In collaboration with Uluwatu Surf Villas.

‘I’ve never heard a cunt get a Burch and say they’re shit,” said filmmaker Wade Carroll of Mikey Wright’s Parallelograming in Repeater. 

Me neither.

The first batch of Burch Mikey ordered was a four-pack. Almost immediately afterwards, and in true Mongrel fashion, he went way bigger. 17 boards, give or take a picklefork.

He was hooked. 

“Those boards go so good it’s insane”, added Wade. “Even I jumped on one and could feel a spark. I was like ‘no wonder these guys are ripping’. They were just gliding through sections and responding so fast.”

At this point, hearing another flattering review of a Burch feels pointless.

He won Dane Reynolds’ EAST, had Steph and Caity on Cloud 9, opened the mind of our editor-in-chief, Mikey C, to a world beyond jamming three to the beach.

For Bryce Young, one of his key collaborators over the years, the appeal fundamentally comes down to speed. 

“You don’t have to work for speed the same way you do on conventional boards,” he told Stab. “I don’t want to discredit symmetrical board design because obviously they have their place, and work great. But Burch boards for me are the epitome of thoughtfulness and function.”

Enough waffling.

Here’s some wisdom from the horses’ mouth, courtesy of Uluwatu Surf Villas, who had him stay over for a shaping residency at their state-of-the-art compound. He touches on everything from the first board he ever shaped, to his ‘breakthrough’ moment after shaping himself 40 boards for Indo, to the satisfaction of giving top pros new experiences of waveriding.

“You can solve all the problems you have in the water by what you’re able to shape in the shaping room,” says Burch. “And elevate your connection with wave riding, and surprise yourself, and ride something that you just sweat it over. It just makes the experience that much better.”

By the end of his stay at USV, he left with 31 boards: 12 hand-shaped customs and 19 cut shapes. Enough to go back into hiding/surf mode for another few months. 

Some people really have got it all figured out. 

As is customary in this world of ours, you head to the bottom hemisphere if you want to increase your chances of finding solid surf during top hemi summer.

From Hossegor, Charly Quivront had been keeping tabs on Puerto Escondido and, at the purpling of the charts, decided to leave for Mexico.

There was no shortage of opportunities to log water time compared to home. From fun follow-cam sessions at an Oaxacan point with French big-wave entity and How Surfers Get Paid star Benjamin Sanchis, to macking Puerto, and a guest appearance from a novelty sandbar that created a sort of Mexican Off The Wall at Playa Zicatela, there weren’t many occasions to lay his head upon a pillow.

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This wasn’t Charly’s first trip to Puerto, but this time he arrived better prepared. Impact vest, check. CI Guns, double check.

The latter is an evolution of the Mav’s Gun, a surfboard developed by Peter Mel and Britt Merrick, which Mel called “the fastest, most user-friendly gun he’s ever had.” We’re still talking about surfboards, by the way.

Peep above to see how they went in solid Puerto, and on days when the beachbreak did its best impression of a winter day in Hossegor.

Dark Seas is a hardcover, linen-bound, 256-page book splashed with award-winning photographer Nick Green’s finest .jpegs from the tukana / Tasman Peninsula.

Renowned Tasmanian environmentalist Bob Brown writes the intro. He calls the 152 B&W images splashed across its pages “bewilderingly good.”

If you’re not already familiar with Nick Green’s name, you will almost certainly be familiar with his work.

Over the years, he’s buttoned on for the likes of Dion Agius, Taj Burrow, Craig Anderson, Chippa Wilson, Mikey February, Russell Bierke and Nathan Florence, and commissioned work for the BBC, Nat Geo, Patagonia and Guinness.

Here’s a photo ID shortcut: if you come across a striking B&W image of mutant waves smashing Tasmania, there’s a good chance it’s one of Greeny’s.

Here’s an abridged foreword from the lensman himself.

“For the past decade, I have found solace in photographing and immersing myself in the rugged, wild and often unforgiving landscapes of tukana / Tasman Peninsula. Immersing myself in these wild environments offered a rare sense of clarity and calm. It gave me somewhere to place my attention; somewhere outside of myself.

“Like many before me, I’ve found a connection between the chaos of a wild sea and the peace that can come from observing it. I believe conservation is not only about protecting ecosystems or scenery, but also protecting the emotional and spiritual value these environments hold for people.

“Dark Seas pays homage to the enduring pull of wild places and the quiet refuge found through immersion in the natural world.”

If you’re looking to unplug and get lost in a gallery of images showcasing madness, chaos and wild natural beauty, consider adding Dark Seas to cart.

