Ain't no easy rides at Tahiti's favourite photo studio… 

The Hawaiian surfer Koa Rothman, brother of Makua, son to Big Daddy Ed, chases big waves for his thrills and for his cash.

Over the course of the last year, Koa and his filmer buddy Jack Germain, have created a vlog that takes the viewer into the world of a big-waver with an impeccable pedigree and who has a stomach like wooden slats.

This episode begins in Tasmania, where Koa competed in the Red Bull event there, and ends with his Pyzel relieved of its fins by the Teahupoo reef.

I watched this wearing a tank top, which was red like my underthings, and eating cream-coated treats from Dunkin’ Donuts. I caught my eyes in the reflection of the computer screen and they were filmy and grey.

This is Livin’ transports me to magical lands.

Mason's most exuberant film yet!

Mason Ho, the thirty-one-year-old surfer from Sunset Beach, Oahu, personifies all that is good and worthy in surfing.

Don’t you think?

When I watch Mason, Satan is temporarily exorcised from my thoughts, although I do want to dress him in a baby-doll nightie from Victoria’s Secret.

Kelly Slater says he’s “truly one if my favourite surfers to watch. You never know what he’s gonna do. He throws style points back to his influences and elders, and throws down maneuvers lots of new school guys can’t pull. And he surfs those weird waves nobody else does, which is probably my favorite thing about him.”

Dane Reynolds calls Mason “the king of stony surfing. The novelty tricks are rad, and he mixes them in with really gnarly tricks, which is even radder. I love that he rides 7’6″s at Pipe. And the whole Jimi Hendrix thing he does, recorded off YouTube with a phone for his web clips, really suits the vibe of his surfing.”

In this five-minute film, which was made by his best friend Rory Pringle, Mason casts his magic like a fishing line. And it’s a spell no man or woman can resist.

Watch cliff-crashing, underwater rock licking, backside tube arm-switches, cannibalised takeoffs and much much, oh so much, more.

Essential. 

And a little fluff around the edges of this sub-two minute hit…

You might’ve thought your new favourite surfer and defending Bali champion, Italo Ferreira, looked a little undercooked at Keramas.

Turns out the current world number two, who has just turned twenty five, belted his ankle during his first freesurf at the contest site.

As Italo notes on his YouTube channel: “After a good result at Bells Beach I went straight to Bali to defend my title there. Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned and I had a first-degree ankle twist on my first freesurf in Keramas.”

It meant Italo couldn’t train, had to wear a boot, and flew his physiotherapist, Higor Siqueira, to Bali to try and right the wrong.

In this short, and by short I mean…short…, watch Italo hit a section and lift his undercarriage at the 1:20 mark. You can almost feel the earth tremble at the approach of that power.

Height, distance, style and all wrapped in a Balinese sunrise.

Your eyeglasses will quiver, I assure you.

With dazzling cameos from Parker Coffin and Jett Schilling…

There hasn’t been this much fire and brimstone in Waco  since the FBI incinerated the prophet Vernon Wayne Howell and 78 of his Branch Davidian followers at the New Mount Carmel Center in Axtell, a little north-east of where the wave pool was built.

This short from the Coffin Bros’ YouTube channel was filmed by Dane Reynolds’ primary shooter Mini Blanchard and edited by noted director Blake Michel.

It is, therefore, a well-built six minutes with the usual pyrotechnics from Jett and Parker.

But if there’s an exchange, or a comparison, that’ll make you lie on your stomach on the dirty yellow rug in your living room and stare at the computer screen, it’s Bobby Martinez, former world number five, and Bethany Hamilton, the one-time tiger shark wrangler.

A welcome contrast in styles outside the TV dinners we’re usually served.