“It was really fun,” said the always understated Dane Reynolds, when asked about the recent Rincon Classic on Episode One of StabMic. “That’s about as good as the Cove gets, I think. I’ve maybe surfed it with a little bit more power but thats about as good as I’ve seen it.”

This year’s Rincon Classic was held in glistening conditions at the fabled right-point. For the invitational division — featuring surfers like Dane, the Coffin brothers, Micky Clarke, Dimitri Poulos and more — the event organizers opted to go with no rashies. As you’ll see above, the resulting footage looks more like a surf film than a contest.

Click to watch — and congratulations to Dimitri Poulos for taking home the win. If he backs it up in Newcastle, he’s on tour. 

Donate to the GoFundMe here.

Eight months ago, Dakota Briley — son of legendary Pipeline surfer Shawn Briley — was seriously injured in a freak accident while loading surfboards at Chun’s.

“His ribs have been crushed, his spine is severed and broken in multiple places, the back of his skull has been crushed, fractured in 8 places, from the hips down his legs have been crushed,” wrote his brother Ryder at the time. 

Over the past few months, the Briley family and North Shore community has raised around $400,000 to assist with Dakota’s recovery — but the costs are ongoing and the rehab seemingly endless. 

“I believe that money has all been put to use,” explains North Shore staple Liam McNamara. “So we wanted to bring attention to the fact that his recovery is very much ongoing.”

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How’d they bring attention to it?

The second annual Ke Nui Fest — a local music festival put on by Landon McNamara featuring performances from Kanaka Fyah, Kolohe Kai, and more. 

“We did it last year and it was really beautiful last year, and this year was going to be bigger and they had the whole place set up differently,” explains longtime North Shore photographer Brian Bielmann. “Unfortunately, there was a horrible downpour. But even with the rain, I couldn’t believe how wonderful it ended up being. It was all for Dakota, and the fact that everybody came together to help with food, setup, music, photos, donations, or whatever. It just made me so proud to be part of this community, and every single band was amazing.”

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According to Liam, they are still counting the donations but have raised somewhere between $25,000 – 50,000 for Dakota’s recovery. 

“Liam and I definitely had our differences in the past,” says Brian. “But Liam has turned out to be such a leader of our community. I can’t even believe it. It’s amazing what he does for our community and how he makes things happen. It blows my mind. And it was all about Dakota. The smile on his face when the camera was on, and his mom was holding it, I’m ready to choke up right now talking about it.”

Donate to the GoFundMe here.

At 6’7” with face-crushing hands as wide as Medina’s Cabiancas, you really can’t miss Tony Robbins’ larger than life presence — a self-made billionaire and author of two widely read self-help books.

Famous for saving marriages, inspiring the unemployed, firewalks (walking barefoot over hot coals), and even cheating death itself after developing mercury poisoning from eating too many fish, Robbins has appointed the former WSL exec as head of Robbins Research International, the umbrella corp that runs all 121 businesses owned by the motivational daddy.

“Logan will unlock greater value across everything we are building, including our partnership with Paramount+ and the Tony Robbins Network. His experience working hand-in-hand with Oprah Winfrey as president of Harpo Productions and the Oprah Winfrey Network during its growth years brings valued insights into this new enterprise.”

Strangely omitted from the presser were his core surfing credentials from his previous executive gig, which include:

• rolling out the now-defunct Final 5 format
• the now-defunct mid-year cut
• the now-defunct reality TV show The Ultimate Surfer, and
• awkwardly instructing Filipe Toledo to take his shirt mid-interview off so they could flex matching lion chests.

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Sadly, Logan left us in the middle of the Brazil CT under circumstances that suggested he made a major oopsie.

“CEO Erik Logan has departed the company, effective immediately,” read the WSL’s statement on June 20, 2023.

Then not a peep.

The involved parties sworn to NDAs. The E-Lo files sealed shut.

While up shit’s creek without his SUP paddle, Logan began furiously writing Substacks on leadership, surfing, divorce, and having strokes, among other topics.

Here’s one of those strokes of insight, courtesy of his good pal Laird Hamilton:

“Let’s be clear: I’m not a good surfer by ANY measure, but I’ll never forget what my friend Laird told me when I was starting. He asked me if I could tell who the best surfer in the lineup was. I threw many answers at him: the surfer taking the biggest turn, catching the biggest air, the best barrel ride. With each answer, he said no. Then he looked at me and said, ‘It’s the surfer having the most fun.’”

