Northern Californian surf brand O’Neill has announced it is partnering up with the international nonprofit organisation Save The Waves Coalition, uniting their efforts in protecting surf ecosystems across the globe.
“The ocean is alive, and we’ve got to take care of it”, Jack O’Neill.
“O’Neill shares with Save The Waves Coalition an unwavering commitment to the preservation of the oceans. For over 20 years, Save The Waves Coalition has gained recognition for protecting, stewarding and defending surf ecosystems on an international scale — with projects in Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Costa Rica, the Maldives and more. The two organisations make a natural fit, rooted in their shared mission.”
“We are excited to partner with Save The Waves Coalition to support their ambition to preserve 1000 surf ecosystems by 2030,” said Tamara Friessnegg, CMO of O’Neill. “This partnership reflects the passion of our founder, Jack O’Neill, for protecting our oceans and its marine life, and embodies our brand’s dedication to this cause.”
There are now 12 Save he Waves dedicated World Surfing Reserves around the globe with North Devon being the newest.
O’Neill has been at the forefront of surfing for over 70 years, and Save The Waves Coalition has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, marking two decades of notable achievements in its mission.
“We protect more than surf breaks – we protect surf ecosystems,” says Nik Strong-Cvetich, CEO of Save The Waves. “This means we preserve the wave and the place, i.e., the surrounding environment and its biodiversity, and the livelihoods of local communities. Save The Waves was created on the idea that a breaking wave has the power to inspire and innovate coastal conservation to a whole new level.”
“We protect more than surf breaks – we protect surf ecosystems,” says Nik Strong-Cvetich, CEO of Save The Waves. “This means we preserve the wave and the place, i.e., the surrounding environment and its biodiversity, and the livelihoods of local communities. Save The Waves was created on the idea that a breaking wave has the power to inspire and innovate coastal conservation to a whole new level.
O’Neill have announced their winners for part one of the Rookie Rippers. Junior surfers from all over Europe and the UK, between the ages of 12 and 16 entered for a prize to compete and be coached at The Wave by O’Neill team riders.
The winners are
Francisca Kika Miranda, Francisco Magalhaes, Hare Natori, Jarko Kreuzeder, Jorre Claeys, Lila Skinner, Manuel Couto, Nuria Maganinho, Pietro Garroux, Salvador Vala, Sofia Matos, Sophia Strevens, Sunny Bee Ingram, Suri Rodrigues and Teresa Pereira.
My fins are wrong, I don’t have enough wax, it’s not ideal conditions, shut your cake hole. They say the best surfer is the one having the most fun, and here’s the proof. Raw talent, pure joy and love from Liberia captured by @pattocean
Remember that time Kelly surfed a door, well forget that, this is next level.
With the legendary Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy (SCT) on the horizon from 21 to 28 August 2023, Four Seasons Kuda Huraa is marking the occasion with a special Surf and Spa package running through the entire month of August that includes a sessions with expert Tropicsurf coaches, 15 percent off non-suite rooms, in-villa welcome refreshments, round-trip airport transfers, and daily buffet breakfast at Café Huraa. Guests on-site during the SCT will also receive front row seats to the action-packed event from the amazing Four Seasons Explorer.
Sultans cooking. Photo Alfie England
Kuda Huraa is perfect for beginners with waves and lessons on the island and more advanced surfers have luxury speed boat access to Sultans, Honkys and more. Kuda Huraa has long prided itself on supporting every guest to build their surfing confidence.
Last years crew
The Champions Trophy – the world’s most luxurious surfing event – was won last year by “Momentum Generation” icon Kelly Slater. Previous SCT participants include Mark Richards, Shane Dorian, Tom Curren and Taylor Knox – with all participants, judges and guests staying on site and a real ‘family’ atmosphere you’ll often find yourself surfing and dining with the legends of the sport.
