Two months and four episodes since the beginning of this year’s EAST, and the conclusion is finally here. 

The fifth and final episode of our alternative board testing series will be released next week, and we want you to come celebrate with us.

Four boards, brought to Oahu for a week in the North Pacific’s proverbial big leagues, with Mikey February crowning a winner at the end. 

This Wednesday night, we’ll be screening the Finale from 7-10pm at Aviator Nation Dreamlkand in Malibu (right across from First Point). Entry is free, and Mikey Feb, Ellis Ericson, Alex Knost, Tom Morat, and more will be in attendance — and the shapers will all be anxiously waiting to discover the winner. 

Come hang, watch the film, drink a Kona, and chat with everyone involved.

22969 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90265
Doors 7PM – 10PM
Click here to RSVP

Or just show up, and we’ll be stoked to see ya.

“I’ve been to Krui a bunch of times now,” grins Lennix Smith, Billabong’s next most likely CT rookie. “It’s so mental over there. Fuck, the waves can get so good.”

The above clip begins with Lennix collecting a handful of familiar visions along mainland Sumatra’s southern coastline, alongside Tai Buddha, Kian Martin, Jai Glindeman, and Creed McTaggart.

“We were only in Krui for like six days, but we got a fun swell,” continues Lennix. “And then we left, and Buddha actually stayed longer, which was a good call. We all should have stayed, to be honest, those lefts he got were pretty nuts.”

As you might expect, Tai’s footage is mostly atop his JS Big Horse — a board which you can read all about here. 

“You know Krui,” chuckles Buddha. “It’s can be so hit and miss. I stayed a little longer and surfed Honeysmacks That wave is a lot of work. Lot of water moving there. I was on a 6’4 Horse, but I probably could’ve had a slightly bigger one. It’s probably the closest thing to a Hawaii wave in Indo. It was really raw.”

“The Big Horse is the best board that goes straight in the whole world,” said Buddha. “You want the thickness to your chin, but then you don’t want too much width. I’ve been riding this thing in everything from three foot slabs to like 12-15 foot big raw ocean movers.”

The crew then travels to Deserts on Tai’s boat, where Jai and Creedo deliver a free-lesson in subtle backside speed adjustment.

Jai Glindeman’s ender is worth a watch, and a re-watch, and another slow-mo re-watch.

How can a man stand so narrow and be so planted at the same time?

Click above for a reminder that dry season plane tickets don’t get cheaper than they are right now.

The third and final event of the Hawaiian QS triple-header is finally here — the Florence Pipe Pro.

“It’s crazy because on paper, the Hawaiian QS’ are small-scale events with no broadcast, modest points and prize money,” said Finn McGill, who currently leads the unofficial Triple Crown leaderboard with wins at both Sunset and Haleiwa.

“But at the same time, they’re at heavy-water waves that are culturally important to surfing and you’re competing against a world-class field. It sounds kind of petty, but I’ve got a bit of a chip on my shoulder because a lot of people were saying the last Vans Triple Crown, the digital version, came with an asterisk, and it pissed me the fuck off.”

Kaipo is on the mic, Betonline is on the odds, and a few thousand QS points are on the line. 

Triple Crown Leaderboard (Unofficial)

Men
Finn McGill — 4,000
Barron Mamiya — 2,680
Josh Moniz — 2,510

Women
Moana Jones-Wong — 2,680
Kiara Goold — 2,630
Bettylou Sakura Johnson — 2,000
Aelan Vaast— 1,760
Carissa Moore — 1,560
Erin Brooks — 1,220

Also, Surfline recently dropped this little number if you want to find out why Pipe is kinda cooking rn.

Sandi Thom wrote a song about it once. Being born too late. She dreamed of being a punk, wrapped in flowers, mourning a time before the media had control of your soul, before computers, before we knew everything. This was in 2005.

What do you think of the modern world, Sandi?

It seems to be the human condition to long for a time that’s passed. We do it in surfing, every single day. The whole industry is currently fetishising the 90s and early 00s Bintang chic, speed dealer sunnies, and tribal-themed tramp stamps.

Are we okay? Are we on the right path?

Luke Griffin romanticises that era, but for different reasons. “All my favourite surfers are from back then,” he says. “I love all Timmy Curran’s stuff and the old …Lost movies. Oh, and my favourite surfer is Kalani Robb.”

