“His hand jive, soul arches, and toreador-like flourishes play to the camera in a way that breaks the spell…"

(Editor’s note: Five years ago, The New Yorker ran a very good, and uncharacteristically raw, story by Jamie Brisick called, “Surfing in the Age of the Omnipresent Camera”, which described Mikey February’s surfing thus, “His hand jive, soul arches, and toreador-like flourishes play to the camera in a way that breaks the spell of the itinerant surfer in far-flung solitude. His style is as self-conscious as the duck-face selfie.”)

The most talked-about surfer not on the world tour, Mikey February, has delivered his latest riposte to that ol New Yorker story by BeachGrit’s favourite son Jamie Brisick that his surfing is the visual manifestation of an outsized ego etc.

When you see Mikey February you’ll understand that he’s a beautiful man in every sense. He has a beautiful heart, beautiful courage, a beautiful intelligence. For me, everything about him is beautiful, his smile, his expression, his face. And you should see him when he wears his hair short! He looks like a boy! But he’s no boy, he’s as real man etc.

In this video, Mike February, along with guy pals Dylan Graves (video coming soon!) and Aritz Aranburu, do the strike mission thing, chasing fairytales as it is, to snatch a few brief moments with that well-known, among secret wave aficionados, sandbottom righthander. More cock than rock, as it were.

The movements are scored to the Prince piano track from 1983 called 17 Days (piano and microphone), an old demo recorded at his Kiowa Trail home studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, and discovered after the fruity lil pill-popping maetro died. The song explores heartbreak and longing, with lyrics about a lover gone for “17 days and 17 long nights.”

Beautiful and sad and wonderful.

Essential.

"Chaotic, beautiful, and downright ridiculous…"

For over one decade BeachGrit readers have enjoyed the sunny and generous persona of Puerto Rican Dylan Graves travelling hither and thither in search of weird, wonderful and perfect waves.

Click here, here, here, here and here.

And here.

Here.

Here, too.

And, here, where it all began.

Although Dylan Graves is of middle age, he’s no fat, shiny, liver-coloured man, but an example of who we can be if we don’t fall into the trap of remaining in our velvet cages of couch, device, home.

This video is a hybrid of his usual travelogue and includes a lightly comic tone of the absurdity, as he calls it, of the search for perfect surf.

“In this surf documentary-meets-comedy breakdown, I (Dylan Graves) attempt to unpack the chaotic, beautiful, and downright ridiculous process of chasing perfect surf, from over-analyzing weather charts to breaking boards on 7km sand points. This is The Absurdity of Scoring Good Waves, a surf journey told in four parts: forecasting, sand, endurance, and finally… the magic.”

The wave sought and found is one of Africa’s most elusive prizes and for all its perfection, it ain’t easy. Watch as some of the world’s most accomplished tube riders, with pinwheeling legs and flailing arms, fail takeoffs.

The reward, of course, is like a warm wind straight to the marrow of the bones.

"What was fun and exciting now has us tired and worried. We're 600 miles from our destination."

While the world tour staggers along, led by the almost forty-year-old South African albatross Jordy Smith, John John Florence has been creating an ode to life, assembling his life, wife Lauryn, baby Daz and brother Nathan down there at the bottom of the world in New Zealand.

After a brief cameo at the tour’s opener at Pipeline, John John Florence set off to explore some of New Zealand’s most dramatic coastal scenery, a decision made easy by the fact his forty-eight foot gunboat Vela née Falcor (back when Travis Rice owned it) which had been sitting dockside there after listing it for sale almost two years ago for $1.3 million American dollars.

(The selling literature describes Vela thus,

“Vela” is currently lying in the North of New Zealand and has been a recent recipient of an extensive refit ensuring that she is 100% ready to go on her next adventure. Lightweight, robust and featuring North 3di technology flying from a Marstrom Carbon mast supported by ECsix carbon rigging, The Gunboat 48 strikes the balance between performance and comfort in a manner rarely seen on performance catamarans under 50ft.

The saloon space flows beautifully into the hulls and forward in to the forward cockpit, sail handling area which of course leaves the aft cockpit space open and free for socialising and watching the world go by.

Recently returning to her original metallic blue hull colour with black accenting provided by the forebeam, mast and trampolines, “Vela” is champing at the bit to get back to exploring!)

In 2015, John John Florence had declared, “My ultimate goal with sailing is to be able to travel fast, cover long distances, and go surfing. I want to combine the two.”

John John Florence, it has to be said, says a vigorous “yes” to life! He is a man who loves enthusiasm and joyousness for their own sake.

And Nathan Florence, hair redder than his older brother, skin as paper thing, literally and figuratively, ain’t far behind.

As John John Florence gives credibility to the WSL version of pro surfing, Nathan Florence delivers to the vlogging freesurfer.

In this harrowing episode, both brothers face a wild ocean and terrific winds, skies black with rain, as they plunge into darkness and cruelty on the open ocean.

Watch if you dare.

Needless to say.

Essential.