Living the dream
The excitement is already building for 2023, so keep an eye out for this year’s yet-to-be-announced thrilling line-up. If you would like to be there the Surf and Spa package is subject to a minimum stay of four nights. To reserve a stay in this surfer’s paradise, book online, email [email protected] or call the central reservations department of Four Seasons Resorts Maldives at (960) 66 00 888.
Check out what the crew at TR7 Skate have to say below.
We’re relocating. Help us build a new indoor skatepark in Cornwall and to continue to grow our outreach programmes and skate community.
TR7 Skatepark was established in early 2020 but unfortunately faced an unexpected closure of 8 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this we were determined to provide a safe and welcoming environment for skateboarders of all ages and abilities in Newquay, Cornwall. It started out small and with the help of our community: we were donated a mini ramp and successfully fundraised through Crowdfunder to finish building our small indoor skatepark.
The community have always been at the heart of what we do and so we recently made the decision to become a Community Interest Company. TR7 Skatepark have a dream to be able to provide even more opportunities to young people and communities through our outreach programs. To do this we need a bigger venue.
Skateboarding & The Olympics Since their debut in the 2021 Olympics, the popularity of skateboarding and surfing has increased hugely. Skateboarding was the world’s most ‘googled’ word in summer 2021 and skateboarder Sky Brown became Team GB’s youngest ever summer medallist (at age 13), and then BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.
New facilities have been opened nationwide that provide coaching to fulfil the steeply increasing demand from people keen to get into either skateboarding or surfing.
TR7 Skatepark grew in popularity, being the newest of only 2 indoor skateparks in Cornwall – despite Cornwall having a resident population of 572,000 (ONS, 2021) and experiencing barriers to physical activity and access to work, education and culture, especially for lower income households. Cornwall has a higher proportion of workless households than elsewhere in the Great Britain (15.7% of all households, compared to 14% nationally in 2022) and a higher proportion of people working in relatively low pay/low skill jobs (16.7% of working adults compared to 15.1% nationally), leading to significantly lower than average earnings (with residents of Cornwall earning £71 a week less than the national average). Together this points to the significant need for accessible, affordable local amenities for young people and adults of all ages.
At TR7 we’ve successfully completed over 2,000 lessons within 18 months and even started developing a new indoor surf training programme that we are really excited to share with everyone as well as a one of a kind rope system designed to help everyone give skateboarding a go without the risk of falling over.
However, as demand has grown, we’ve realised that we need a larger and better-equipped facility to truly serve our community. That’s why we’re excited to announce our plans to build a brand-new indoor skatepark in Roche, Cornwall.
The Need for a Bigger Facility Our previous location served us well, but we were limited in what we could achieve. By building a new, larger facility, we’ll be able to offer more programs and reach more people in the community. We are well aware that there is a great need for this as we only have 1 indoor skatepark in the entire county at the moment. We found a new premises that has the potential to be more accessible for everyone and has enough space to offer more to our community and welcome more people than we did before. With a larger facility, we can increase our impact and help even more people. The new skatepark will be accessible for all ages and abilities and we’re already working alongside different community interest companies (CICs) in Cornwall to host workshops and events that cater to other communities around us.
The Location We started this project in Newquay, with the name reflecting the postcode of the town, but our customer base quickly outgrew Newquay and a lot of our regulars came from other parts of Cornwall, as well as other parts of the UK. We believe that the area where we are relocating will be very positive for the community around us as well as being closer and more accessible to others.
The new location for TR7 Skatepark will be strategically located in Roche, a village in central Cornwall. As Cornwall is known to be the capital of surf in the UK and has a thriving skateboarding scene, the area where it will be located has a significant reach to a number of skateboarders and surfers, with no nearby indoor skateparks.
The village of Roche has several schools nearby, including Roche Community Primary School, Bugle School, and St. Stephens Community Academy, making it an ideal location for a skatepark and surf training facility. Additionally, being situated less than 2 miles away from the A30 as well as a few steps away from Roche Train Station which provides convenient access to the park for visitors from both within and outside the county. With direct connections to Newquay, Bugle, St. Columb, Quintrell Downs, Luxulyan, and Par, making it easily accessible by public transport.