60-year-old José Maria Pyrrait is an emblematic figure in Portugal’s surfing community and one of the few people to surf Ribeira d’Ilhas on the appropriate craft (a SUP).

He’s into the long-distance paddle game, and he recently set out on a mission from Portugal’s northern border with Spain, around the country’s Atlantic coastline, to where it meets Spain again in the south.

Arran Strong, a Spanish-born British surfer based in Ericeira, was joining Pyrrait for a stretch of the journey on the country’s southwest coast. Strong was a fixture at Europe’s heaviest slabs, its crappiest beachbreaks, and on the Qualifying Series.

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Yesterday, according to Portugal’s National Maritime Authority, a paddler later confirmed as Strong ran into “difficulty” while attempting the stretch between Monte Clérigo and Carrapateira, a rugged 17 km-ish section of coastline on Portugal’s southwest coast. The alarm was raised at 11:33 AM local time after Pyrrait reported him missing roughly a mile offshore.

Pyrrait shared his account of the incident on social media, explaining that the pair had stopped off at Arrifana to drink water and take photos before continuing south. As was their routine, he allowed Strong to paddle ahead before intending to catch up.

“When I stopped to wait, I saw his board drifting about 100 metres away,” he wrote. “I paddled as fast as I could to get there, diving repeatedly looking for him, but we were in a really deep area and visibility was very short.”

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He immediately contacted his land support crew, who alerted emergency services. Pyrrait climbed aboard a local fishing boat with both boards before spending over two hours searching the area.

Portuguese authorities deployed lifeboat crews, Maritime Police, firefighters, drones, the SeaWatch project, and a Portuguese Air Force aircraft throughout the day. The search was suspended at nightfall on Monday and resumed Tuesday morning.

Strong had been diagnosed with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency at the age of three, a genetic disorder that can increase the risk of lung and liver disease, including emphysema and cirrhosis. Those who knew him often mentioned that his attitude in heavy waves made his exploits all the more impressive.

In an emotional tribute, Pyrrait described Arran as “like a son to me,” saying the pair had trained and travelled together since Arran was ten years old.

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EN: Today was a day of irreparable loss and deep sadness. Arran Strong, who accompanied me during the leg between Zambujeira and Monte Clérigo, is no longer with us. Yesterday, during the leg that would go from Monte Clérigo to Carrapateira, he disappeared from his board when we were about a mile off Arrifana. In short: we stopped off Arrifana to drink water and take some photos, we were there for a few minutes chatting, when we started again, I let him go ahead. As my pace is faster, I always did that, when I caught up with him and gained a short lead, I stopped and waited for him. This time was no different, but when I stopped to wait, I saw his board adrift about 100 meters away. I paddled as fast as I could to get there, I dove countless times looking for him, but we were in a very deep area and the visibility was very poor, I asked my partner on land for help, who automatically activated the rescue resources. A local fisherman picked me and the boards up, and we spent nearly two and a half hours scanning the entire surrounding area with the boat’s sonar. He is still missing, unfortunately with virtually no chance of being alive. Aran was like a son to me, since he was 10 years old, he trained with me and spent weekends and holidays with me, as he told his mother, he was like a son of divorced parents. My love for him was like another son that life gave me. Curiously, he always told me that he would die young. At this moment I feel a deep pain, the faint consolation remains that he left at sea, a place he loved so much. He was young, he had a pure and good heart, but he’s gone. I feel empty and tired, but life goes on. I know you would never accept me stopping on your own; you were resilient like few others. So, I’m going to stop for a few days, in principle on Sunday, August 2nd. I’ll resume the journey, in mourning, but with Arran in my heart, and for him and for all the beautiful memories I have, and despite the pain I carry with me, I will reach the end, God willing. Rest in peace, my “son.”

Our thoughts are with Arran’s family, friends, and everyone involved in the search. We’ll provide further updates as more information becomes available.

They say the U.S. Open will never surpass the teen-spirit-soaked depravity of the mid-2000s. 

And they are probably right. 

The elixir of body paint, pheromones, and trucker hats will never be quite as potent. But when in HB, there will always be a callback to that bygone era — before pronouns were polite and docile males were deemed performative. 

This past Saturday, the party we threw at The Bungalow with Quiksilver was no exception. Here are a few themes that will outlast generations of spiritual cleansing: 

Orange County’s most genetically blessed strut through the doors around 9 pm, with the single goal of capturing the most elusive species of them all: a professional surfer. They draw their arrows and shoot. Unfortunately, the sedative usually wears off after one night, or before, if another capture interferes. 

