🏄‍♀️ Should we even care about pro surfers 🤔

🌊 Hurricane watch is on! If you’re on the East Coast of the USA, and got some pre-hurricane surfs in, kudos to you. Here’s hoping Erin stays offshore and keeps things mellow on land.

🏄‍♀️ Let’s surf:

• Should we care about pro surfers? 🏄‍♂️🤷‍♀️

• Cortés Bank is just ridiculous 🌊😱

• WTH is a flyaway? 🪂😵

• Grief & grit: Sandi’s second wave 🌊💪

• Penguin. Shark. Airman. Hurricane. Walk into the news. 🐧🦈

^SURFODRAMA

 😱 Should we even care about pro surfers?

There was a Reddit post. About the pro surfers’ political affiliations. But, this isn’t a story about politics—it’s about how few names I recognized. Maybe 20%, tops. And that made me think: should we care about pro surfers at all?

📜 Legends vs. pros
I guess, at this point, we should distinguish between surfing legends (surfers who contributed to the evolution of surfing) and pro surfers (surfers who are very good at surfing, compete in surfing competitions, and win them).

Because I am all in on the legends. Duke, who single-handedly saved surfing from extinction. Tom Blake, who invented a fin. The Gidgets (yes, I see this more as a collective), who showed the girls in the ’50s it was OK to surf. George Greenough, for giving us a shortboard. And Laird Hamilton and his crew, who effectively invented tow-in surfing. OK, I’ll throw in Jeff Clark for “discovering” Mavericks, and Garrett McNamara for Nazaré.

But what about modern pro surfers? Should we know their names? You know, as the members of this club called “surfing”. Will we look stupid if someone mentions Florence, Dorian, or Rothman and we have no idea—maybe they’re talking about a city in Italy, that never-aging dude from Oscar Wilde’s book, and the producer of Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

👑 The queens of the lineup
I do know some of the women—because frankly, it’d be criminal not to.

Stephanie Gilmore (8-time champ) for pushing for equal pay for women on the WSL tour. Carissa Moore (5-time champ) for driving more inclusivity, especially among Hawaiian girls and surfers from underrepresented racial and cultural backgrounds in the sport.

As luck would have it, they are both kind of pros-on-pause in 2025. Then there’s Maya Gabeira, who broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave surfed by a woman at Nazaré.

🤷‍♀️ Slater, Florence, and my blind spots
I don’t care for Kelly Slater. But I’m sure many little boys got into surfing after watching him surf. And you’ve got to give it to him—the Surf Ranch is a wave pool like no other. And those 11 championship titles. He is an icon, whether I like it or not.

It would be hard for me not to have heard about John John Florence. He’s got a pretty unique and memorable name. I know he’s from Hawai’i and he surfs very, very “good”—and that’s where my knowledge ends.

And these are the names I had never even heard of—until I worked on this piece:
Italo Ferreira, Yago Dora, Kanoa Igarashi.

But apparently, these dudes are redefining aerials—or “airs,” as you may know them. Then there’s Jordy Smith from South Africa and Ethan Ewing from Australia—all of the above in the top five surfers of 2025.

Even more embarrassing? I hadn’t heard of a single woman in the current top five: Gabriela Bryan (Hawaiʻi), Molly Picklum (Australia), Caitlin "Caity" Simmers (USA), and Isabella Nichols (Australia).

It’s easier to remember the names of big-wave surfers who broke the “biggest wave ever ridden” records—like Sebastian Steudtner (93.7 ft at Nazaré, pending validation) and Alo (Alessandro) Slebir (108 ft at Nazaré, under review).

😅 How’s your pro knowledge?
The Olympics are coming. Less than three years to brush up on our pro knowledge. Unless of course, we don’t care about the pros or the Olympics. 😜 

The good news? None of this changes how we feel about surfing. Not one bit.

^{SURF SPOT SPOTLIGHT (FOR THE INSANE)}

Cortés Bank: Truly, the most ridiculous wave in the ocean

Cortés Bank. A wave so remote, so ridiculous, it practically needs its own Soundgarden soundtrack. Let’s talk about the most insane wave in the middle of the ocean.

I get Jeff Clarke’s fascination with Mavericks. It’s on his doorstep, it’s his local break, where else is he gonna go surf? Pacifica?

Why do men travel 100 miles into the ocean on boats for hours upon hours to surf a wave that has been dubbed a navigational hazard for centuries. That’s insane.

🌊 What and where is Cortés Bank?
It’s about the size, innit. Cortés Bank is one of those elusive big wave breaks that produces waves up to 85 foot on a few days a year.

It effectively is an underwater mountain range about 100 miles off the coast of California, south of San Diego. If you drew a straight line down south from Ventura that’s where you’d find it.

A part of a 25-mile underwater mountain range, Cortés Bank rises from the ocean floor to within just a few feet of the surface. At its shallowest point (called Bishop Rock), it’s basically a submerged reef — and that’s where the action happens. Waves hitting it jack up insanely fast due to the abrupt depth change — a 2,000 ft rise to just 6 ft below the surface.

As described by Matt Warshaw, “it’s a tilting, shifting peak, resembling Sunset Beach in Hawai’i, a few hundred yards east of a nightmarish white water later described by surf journalist Evan Slater as ‘half-mile chunk of reef forever doomed to 360-degree confusion.’” Why I have never done a quote within a quote before. Being in the middle of a freaking ocean, this break is totally exposed, so it gets the brunt of every Pacific swell. You already know that you can’t see the beach.

