Andy Irons passed away over 15 years ago.

In the years that followed, geopolitical events such as the Arab Spring, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Russian annexation of Crimea, the rise of ISIS, Europe’s migrant crisis, the Brexit referendum, and the rise of populism in the West changed some things.

Smartphones multiplied, social media expanded to become the lens through which we see the world, and its algorithms reshaped discourse. Identity politics hardened and divided, wtf was that pandemic, the Capitol was stormed, Russia invaded Ukraine, Israel invaded Palestine, and surf contest prize money everywhere other than the CT has been replaced by supermarket vouchers.

Makes sense that it’s now possible to look back on Andy Irons’ dominant years and see something more charming there, although that may just be the way memory works.

Fortunately, the excellent footage remains and is accessible 24/7. In a time when agreement is rare, his surfing still seems to produce it.

In Next Gen, the second episode produced by Billabong to promote its recently released Andy Irons collection, we hear praise from former team members Shane Dorian, Joel Parkinson, and Mark Occhilupo, who witnessed some of Andy’s antics with their own pterygiumed eyes. Andy also shared his thoughts on future generations and compared their behaviour to his when he was their age.

To celebrate its release, Billabong put up an Andy Irons Retrospective at JS Garage in Oceanside. Of note was an installation of legendary photographs by John Bilderback, Patrick Eichstaedt, Brian Bielmann, Pat Stacy, Steve Sherman, Jason Childs, Grant Ellis, and Jimmy Wilson. All proceeds from their sales support the Andy Irons Foundation.

Photos: Jimmy “Jimmicane” Wilson

Ethan Ewing’s Stab In The Dark was also screened, and it is hard to imagine Andy not becoming an instant fan of EE’s surfing.

What better way to fill the nostalgic crater left in our hearts than with some AI retail therapy?

Available here and at your local surf shop.

As per the YouTube top comment, “Nothing like drinking 30 beers and watching chapter 11.”

Here’s the latest from the Ventura production house, starring Dimitri Poulos, who just missed out on qualifying for the big leagues this season. 

Unlucky 13.

Copy supplied:

“A water bug has thousands of tiny water repelling hairs on its feet that allow it to skip over the water’s surface. Dimitri Poulos kinda surfs like a one. By the time an average surfer is up and ready to rip a turn, Dimitri would have already blasted the lip 8 times and is in the middle of a full rotation backside punt… probably landing BOLTS. His level of talent on a surfboard and ability to make a random beach spectator go “holy shit” is a common occurrence every time he’s out surfing. You give him good waves, you give him shit waves, the dudes always making something happen that’s worth watching. Still insane there no main sponsor support this guys career! WHAHHH?!”

And still… your undefeated favorite male surfer. 

Here’s John Florence’s latest Vela film, this time at the spinning reef pass which crowned the 2025 World Champs and occasionally houses boxy protoplasmic invertebrate jellies that zip-tie lungs and balloon lymph nodes. 

Two highlights: 1.) light-speed bottom turns, 2.) how JJF magically accelerates inside tubes after freefalling sideways. 

Also, Wolfmother’s White Unicorn gets a run. A bit of a throwback to TB’s Fair Bits and noughties Quikky Young Gunz clips.

Wunderbar.

In 2024, two 20-something-year-old Kiwis who’d kinda been living in Portugal (don’t tell the immigration authorities) decided to scour secondhand sites and compile a quiver of approximately ten boards from 20+ years ago and convince a bunch of people to surf them semi-competitively.

The reasoning was simple: The boys had been born too late to appreciate the late ’90s/early ’00s era of surfing, but there was something in it that they wanted to explore. They called their event the Alto Pro Am, and it arguably only began once the sun had set over Ribeira d’Ilhas.

The next year, Billabong stepped in to make it a lil bigger (and better), but the roots still ran as deep as your lawn. The surf side of the event could be summed up as follows: A well-executed roundhouse will get you an excellent score, while an air reverse would see you disqualified.

This weekend — again with the help of Billabong and a few other brands — they’re bringing the concept to Sydney’s Northern Beaches. We’ll let them pick up the yarn from here.

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Instead of traditional heats feeding into a rigid contest structure, surfers will run through a series of sessions on Saturday, with their best scores stacking onto a live leaderboard on the beach.

Judging follows the ALTO lens: radical manoeuvres performed with speed, power and flow — but with style carrying the most weight.

The top six men and women move through to Sunday’s finals. The final heats are filmed, and later that night the footage is shown back to the crowd at 7th Day Brewery, where both competitors and the audience vote to decide the winners.

