteps when it comes to surfing, at least they got this one to scale.
Page 122
Library
Irreversible Bikini: The complicated relationship between surfing, hypersexualization, and surf apparel, excerpted from the book She Surf.
Page 124
Miscellany
An aquatic animal jigsaw puzzle, intertidal zone minutiae as fine-art, and a recollection of total mastery at a reeling pointbreak headline a selection of surf and surf adjacent odds and ends.
Seeing the pool’s curves as similar to the form of a wave’s face, they began flying high on the walls, mimicking off-the-lip maneuvers. This was a decade before it would hit big up in Venice.
Page 126
Surfing Around
A Screeching Start: Surfing and skateboarding’s nascent handshake.
Purist surf energy from Page One to close-of-book, delivered directly to your door.
