January 2010

SURFER PROFILE: EXIT INTERVIEWS

Former SURFER Editors chime in on their eras.
THE GENTLEMEN'S HOUR

With many of the young, progressive surfers favoring messy closeouts to clean, offshore open-faces, will we soon reach a point where the thing we've long considered "perfection" (the idyllic, long peeling pointbreak, for example) be simply left to the old guys? Kimball Taylor investigates the shifting surf landscape and how what the next crop of surfers may just change what defines "good surfing" and "good surf" entirely.
SACRED SILHOUETTES

"Style." A term we collectively struggle to define, yet we know it's the basis of good surfing. Accompanied by style icons Gerry Lopez, Rob Machado, and Dave Rastovich, SURFER Correspondent Steve Barilotti spends a week on Tavarua reflecting on the topic.
COVER BATTLES

Mocked and admired, loved and loathed, there's no doubt that the cover is the most important page in the mag. It's chronicled everything from the shortboard revolution to the aerial generation, and yet Dora never got a cover shot. Researchers Ben Marcus and Alison Casey spent a month scouring a half century of covers and unearthed some interesting truths about Page One.
EXPOSURE: FROM THE VAULT

Photo Editor Grant Ellis wades through the SURFER archivesâ€”from the iconic images of legendary lensmen to the rare images found deep in the "unclaimed files"â€”to compile a photo feature that spans our history.