Two huntresses from Toronto, Canada, were aiming for “frosty” tips, and the 10-year age gap between them and Rex Hennings proved little deterrent. Second on the menu was Surf100‘s very own heartbreak, Jackson Bunch.

Late-night tracks, usually reserved for a sloppy last kiss or a provocative rattle of the hips, are played at 5:30 PM PST. As we were “setting up” for the party, a DJ played Sheck Wes’s universal mating call “Mo Bamba.” The message was received favorably, and I knew 2:00 AM on the Pacifico-soaked dance floor would be a nefarious affair.

Perhaps the best part of the U.S. Open: everyone is swinging above their weight class. Romantically, but also physically. One alternative surfboard rider (who I won’t name for legal reasons) picked a scrap with a guy who presumably spends his time pumping iron and experimenting with peptides. Our friend may have to start surfing Lowers instead of SanO to prepare for next year. 

On the other hand, if you’re lucky (and armed with Pacificos), you might end up in a dark corner with fabled pro surfers, like Noa Deane and Balaram Stack, who are uncharacteristically willing to share morsels from their latest ventures.

Re-live what is clearly not a U.S. Open Kickoff party below:

“Willy D doesn’t talk that much,” Creed McTaggart says in the new instalment of Geramania. “I guess he listens a lot. He’s pretty young and green… I don’t think he’s a weirdo. I was probably weirder at his age.”

Willis Droomer is a former ISA World Under-16 champion, a World Club Champion with Torquay Boardriders, and according to Lennix Smith, “the most random kid ever.”

The Jan Juc local recently went on a long cross-state drive to meet up with the founding members of the board of RAGE RAGE RAGE PTY LTD at their North Coast NSW HQ.

It feels unnecessary to describe surfing when you have HD moving records of it, but pressed to do so, maybe Willi D’s is a mix of Margo and Parko’s surgical rail approach, with a touch of faux-lazy Gen Z posture and panache? Very easy on the eyes.

You’ll see plenty of it at a certain right point, and the obligatory Indo segment. Creed dusts off a bladey 7’6″ Dahlberg for a cameo, while Beau Foster rides his own and discusses Willis’ inclusion in Rage’s never disappointing, idiosyncratic roster.

Note to groms: copy Willis’ surfing, ignore his waxing technique.

PS: For more of Willis, head over to his YouTube channel, where he occasionally drops self-edited rip clips.

“Can you imagine any other sport where if someone told you a monster might rip you in half, but probably not, that you’d still do it every day? Doesn’t that speak to how amazing surfing is?“

A poignant question from Albee Layer, this week’s guest on The Drop. Between surfing and spearfishing over remote Maui reefs, Albee is no stranger to shark encounters. Interestingly, despite the heavy grey-suit presence on the island, Albee is appalled at the notion of killing the animals at the expense of human recreation. In his view, the ocean is their turf and has been for millions of years. Should humans cull them so we can enjoy our own water time? Albee says no, but he is curious to hear differing opinions on the Great Shark Debate (coming later today). 

With Shark Week nearing its conclusion, Albee shared his own harrowing tale with evolution’s ace students. It happened while he and Torrey Meister were spearfishing together (it was only Torrey’s third time ever diving).With several fish already skewered, the two were returning to shore when, “I looked up and saw Torrey face to face with a 10 foot tiger shark,” Albee said. “And he’s poking it in the face with a loaded spear gun.”

Even after Torrey poked it in the nose three times, the shark was undeterred by the loaded weapon. It tried to get at him from different angles, like a boxer probing for an opening. Then it swam toward Albee, who dropped his belt full of fish as a diversionary tactic. The animal didn’t take the bait, and kept circling the pair, even as Torrey dropped his first parrotfish. Even as they got closer to the shallower ledge, the shark blocked their escape route. 

“I don’t know the data behind this, but from what I’ve heard from experienced divers on Maui, you’ve got to hold your ground against tiger sharks,” Albee said. “Every time we swam away, it came right back at us. I think Torrey knew how to face a large animal from his bull riding. This thing was very close to knowing what we tasted like.”

Their initial reaction speaks to how these two guys deals with stressful situations at a particular patch of ocean (Nervous Laughter fans will get it). “Me and Torrey just started dying laughing,” Albee said. “It was too funny.”

But the shark’s speed and power was not lost on them. It was toying with them with a mere fraction of its speed and power. Even after making it into a channel, Albee and Torrey had to swim whitewater together, each covering the other’s back, guns out Mission Impossible-style. 