Profound.

And to think he used to give this stuff away for free!

Well, not anymore.

His latest blog details how this gig revealed itself as though by divine forces.

“For the first time, this didn’t feel like another career pivot. It felt like confirmation of something bigger. It felt like something that was supposed to happen, and there wasn’t a notion of resistance. What washed over me was everything I had been doing over the past five years… I didn’t need to convince myself it made sense. That’s how I knew I was ready. And as of today, I’m joining Tony’s team.”

From restructuring surfing formats to restructuring lives.

Dream big, kids…

You gotta cling to what keeps you alive. For this surfer, that thing was the buoy of a lobster trap. 

A few nights ago, two friends went night surfing at Haskell’s Beach, Santa Barbara. Only one made it back. The other was reported lost at sea by the friend who managed to make it in and immediately alerted authorities. Surfline reported the conditions as “pumping through sundown.”

Before the rescue mission even started, the man’s board washed ashore. An ominous sign, to say the least. A rescue crew from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department deployed aerial drones to scan the water. It wasn’t long before they spotted him, about 500 metres offshore, bobbing along, clinging to the buoy of a cray pot.

Two officers from the department’s water rescue team picked him up and got him back to land. No medical attention was needed.

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Lobster traps aren’t illegal in Santa Barbara, but they’re regulated. Commercial traps require permits and tagged gear, while recreational lobster harvesting is limited to hand-capture or hoop nets. Traps for recreational use are Illegal, however.

A 2021 survey by the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper Watershed Brigade counted 44 lobster traps around Haskell’s Beach. They continue to remove derelict traps, which pose risks to wildlife. This time, though, one of them might’ve saved a life.

Todd Kline, perhaps best known for his time as a commentator and for adorably giggling while holding the mic to Bobby Martinez’s lips as he fucked the ASP, has been named USA Surfing’s new Athlete Commissioner. 

Todd’s role, according to the press release, is to be the official conduit between surfers, competition platforms, and USA Surfing’s higher-ups in the lead up to the LA28 Games. The position is designed to help transform Olympic momentum into long-term opportunity and investment for surfers.

And yes, obvs, it’s goat-approved. Here’s Kel’s endorsement of Todd’s career pivot:

“Todd Kline is one of those people who came up through the amateur ranks on the East Coast, surfed professionally around the world and found his calling to live in California while commentating and adding value to see the sport’s evolution into the future. Todd has done it all and is personally known to everyone involved. I’m stoked to hear he has joined USA Surfing as Commissioner, and excited to see where he leads from the front.”

What makes this newsworthy? Well, not to undermine Todd, but mostly, it’s the confusing, multi-year tug-of-war over who should govern the U.S. surf team. For the full saga, click here first, and then here. But if you’re short on time or attention span, here’s the abridged version.

So, when surfing went Olympic, every country needed a governing body. Australia has Surfing Australia. France has the Fédération Française de Surf. In the U.S., it was USA Surfing, until things got a lil messy. A 2019 USOPC audit found USA Surfing tangled in conflicts of interest, failing financial audits, and an unkempt high-performance program still lugging debt from Surfing America. The USOPC suspended funding, and by late 2021, took control of the Olympic surf program.

Then came a clean-up: new leadership, new bylaws, and a Herculean effort to prove USA Surfing could be trusted again. They secured fresh investment, kept U.S. youth contests running, and lobbied for re-certification.

But another organisation had aspirations of governance, too. U.S. Ski & Snowboard (USSS), led by former WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, with its 172 employees and $60M budget, threw its hat in the ring. USSS saw surfing as an easy commercial play, offering Olympic-grade facilities and year-round marketing. LA28 was a goldmine waiting to be tapped.

The USOPC scheduled hearings in 2025, and then, out of nowhere, just days before the November hearing, USSS withdrew, citing “lack of collaboration” and refocusing on winter sports.

That left USA Surfing as the only player in the game. A win’s a win, even if you’re the only one in the heat. So, they got the nod. And now, Todd Kline is on board. What could possibly stop them now? 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been colder. That was the closest I’ve ever been to Frostbite.” 

Dyl Graves is at it again. The model for his wildly entertaining YouTube channel seems to be this: end up in places where surfing, by all reasonable standards, shouldn’t exist, track down the maniacs who are doing it anyway, share a few waves, and tell their story.

This time, he’s in the Barents Sea, Norway.

