Atmospheric Rivers: Streams in the Sky

Californians, on a normal year, typically celebrate New Year’s Eve with parties in backyards, beaches, or rooftop bars. Not this year. It rained, a lot. In late 2022 into early 2023, a long channel of warm moist air called an atmospheric river, flowed up from the tropics into the mid-latitudes (30-60N). It brought rain and …

Ancient Water: A Brief History of Surfing

Surfing today is a worldwide cultural phenomenon. All around the world, surfers are able to share the spiritual bond that riding the oceans brings. This sport, however, has a rich history complete with roots in mythology, gender equality, and shameful colonialism. The origin story of surfing begins in the heart of the grandest of oceans, …

Climate Crisis and Surfing: A Look Into The Future

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the Earth’s overall temperature has been rising. The heating of the planet is in strong correlation with increased human activity. Human activity is related to carbon dioxide (CO2) which is released every time coal, oil, or natural gas is burned. Greenhouse gases, such as CO2, capture the Sun’s …

The P’s of Surfing: Tips to riding more waves

Surfing is not an easy sport. The art form of riding waves incorporates balance, cardiovascular endurance, and zen-like patience. However, there are still times in which it feels impossible to catch these offerings from Poseidon. The oceanic energy slips underneath without even the slightest push forward. The effect of seeing someone take the wave you …

Top 3 Coldest Waves in the World

Winter is coming. Soon, much of the world’s northern hemisphere will be subject to howling winds, frigid temperatures, and longer nights. In order to help the brave wintertime surfers get in the cold water spirit, or to spark an unconventional holiday break surf trip, here are the three coldest waves in the world that will …

All you need to know about tides.

First photo of the Earth taken from Apollo 8 on Moon in 1968. Tide Basics The world’s incomprehensibly gigantic oceans are an ideal location to become intimately connected with the ruthlessly raw power of nature. Hikers and beachgoers alike love to look at the mysterious beauty of the world’s bodies of water from dry land. …

Using the Home Screen to Plan Surf Sessions

The Home Screen in Lazy Surfer is your personalized surf guide – it’ll give you the run down on exactly how to find good surf at your spots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHBnyPfrmyw This is a video version of this blog post in case you don’t feel like reading Best Spot Now This is it – you paddling out …

Lazy Surfer Tips – Three keys to scoring the best waves.

Lazy Surfer can be intimidating at first – follow these three easy steps to get started! #1 – Add your spots! You can add any spot to Lazy Surfer. Just go to the “Add Spot” screen, move the map so that the pin is close to the peak, add the spot name and hit “Save …

The Ultimate Gift Guide For Your Surfer

Gifts for Surfers This is the ULTIMATE gift guide for surfers. Whether this is your surf buddy, surfer boyfriend, girlfriend, or family member. They will be beyond stoked if you got them a present related to their favorite pastime.  Let’s start with performance… The thing your friend/boyfriend/family member craves the most is that feeling when …

Surf Vloggers The New Free Surf: Mason Ho

Mason Ho! Named one of the “World’s most entertaining surfers” by Stab, The Inertia, and Surfer. Mason Ho comes from a legendary dynasty of surfing, Mason is the son of professional surfer Michael Ho, brother of Coco Ho (who frickin rips), and nephew to world champion Derek Ho. Mason is continuing to make the name …

Dylan Graves – The Man Behind Vans’ Weird Waves

Dylan Graves’ the man behind ‘Weird Waves’ Vans is always finding creative ways to show off their sponsored surfers and skaters but weird waves is a showcase of its own. Van has been putting on a series since 2019 called ‘Weird Waves” hosted by pro-surfer Dylan Graves. The premise of the show is having talented …

George Greenough – Surf Influence

The father of the modern-day surfboard fin, in-water photography, some of the first versions of water housing, and the revolution of the shortboard! Let’s break it down. George Greenough (image from http://www.weekendhippie.com/weekend-hippie-stories/2016/6/19/in-the-greenough-room-george-greenough) George Greenough was one of the most innovative figures in the surf industry and his attitude and lifestyle portray that. He was very …

Surfing After it Rains: Will I Die?

TLDR: It’s unlikely but you could. Know the risks and try to mitigate them if you’re going to surf after it rains. This water tastes funny… Thanks to https://unsplash.com/@naja_bertolt_jensen for the image If you live in or near a big city and you’ve paddled out after a rain you’ve probably noticed that the water tastes …

Reading Surf Forecasts: But how do I know if it’s going to be good?

Reading Surf Forecasts: But how do I know if it’s going to be good? This article is part 4 of a series about reading surf forecasts. Here are the first, second and third articles. We surfers have one goal — finding out when and where the best waves in our travel radius are going to be and making …

Reading Surf Forecasts: Swell Height

This is the third post in a series about reading surf forecasts. Here are the first and second articles. Swell Height[1] is a deceptively difficult thing to measure. The first thing to realize is that this isn’t an objective number — it doesn’t correspond one-to-one with any specific thing in reality. Instead, it’s a number that should …

Reading Surf Forecasts: What Can Go Wrong

Reading Surf Forecasts: What Can Go Wrong Credit to https://www.flickr.com/photos/stignygaard In the last article we went over the 7 most common metrics you’ll see on a surf forecast. In this article we’ll talk about the ways a good looking 4–5 foot swell can go wrong and how you can use the metrics besides swell height to …

Reading Surf Forecasts: The Basics

Reading Surf Forecasts: The Basics This is the first post in my Reading Surf Forecasts series. Check out the second post here. Any forecast worth its salt will include at least 7 metrics. Swell Height —This has a technical definition that we’ll get into in a later post but for now let’s use the obvious definition — this …