The New Skatepark Plans One of the most exciting things about our relocation, is that our new premises is around 370 sqm, which is more than double the space we had before! The size in particular will allow us to be able to offer more to our visitors. Using the feedback from our visitors in the previous TR7 skatepark in Newquay and local skaters, we designed a bigger and better beginner friendly skatepark that caters to all ages and abilities.
WE START OUT, IN HAWAII AND WARM UP WITH MASON HO AND HIS “POPS”, IN SOME REELING ROCKY RIGHT RUNNERS. THEN FOLLOW MASON ACROSS THE GLOBE, OVER TO INDO, FOR SOME SERIOUSLY FUN AND FABULOUS FISHING, WITH A FLAMBOYANT FLARE THAT ONLY MASON CAN PROVIDE. FOR A CHANGE OF PACE, WE LINK UP WITH “RASTA” ROB McCORMICK, WHERE HE REALLY GIVES A RADICAL WORKING OVER, DURING A RUN OF WAVES AROUND HIS HOME TOWN HAUNTS, IN FAMOUSLY FLAT FLORIDA. FINALLY, SLOW DOWN AND SETTLE IN, FOR TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCE, AS WORKING MAN, GRIFFIN COLAPINTO, WONDROUSLY WEAVES HIS 5’5” WEAPON, FLAWLESSLY, THROUGH CYLINDRICAL MAN MADE PERFECTION, PAINTING CREATIVE STROKES AND POSITING A CASE FOR THE BEUATY OF SYNTHETIC SURF, MORE ENTHRALLING AND CONVINCING THAN ANY CONTEST CAN HOPE FOR. AS ALWAYS, STICK AROUND FOR THE CREDITS, FEATURING MORE RASTA ROB, A LITTLE LUCAS SILVERA AND A HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY WITH IAN CRANE.
There was very little talk of fish, in the surfing world.
It was the fall of 1994 and there was this little blip of Tom Curren, surfing in New York, on a knee board.
Oh! Tom Curren riding a fish!
It was a little spark.
No one (on the surface…at least) was really making them (fish) at the time.
Chris (Ward) was…I don’t know, 14 or 15? He was a little Curren disciple. Chris calls and says:
“Make me a fish!
Like Tom Curren!”
And I didn’t really know…what the fuck, what’s a fish supposed to look like?
So I went to BC (Surfshop, in San Clemente) and just stood there, looking at the old board collection, up on the ceiling. You got to remember, I was young, like 24…25 years old.
Ok, there’s an outline.
That’s a fish.
A swallow tail, twin fin.
I just stared up at the walls and then came in here (shaping room) and cranked out a fish.
A little twin Fin about 5’5″ x 19 1/4.
I randomly made the nose and the tail the same width.
Both nose and tail about 14″ wide.
I just didn’t have much to go off of and just went for it.
Chris flew to Hawaii, and started ripping on it.
This little board with glassed on twin fins.
We started making more.
Cory Lopez, more for Chris, then Andy Irons.
We were all riding them.
But they rode them a lot and they rode them well.
Cameras are rolling. A second season in Hawaii, a couple trips. Before long we ended up with all this footage.
Drew Todd said, “Let’s make a movie about them. Just fish boards”.
So we did.
5’5″ X 19 1/4″
It caught like wild fire.
Within a couple of years, If you were building boards, you had to have some sort of a fish in your line.
Just this one humble board, made by a shitty shaper, and two stoney kids.
I think they work in damn near anything.
More than 25 years later,
an entirely new crew, along with a couple of OG’s, have combined to make a solid case of just that….except maybe not Sunset Beach.
5’5″ X 19 1/4”… Century
an all new, sprawling,
6 episode series, chronicling the past couple years of modern day, free surfing, on primarily that same humble fish.
