Swellnet

14/11/2025

Nik Zanella reports from Hainan Island, where American wavepool technology is turbo-charging Chinese surfing.

October is prime typhoon season in Hainan, and each one of the thirteen left-hand pointbreaks on the island is delivering fun, shoulder-high waves today. Yet the epicentre of the local surf scene is not on the beach, but in an anonymous parking lot 800 metres inland from the main point in Riyue Bay...

13/11/2025

So what's a little foam on the sea surface matter?

It matters a lot if you're a surfer from South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula. This week, some surfers ignored it and wound up with sore eyes and throats as yet another chapter of the everlasting algal bloom opens up.

Eight months after symptoms were first reported at Waiptinga and Parsons Beaches on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, there's been a return of the toxic algal bloom to the region and subsequently an increase in reports of irritation to surfers. 

11/11/2025

Got five fin boxes in your surfboard? So it's not a quad and it's not a Thruster...or perhaps it's a bet each way?

In a new column, veteran shaper Murray Bourton answers reader questions, the first one being the benefit, or otherwise, of having five fin boxes.

Pipedream Surfboards

Are five fin set ups, where your board can be a Thruster or quad fin, worth getting? I can remember when they first started coming out some magazine commenters said they were a compromise of both designs and not worth getting. The message was that you've got to tell the shaper to make the board one...

11/11/2025

Hoping to stop the ongoing erosion of Bribie Island, authorities are dredging sand to block the new breakthroughs. They've been gifted incredible weather for a coastal project, but that's no guarantee Caloundra Bar will ever return to its previous state.

Caloundra is the only beach on the Sunshine Coast with distinct northerly wind protection. This fact, combined with what were shifting tidal sandbanks made Caloundra Bar a regional classic when easterly lines hit the coast and the wind vane swung to the north.

06/11/2025

"All of a sudden, a spark flew around the world," says Simon Jones of the mid-length twin fin, a design that found its way to Torren Martyn, who rode it to acclaim at J'Bay igniting a quiet revolution in board design.

Simon chats with Swellnet about that unsuspecting design.

Simon Jones Designs
needessentials Wetsuits

This week, Torren Martyn and needessentials released a short film, 'Rediscovering an old friend'. The film is built upon a straight-forward premise as Torren is reunited with a board he rode in 2016.

25/10/2025

Waterspouts are not a common occurrence, let alone directly in front of a bunch of surfcams! Check out this beauty captured in West Oz on Friday afternoon, dancing in front of our cams at The Box, Southside, The Bombie and Margaret River.

The last surfcam reel (0:18) shows there was actually a second smaller waterspout further offshore a few minutes before the big one.

21/10/2025

It's been a while, but Russ returns with another film showcasing the shimmering edge of possibility. After a short live premiere run - Freshwater tonight, Milton on Friday - it'll be available online.

Understated as always, Russ had a chat with Swellnet about big waves and...actually that's all we spoke about.

Shortly before Swellnet spoke to Russell Bierke, he'd just recieved the invitation to his second Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.

09/10/2025

It's been a stratospheric spring of surf in the southern states, all thanks to the Sudden Stratospheric Warming.

'What's that?' I hear you ask.

Click in and let Craigos explain why the surf has been so hot.

As East Coasters continue to grovel in sub-standard spring surf, scanning the long-term forecasts for anything of significance, our much beloved friends in the cold south are reaping the rewards of a prolonged, out of character season of surf.

02/10/2025

More than a commentator, Vaughan Blakey is a writer, editor, filmmaker, singer, podcaster, and raconteur, which means he has a million different ways to talk about one thing - surfing.

VB recently sat down with Tessa Hoult to talk about how surfing has changed since he began work as a cub reporter for Tracks thirty years ago.

Surfing has changed since Vaughan Blakey got his start as a cub reporter for Tracks in the mid-nineties: Australia no longer dominates, the corpos have come and gone, and the sisters have done it for themselves.

25/09/2025

Comprehensively tested on tigers and whites, the new range of shark bite-proof wetsuits - including Haydon Burford's Shark Stop wetsuits - offered encouraging results.

Less flexible, more expensive, yet effective where it counts, the decision ours to make.

Whenever a shark attacks a surfer it sends shockwaves throughout the surfing community. In the aftermath we become united in sympathy and also shared anxiety - a feeling of helplessness against an apex predator.

25/09/2025

Between two hurricanes...

In five days the Challenger Series will kick off again at the Ericeira Pro, Portugal, with the five day waiting period falling between two hurricanes.

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Reflecting the stop-start nature of the Challenger Series, the tour opened with three events in two months and then no events for the following two months. CS competitors are now regrouping in Portugal to compete in the fourth event of the tour, the EDP Ericeira Pro, held at Praia Ribeira.

23/09/2025

Don’t believe what the people are saying. This is not the golden age of television, nor is it the golden age of beer, this, my good friends, is the golden age of surfboards.

Never has the range of surfboards been so broad and so free of prejudice, never has the quality of those boards been so high, and never has the choice of materials been so vast.

The latest golden material is pineapple cloth, which, despite this colourful li'l intro, isn't really golden at all.

Click to read more:

Don’t believe what the people are saying. This is not the golden age of television, nor is it the golden age of beer, this, my good friends, is the golden age of surfboards.