If you’re around and can demonstrate a proficiency to forcefully direct a 6’4″ at a big end section, you might even be able to sweet-talk your way into a wildcard. Otherwise, the night comp is open to everyone and is not one you’ll want to miss.

Godspeed, power, and flow.

Strong lineup in this one: Creed of the Dark, Chippa Wilson’s second-best aerialist ever, and Sir David Rastovich. Shot and chopped by Toby Cregan, set to a blend of lad-rap and Texan emo. Yeah, you’re clicking that.

The surfing is excellent. But beyond the clips, we’re also gifted a few unsolicited philosophies from Creed McTaggart. Highlights below:

On grips:

“You gotta line up the slit with the point. Hit it right on the head. And you gotta pinch down the sides real good.”

“You gotta wax your grip. Can’t stand people who don’t wax their grip. I just don’t like them.”

On the scenery:

“Good for airs, sick for punts. David Rastovich.”

A concise worldview, if nothing else.

What else do you need? Hit play above.

It’s been almost a year since Jacob Willcox shared his 130km walk across Western Australia on YouTube.

The Cape 2 Cape series is still well worth a watch, if only for a closer look at a surfer who, like many on the CS, can get lazily filed under “comp guy”.

After a hiatus from internet broadcasting, Chippo is back, sharing the duality he lives in: surfing for numbers, and surfing for content.

The near 20-minute episode follows his recovery from a high ankle sprain during a US Open heat, the extensive rehab, and the slow return to both free surfing and competition. A thinking surfer, he offers musings on balancing both worlds, before deciding to take the edge off with a trip to Fiji and a return to basics.

Those involve a very fun, playful day at Cloudbreak, a few boat issues, and a proper swell to seal the excursion.

And no, there were no box jellies in the lineup this day.

You don’t think much about your own neck. Until it forces you to.

If where you look is where you go, the neck plays a crucial role as a hinge between the head, where the eyes sit, and the rest of the body. That hinge does quite a lot of work: compressing, twisting, extending, and occasionally malfunctioning.

On January 14, 2025, Vincent Duvignac’s neck reminded him of both its existence and its fragility.

It also happened where he didn’t expect it to. The sandbars in Les Landes are ephemeral and fickle. While they can turn on unannounced and bring nothing but hoots, hysteria, and an urgency to suit up, Duvi tends to take caution, observe and study them before taking the rip ride out the back.

His reputation has been built on thousands of waves like these over hundreds of sessions. Until that day, when one folded differently and obliterated his cervical vertebrae.

Out of Line is a 37-minute documentary by Pierre Frechou, charting the slow, repetitive, and unglamorous recovery process, and asking some bigger questions: can he surf again? 

Should he?

Mechanically perfect waves, a decent place to sit with food and drink, and comfy beds — all in the same 200 meter orbit. Sounds a bit too good too be true?

Well, thanks to the advent of combining wavepools and accommodation it’s actually quite real, this time in Virginia Beach, of all places.

Atlantic Park Surf is attempting the equation at scale, using Wavegarden tech to produce waves the ocean rarely delivers on that stretch of coast. Beginner to expert, you pick from a menu based on ability. And please, be honest with yourself.

Like URBNSURF Sydney, Atlantic park Surf is home to a 46-module WaveGarden Cove, so you can expect a similar ramp to the one that launched Joel Vaughan to a lien-flip victory last October. The main difference is that Atlantic Park Surf is just a stone’s throw from dozens of restaurants, pumping nightlife, and ocean waves — plus it’s heavily backed by Pharrell (yes, that Pharrell).

We’ll be there this May for Stab High presented by Monster Energy — and here’s where we’ll be staying.

Overlooking the pool is The Sitio, a boutique hotel intentionally kept small. There are only twenty rooms, which means the halls, the bar, and the private pool deck never feel crowded, but you might still meet someone worth talking to.

Though it may come as a surprise to our international audience, the VB surf scene runs deep. It’s home to the oldest continually-run surf competition in the world — the East Coast Surfing Championships (ECSC) — which has been handing out trophies for over 60 years. The city of about 450k people has reasonably fun waves and is only a brief drive away from the objectively superior surf of the Outer Banks.

And, for the month of April, The Sitio is offering a Surf & Stay deal. Book a Standard King or Double Queen room, and a daily surf session plus beach passes for two come with the key. All for roughly the price of a decent dinner in most coastal cities.

Use code SURFnSTAY at checkout, or hit this link to get in the rotation.

We should probably tell you not to sleep on this one. But in this case, that’s the point.