“We came to the tippy top of Europe, in the dead of winter, because apparently, somewhere out there, the waves can get good,” says Dylan. “The catch was, we only had three hours of light each day, because the sun never rose above the horizon.” 

Living in endless darkness is only the start. Fickle swells, capricious weather, trudging 2km through knee-deep snow, battling -15°C temperatures, surviving off cured reindeer heart. It’s all part of the package. And on top of it, you’re more likely to get skunked than find a decent wave.

The locals don’t seem to mind, though.

“When there’s only three hours of daylight a day, you feel like you have to be outside,” says one. “If I miss it, it can ruin my whole week. If you can surf in those three hours, that’s great. It’s like stretching out the day.”

How deep is your commitment to surfing, really? How many hours would you log if you couldn’t drive right up to the beach, grab your board from the car, and stroll into the water in the same shorts you’ve been wearing all day?

Some people really love to surf. You’ve gotta grab the reindeer by the antlers, folks.

Who woulda thought, back in 2007, when a British kid went viral lamenting his brother Charlie’s finger nibble, that YouTube would become the undisputed headquarters of surf cinema?

The times are odd, no question, but they’re the only times we’ve got. Among the noise of channels and self-important vlogs, it’s 37-year-old Jordy Smith’s that deserves the privilege of your mental real estate.

Jordy cranks out high-production clips, mostly from his time at home in South Africa, always, as expected, with an absurdly high level of surfing.

His latest is a 4-minute, single-session clip from some remote, very shallow-looking beach break up the West Coast of South Africa.

“When you go to new spots, it’s always something fresh and that’s the exciting part of hunting for new spots,” says Jordy. “You just don’t know if you will score or not.” 

Jordy also claims he hasn’t looked left once since Finals Day in Fiji last year. “Living in South Africa, there’s no options for lefts here. It’s the land of right points.”

So, he should be in prime shape for the first half of the CT, which, aside from Raglan, is basically a tour of right-handers, exactly what Jordy’s been logging hours on back home. And with John out of the picture, could Jordy be Pyzel’s iron-branded stallion on tour this year?

“Pyzel has offered to make me some boards with John being off tour,” says Jordy. “And I’m sure I will dabble with a few others. At this point, I’ve been working with my dad at SMTH Shapes on a few things. But it always excites me when other shapes want to make me some boards.” 

Comp coverage presented by GMC Honolulu

After a barrage of endless 9-point-rides yesterday, today’s meteorological offering was lackluster. 

Just four excellent waves ridden all day, and a whole lot of waiting around. Most heats were made with a 10-point total. With 75% of the Challenger Series hopping flights yesterday, the beach was notably quieter.

Standouts in the early rounds included Bettylou Sakura Johnson, Isabella Nichols, Gabriela Bryan, Molly Picklum, Erin Brooks, and Caity Simmers. 

So yeah, all CT surfers. 

The only non CT surfer to get an 8-point wave all day was Tya Zebrowski, who has already secured her spot on next years CT. Israeli national Anat Lelior was the only non-CTer in the final. 

Featuring Molly, Erin, Anat, and Gabriela, the final was held in certifiably windblown garbage. Courtesy of her precise power, Gabriela Bryan took home the trophy, and the CT absorbed the lions share of the Challenger points on offer. 

Rather than dive into a critical analysis of the groveling, lets talk rankings.

There was very little movement above the qualification cutline on the womens side today. In fact, none of the top five surfers shifted a spot. Alyssa Spencer, however, jumped from 11th to 6th — a leap which bodes very well for her return to the CT.

Three of the women in the top seven have spent a season on the CT before — Nadia, Sally, and Alyssa. Five of the top seven are from Europe, which is remarkable when you consider the fact that there is not a single European surfer currently on the CT. 

Annette Gonzalez Extabarri is the name you probably recognize the least of the bunch.

Alyssa, Francisca Veselko, and Tya Zebrowski all made the semifinals today. 

Just 600 points below the cutline sits 19-year old Brazilian Laura Raupp, and just below her sits todays finalist and biggest points benefactor Anat Lelior. 

Last year, the seventh place woman on the CS finished with an average of 3,435 points per event. With seven events this year, that should translate to around 24,045 points — meaning everyone below Francisca should be on edge headed into Newcastle.

Realistically, anyone as low as Ewe Wong (who jumped from 19th to 15th today) could still make tour with an event win.