Wave of Skulls: Irish surfers Fergal Smith and Tom Lowe challenge Tahiti’s Teahupo’o, known locally as the “Wall of Skulls.”

Produced by Allan Wilson

Todd Balf of Outside heads to the coastal town of York, Maine to attend a weeklong surfboard building workshop offered by Grain Surfboards, and tries to explain his newfound obsession:

“…I’m still trying to figure out why I felt the need to come here. Partly it’s because I want to build something nice, to prove I can—despite a barnful of half-assed projects back home that say I can’t. And I want to find a path into a sport that, up until now, I’ve resisted. More and more, guys I used to ride bikes with are absent, gone surfing. My kids surf. So do my basketball buddies. I live only minutes from a nice little Massachusetts break.”

photo credit: rowland_rick

From Hawaii and Baja to Tasmania and Western Australia to Easter Island and South Africa, Californian surfers Rusty and Greg Long have made a life out chasing the world’s biggest waves. Kitt Doucette of Men’s Journal spends a few days traveling, surfing, and trying to understand what makes these “big-wave hell men” tick.

“Their styles on the water reflect their personalities, with Greg surfing aggressively and competitively, riding deep in the tube and cutting waves to pieces with powerful carves, and Rusty surfing patiently, smoothly flowing between elegant, relaxed turns. Neither brother, though, is about to let the pursuit of a trophy or title get in the way of their good time. ‘Contests are an important part of big-wave surfing,’ Greg says, ‘but the greatest joy for me comes from leaving the first set of footprints on an isolated beach, paddling out into unknown waters, and being the first to ride a wave somewhere.’”

photo credit: Bengt Nyman

Patagonia recently launched a follow up to their first-ever fly fishing “e-catalog” in the surfing vertical: the 2010 spring surf catalog, with archival content and quality design–promising to save 176 trees and eliminate 74,826 gallons of wastewater…

• Santa Cruz gangs and surf culture intertwine: Santa Cruz Sentinel
• Surfing blue line between Israel and Hezbollah: The Christian Science Monitor
• 16-year-old surfer Kolohe Andino: ESPN
• Santa Monica Pier paddleboard history: Santa Monica Daily Press
• Tasmanian surfer Marco Giorgi: ESPN

Club Of The Waves interviews Southern Californian surf painter and sculptor Phil Roberts about sidewalk art, his unique scientific illustrations, and what he hopes to communicate through his work:

“Figurative in any medium. I’ve always been drawn (pardon the pun) to the human figure and the challenge of capturing personalities since I started doing caricatures in high school. I’ve been very fortunate that my destiny as an artist has always been evident to me.”

20 year-old Clay Marzo of Maui is one of the planet’s most gifted surfers; he also was diagnosed in 2007 with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of “high-functioning” autism. Jonah Lehrer of Outside Magazine investigates Clay’s struggles to articulate, his rare physical grace, and an “encompassing preoccupation” with the ocean.

“Clay Marzo doesn’t love surfing. Love is a complicated thing—sometimes people fall out of love—but there is nothing complicated about Clay’s relationship to the ocean. For Clay, surfing is an elemental need, a form of sustenance, a way of being that he couldn’t be without. He just turned 20, but he can’t remember a time when he wasn’t obsessed with barrels, shortboards, and the daily swell report.”

Documentary: Clay Marzo: Just Add Water

Produced by Koastal Media

Kustom Air Strike: Surfers Mitch Coleborn, Clay Marzo, Jay Davies, Josh Kerr, and Chippa Wilson boat trip through Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands on a mission to film the winning wave of the 2010 Kustom Air Strike surf competition.

Produced by Kai Neville

• Teenage surfing sensation Sarah Mason of New Zealand: The New Zealand Herald
• Surf artist Scott McDougall: Club of the Waves
• Winter surfing California’s Cowell’s Beach: The Boston Globe
• Surfing documentary Going Vertical: The Shortboard Revolution: The Sydney Morning Herald
• Andy Irons returns to the ASP: The Age