Later in the ep, Albee is quick to acknowledge the talent of fellow Maui surfer Jackson Bunch, who was eliminated in brutal fashion in last week’s Surf100 challenge. As someone intimately familiar with Maui’s litany of wind kickers, Albee is more than qualified to speak on Jackson’s technical chops. 

“He gets most of his clips at a wave we won’t even surf at home,” Albee said. “I went out and tried. He surfs the worst wave at Ho’okipa. Me and Matt went over there after watching all the clips Jackson got there. We tried and were like, holy shit, how does he do this? It was wild. 

“There’s a lot of good surfers from Maui like Imai (deVault) and Ian Gentil,” he continued. “But Jackson is unique in that anything under huge waves he can do as well as anyone in the world. He can do a windshield wiper like no one else, and he can already do a double alley-oop better than me, and that was my whole shtick.”

Despite being known for high-flying tendencies, Albee concludes this week’s Drop with a rather grounding sentiment. No doubt cashing checks as a pro surfer is a sweet deal if you can swing it, but recently, Albee is seeing value in swinging hammers for a living.

For someone like Albee, there are certain obligations and requirements that come with being a pro surfer. Social, video and contractual asks are part of the deal. But for the blue-collar worker, there are no strings attached to a surfing life. There’s a certain work-hard-play-harder ethos that tradesmen carry into their sessions. Because when the job’s done, it’s time to surf and that’s it. Manual labor definitely has tradeoffs (no pun intended), but being your own boss has its perks. Just ask construction worker/laundry kingpin/tube chaser Skip McCullough.

“I’m seeing more of my friends with proper labor jobs have freedoms that the rest of us don’t have in a way,” Albee said. “Even though they are physically working harder, it feels like those of us are so attached to (professional surfing careers). I feel like my freedom is shrinking. It’s just interesting to watch as I feel like the balance is shifting into tradesmen favor in a way, and I think that’s good because hard work should be rewarded.”

Listen to The Drop on the Stab Podcasts channel, wherever you get your audio fix.

The Big Island – despite being 63% of the Hawaiian archipelago’s total land mass and larger than Rhode Island and Delaware – hosts only 13% of Hawai’i’s population. 

There are a lot of reasons for the low size/population ratio. For one, among Hawaii’s 137 islands, there is only one natural harbor wide enough and deep enough for large ships to move in and out of: Honolulu Harbor on Oahu’s south shore.

So, naturally, some time between Captain Cook first spotting King Kamehameha’s kingdom and the U.S. expanding its hidden Empire by annexing Hawai’i as its 50th state, Honolulu Harbor became Hawai’i’s hub for trade and commerce, which then made it its hub for population, and then governance, and then tourism, and inevitably, popularity.

Just like that, the Big Island – once the spiritual and administrative capital of the Kingdom of Hawai’i – was largely forgotten. It’s also largely blocked from the brunt of Hawaii’s wintertime north-northwest swells, which doesn’t help on the surf tourism front, nor their competitive prowess.

While Oahu, Maui and Kauai all claim a rolling cast of CT regulars, the Big Island has only one its history: Patrick ‘Shane’ Dorian.  

Now, the Dorian isle may have produced another contender in 23-year-old Brodi Sale. By all accounts, Brodi is a class act. He’s reportedly up before others at the Billabong house every winter, works harder than most, and is kind and polite. This lethal work ethic mix has landed him support from Billabong and Slater Designs in a tricky labor market for young surfers. To add to Brodi’s momentum, he’s also got great guidance in girlfriend Bettylou Sakura Johnson, who knows a thing or two about qualifying for the CT.

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Despite the support and talent, it’s been a difficult last few years competitively for Brodi. “To be honest, the last two years I’ve had a pretty bad run of results and I feel like I keep trying new things and they don’t work out result wise,” Brodi admitted. “It’s just a constant battle of telling yourself that you’re doing all the right things and you need to bring this in and do this to try and see how that works and just keep testing new things to try and add to your slice of the pie. I’m trying to do all the things that you think you need to do to get to where you want to be. So just staying consistent, journaling, training a lot, surfing a lot, just trying to stay balanced and know that everything’s happening for a reason and to be confident in my decision making and to keep learning. My focus right now is on making the Challenger, then making the CT.”

The edit you see above are recent highlights from Brodi’s last six months at home on the Big Island and abroad (mostly Indo). Come for the frontside wrap – stay for the stand-up-boogie at the funnest right tube you’ve ever seen. 

Watch out for Brody the rest of this 2026/27 season to see if he finally reaches his goal at making the Changas, and time will tell if he can make the Big Island and mentor Shane Dorian proud by becoming Kona’s second-ever CT surfer.