His nostalgia isn’t performative, but rather, it’s performance-enhancing. For the past few years, he’s been riding boards that nod to that time — longer, skinnier shapes, built by his older bro. 

“My brother and I have been working on a board for a while called the 2002,” says Griffo. “I’ve been watching all my favourite surfers from that era, and we wanted to make a board that captures the same feel as those old movies we fell in love with.”

Griffo’s brother happens to be Jordan Griffin of Jordan Griffin Surfboards on the Gold Coast. We recently tossed him into our “5 Shapers to Watch in the Next 5 Years” list, where he told us, “There’s nothing better than making a 6’0 blade — and those things are so hard to do properly. Everybody thinks it can’t be that hard. They’re just thumb tail, pointy nose thrusters. But it’s gnarly how hard it is to make a good one compared to a twin fin. As much as I love twin fin riding, I feel like I’m really working on dialling in good shorties. Luke’s been super helpful for that.”

They’ve become quite the team, Luke and Jordan. Brother shapes, brother surfs. Housemates too, having both migrated from New Zealand to the Gold Coast a few years back. It’s not hard to imagine what dominates their dinner conversations.

“It’s cool to have that relationship,” says Luke. “I feel like I can tell him anything. If his board’s not going well, or if it’s going really good, I don’t have to hold back. It’s sick because, obviously, we’re having dinner together, and basically all he thinks about is surfboards — because that’s what he does every day. It’s a pretty sick dynamic. He makes the boards. I surf them. It’s like living with your shaper.”

For those who need a refresher, Luke rides for NZ-turned-London-based fashion-surf hybrid Always Do What You Should Do (read our profile on them here). He doesn’t consider himself a pro surfer, yet. He balances surfing with graphic design.

“Maybe one day I might become a professional surfer,” he laughs. “A real late bloomer. Everyone’s hitting it at 16. I’m fucking 24 now thinking, ‘Fuck, maybe one day.’”

Though the brand always had surfing roots, they accidentally became a high-fashion phenomenon after their cross-trainers blew up, despite their first release featuring a Hawaiian shirt with Kelly Slater’s shining dome painted on it.

Now that they’ve got some momentum, they’re making a play to re-enter surf, signing Kobo Hughes and somehow convincing Bobby Martinez to wear their tracksuit for a shoot.

“The boys texted me that night when the Bobby shoot dropped,” says Griffo. “They’re like, did it blow up on the Goldy? Because fucking no one in London knew who the fuck this guy was. They’re like, ‘Who’s this washed-up guy with 8 thousand followers on Instagram, with a private account?’ But everyone in the surf industry loved it.”

Watch Griffo’s new 00s-inspired edit, “2002 SURF FILM” above.

Place your Betonline.AG picks here.

For the first time in a very long time, you can actually throw money at the Hawaiian QS. And maybe, if you’re lucky, it’ll cover the gifts on your Christmas list.

BetOnline have put odds up for the Florence Pipe Pro, meaning the Pipe contest that still behaves like a Triple Crown stop now comes with a betting slip attached.

Finn McGill rolls into Pipe off back-to-back wins at Sunset and Haleʻiwa. Barron Mamiya’s come runner-up in both finals. Josh Moniz is another former QS winner at Pipe. The Florence brothers are… well the Florences. Carissa Moore is back dropping 18s between mum duties. Moana Jones Wong remains the Queen of six-foot-plus Pipeline.

The only missing ingredient at the QS-level for years has been stakes.

Now there are some.

You can find Nate’s picks in the above vid. But if like short kings, see below.

Mikey C’s Picks — Florence Pipe Pro

Women

$100 on Carissa Moore at +700 → wins $700
$100 on Erin Brooks at +700 → wins $700

Men

$100 on John John Florence at +250 → wins $250
$10 on Josh Moniz at +4000 → wins $400
$10 on Billy Kemper at +4000 → wins $400
$10 on Luke Tema at +4000 → wins $400
$10 on Nathan Florence at +3300 → wins $330
$10 on Ivan Florence at +3300 → wins $330
$10 on Zeke Lau at +4500 to win $450

Who you got?

Few places on Earth are more hostile than a remote desert in Australia. Few also produce waves like one.