🧭 From hazard to surf spot
As for the discovery of Cortés Bank, sailors knew it was there for said centuries and avoided it like the plague, but in the 1960s it was considered by Walter and Flippy Hoffman, two big wave pioneers, as a surfing destination. In 1990, it was first checked out by air by Larry Moore who then returned by boat with some surfers and they all surfed less life-threatening 8 foot waves.

The public launch of Cortés took place more than a decade later on January 19, 2000. Like with most launches, it was carefully planned, well financed. Codenamed “Project Neptune", with a project leader Larry Moore, supported by former Surfing magazine editor Bill Sharp. It had it all: two boats, a plane, three personal watercrafts, a camera crew of six, and six surfers.

After a night traveling by boat, Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach (representing SoCal), and Kenny Collins and Peter Mel (representing NorCal), set out in two tow-in teams not long after dawn. Eventually Mike got towed in onto the biggest wave ever recorded to be ridden off the continent at that point — 65 feet. He beat his own record in 2008 on a return trip, riding a 75-foot giant. Although it is said that Greg Long, who accompanied him, actually rode a wave that was five or ten feet bigger.

If you’d like to see some of that great Cortés footage, watch Step Into Liquid. Or 100 Foot Wave — that’s where the French big-wave legend Justine Dupont surfed a 60-footer.

^{WORD OF THE WEEK}

🦋 WTH is a flyaway?

Well, this is not going to end well in the busy lineup. 😜 Flyaway or flying kickout is a type of pullout, so this is where we need to start.

🏄🏻‍♀️ What is a pullout?
When you’re exiting a wave at its end, it’s called a pullout. How you perform a pullout says a lot about what decade you live in and the kind of person you are. 

Before the 1940s, surfers rarely pulled out to escape a closed-out, because it was extremely hard to stop a heavy, finless longboard once it started going. The surfers would straddle the back section of the board and use their legs to break instead.

Once the surfboard design changed after the Second World War: lighter boards and a fin, pullout became one of the well-known maneuvers alongside bottom turn and cutback. 

A typical pullout is gracious and safety-orientated. You angle or pivot your board over the wave crest. It was less safe before the early 70s and the surfboard was not attached to one’s body, but now thanks to Pat O’Neill, son of Jack O’Neill, we have leashes. The pullout is seen as a bit of work, which is probably why a lot of beginner surfers dive off their boards or fling them from underneath. 

🦇 Get your pilot wings
The flying kickout may be a bit of work, but it was so showy that surfers deemed it worth it, I guess. In this maneuver, a surfer aims toward the crest and then ejects off the tail section of the board. As a result, the board goes flying vertically and spinning. According to the EOS, sometimes for 75 feet with surfers in the lineup literally diving for cover. 

The flyaway was most popular during the shortboard revolution, but its showiness died as soon as the leash was invented in 1971. It evolved into one where the rider stays on the board, rides it for a bit in the air and then kicks it away. 

🌺 Chill with an island pullout
Oh, there’s also an island pullout. It’s longboard-specific and typically performed in smaller surf. The surfer crouches near the front third of the board, pushes the nose underwater, swings the tail toward shore, stalls, and lets the wave pass by.

^{GIRL-WHO-CAUGHT-HER-SECOND-WAVE}

🏄🏻‍♀️ Grief, grit, and getting back on the board: Sandi's second wave

Sandi grew up spending summers at the Jersey Shore, but didn’t start surfing until nearly 50.

Just as she was getting started, the sudden loss of her husband put her plans on hold. Years later, she found her way back through a surf therapy program, rebuilding her strength, confidence, and love for the ocean.

Nearly 60 pounds lighter, stronger than ever, and surrounded by a supportive surf community, Sandi is determined to keep progressing — and to make surfing a lifelong part of her story.

👉 Read Sandi’s story in her own words. Bring tissues!

^{THE WIPEOUT WEEKLY SURF NEWS ROUNDUP}

🗞️ Airman. Shark. Penguin. Hurricane.

🧍‍♂️ Airman hits the surf—in uniform
A U.S. airman was spotted catching waves in full military attire. Respect the commitment.

🦈 Surfboard suffers massive shark bite
A board off the coast of Florida shows clear signs of a close encounter. Luckily, the surfer is fine. The board… not so much.

🐧 Penguin hugs a surfer
Cuteness overload in South Africa, where a penguin waddled up into the lineup. And surfers lost their cool.

🌀 Hurricane Erin: “Surfers. They just never learn.”
As swells build from Hurricane Erin, local authorities plead with surfers to maybe sit this one out. Spoiler: they won’t.

👉 Read the full news roundup

^{WEE PROMO CORNER}

🏄🏻‍♀️ Can you handle 30 straight days of surfing—for a cause?

You’ve seen the Reels. You’ve seen the TikToks. Every pro and surf influencer worth their salt is teaming up with SurfAid and pledging to surf every day in September.

The goal? To raise funds that bring clean water, healthcare, and food security to families in remote surf communities.

So far, 933 surfers have signed up and raised $199,721. You can join their ranks by hopping on an existing team (like Deané’s representing GWCSG) or signing up solo.

👉 Sign up at SurfAid

🛍️ Free the codes!

🧴 Coconut Smuggler — pre- and post-surf haircare by Brittany.
Use code GWCSG20 for 20% off.

🧘 Yoga for Surfers — improve your pop-up & more by Inessa.
Use code GIRLS.

_{P.S. If you’d like your product or service featured in our newsletter—for free—just reply to this email and pitch us.}

⬆️ Aaaaaaand that was the last wave of the week!
If a friend forwarded this and you liked it, hit subscribe & join us! We will see you all next week! 🌊

^HOUSEKEEPING

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