The northwest has long been a pilgrimage for those south of the Kimberley, seeking a confrontation with mortality. Pack a tent, drive into the void, slay a dragon, or get obliterated trying.

You’ll know pretty quickly if you don’t belong, which makes the growing fleet of German vans parked up there feel a little oblivious to the messages the universe is sending. She’ll come for you. Don’t pretend you can’t hear her.

But I digress. The point is, the far north is a proving ground for many, and has forged some of the best tube riders in the world. Jack Robinson, Jacob Willcox, Shaun Manners, to name a few.

“Is the heaviest in the world? Yeah, it could be true. It’s definitely one of the scariest waves in the world, if not the heaviest and most raw piece of reef on the planet. Especially on the west coast, there’s a lot of evil death slabs, but that is a freight train.” — Jay Davies

“It’s quite evil. It’s really intimidating with the steps in the wave, for sure. It’s hard to get into, it’s a gnarly drop, and obviously it doesn’t break properly until it’s six foot-plus, so whenever it’s surfable, it’s terrifying. It’s always heavy. It doesn’t have fun days out there because it doesn’t link up properly if it’s only five foot. It’s really psycho.” — Taj Burrow. 

Words like those from the vets make 18-year-old Ruby Berry’s opening line in her new film, Pilgrimage, feel a touch… emasculating.

“My first trip was when I was 6 months old, and I’ve been every year ever since.”

“It can be daunting,” she continues later. “But growing up around it, you kind of have to push yourself. This time, I wanted a bigger one.” 

Will she get one?

Ah, you’ll have to hit play to find out.

During the final week of December in 2023, NOAA Station 46059 — also known as the West California Buoy — spiked around 20ft at 20 seconds from due west. 

In 2024, during the same week, the exact same buoy spiked at the exact same numbers.

A certain reefbreak in Southern California resembled Pipeline on both occasions, and 25-year-old Dylan Hord was there for both of them. 

By now, he’s sat on the first clips for almost two years, finally deciding to drop them as the end section in his latest clip ‘Astro’. 

“So crazy that we got two of the exact same giant swells at the same date, two years in a row,” Dyl remembers. “Those clips at the end were from both of those swells. I’m from Newport area, and I’ve been going down to surf that wave for a while. I’m definitely no local down there, but I showed up and it was big and I saw Skip [McCullough] running out, and he was like, ‘let’s just go.’ Everyone else was watching. So I just got my suit on and ran out. It was probably 7 in the morning, I pretty much paddled out at dark. It was just us and one older guy out there.”

At 10-minutes and 56 seconds into the above clip, Dyl wrangles what he considers the best wave of his life. 

“That long one? That was my first wave of the morning. I think it was probably the best wave of my life. When I came out of the tube, I could hear everybody screaming and I could see ’em all on the cliff right there. All my homies, it was so cool. I’ve never had a moment where I come out of a tube and hear everybody screaming. And, getting a barrel like that in Southern California is pretty hard to do.”

Click above for a journey through Pascuales orbs, Indonesian reef passes, and sand-bottom Mexican spinners — all capped off with a masterclass in wave selection at one of the most deceptive shallow-water venues between Point Conception and Tijuana.

Cyclone Alfred gifted waves and stole sand. Four million cubic metres of grit shuffled offshore, the berm shrank, and the high-tide mark ebbed dangerously close to the shrubbery that keeps it off the streets.

In calm conditions, the rehabilitation process happens naturally. The sand eventually works its way back to shore from its underwater pile. But the Gold Coast, aka God’s Country, fortunately has omnipotent powers (and budget) to speed things up with a flotilla of giant dredge boats. And Mayor Tom Tate wasted no time allocating $39 million in taxpayer money to spray it back where it belonged. Beneath the scantily-clad bundas of OnlyFans influencers and Fisher fanboys.

Related: Maybe he should have just sprung for three of these $13 million setups instead?

What was less predictable was how it landed.

Out of the cannons it sprayed, forming into a neat series of novelty sandbars straight out of a surfer’s notebook. Right out the front of Surfers Paradise — a bit of a misnomer, given the waves are usually shit — A-frames, mini tubes, and peaky little sections began stacking into existence. The kind Dyl Graves documents and decimates in equal measure.

Disqustingly good. Btw, the banks are gone.