Senegal is an African surf oddity hiding in plain sight.

Nearly half its population lives within a short drive of 530 kilometres of coastline and proper waves — points, reefs, beach breaks. As far as set-ups go, the westernmost country in continental Africa ticks all the boxes.

Every lump of northwest swell that sneaks past the Cape Verde archipelago heads straight for the Cap Vert peninsula where Dakar, the capital, sits.

For decades, travelers have flown in to find empty waves further south and east. But anyone who’s paddled out at Ngor, Ouakam, Yoff, or a not-so-secret secret spot knows Dakar is a proper, yet underrated, surf city.

Recently, Mami Wata and Billabong joined forces to celebrate African surf culture with their In A Time Before Memory collaboration. After using the place, its people, and its waves as subject matter, it only made sense that the gesture of giving back should land at the swell-smacked peninsula where the campaign was originally filmed.

Surf Kids Shredding Senegal — or SKSS, which reads like the sound a rail might make in the water — is an innovative West African surf initiative founded by Italian-born Marta Imarisio and her Senegalese husband, Aziz Kane.

SKSS works with kids in Yoff, using surfing as a way to build confidence, community, and their future beyond the shoreline. SKSS has become a crucial space for girls’ surfing in Senegal, a country where the cultural currents don’t always encourage women to paddle out. Besides flat spells, traditional roles and patriarchal expectations can discourage females from surfing. Marta and Aziz run after-school programs and tutoring sessions so the girls can surf without sacrificing their education, their future, or responsibilities. 

When Marta was asked what she needed most for the project to endure, her answer was purely logistical. Yoff has waves, but they’re seasonal, fickle, and wind-sensitive. What the girls needed was consistent access to the Almadies Peninsula’s premier waves such as Ngor, Ouakam, Secrets, etc. in order to keep progressing. But without a way to reliably get there, these waves might as well have been planets away.

Mami Wata and Billabong matched a straightforward request to an equally straightforward solution: a bright neon-green van. Dedicated to safely getting the girls to the beach and back, it was dubbed the Senegal Surf Bus. 

Two pioneers of Senegalese women’s surfing who came up through SKSS, Aita Diop and Degeune Thioune, are currently learning to drive so they can take the wheel themselves — because no non-surfing driver has the wit or patience to endure multiple spot checks before finally heading back to the first.

They’re coaching the younger generation and will soon be guiding them through the Almadies, maybe even passing on the weight and responsibility of handling the aux cord.

The idling of the neon-green van outside might become music to the ears of the future of West African surfing. A modest contribution that might open doors, widen horizons, and change quite a few lives forever. 

Just keep wax off the seats, thanks.

Last week, the ISA dropped its new Olympic qualification pathway for the 2028 LA Olympics, as ratified by the IOC.

The world’s best surfers were not happy about it.

Recent world champs Yago Dora, Caity Simmers, and Filipe Toledo expressed their disdain for the new system and the way in which it was established by the ISA, which they described as disrespectful and nonsensical. Even the WSL’s CEO, Ryan Crosby, came to his surfers’ defense, publicly requesting the ISA and IOC to reconsider.

The ISA’s offense? Halving the number of surfers that qualify directly from the CT, and pulling those CT qualifiers from just four events, as opposed to a full season.

The real kicker, though, was that the ISA had allegedly not taken any of the CT surfers’ calls when these decisions were being made, essentially neglecting the thoughts and opinions of the world’s best surfers in an alleged act of self interest. (If you want to hear everyone’s sides and a deeper inspection of the rule changes, read here.)

Since the fallout, many in the surfosphere have shared their opinions across message boards, social media pages and local lineups. While there are staunch proponents for both sides, a Stab IG poll showed 74% of surfers were against the ISA’s new qualification system, deeming it ‘unfair’.

One of the few opinions we hadn’t yet heard was that of surfing’s greatest-ever competitor — a man who holds seven more world titles than his next closest (like-gendered) competitor. Robert Kelly Slater.

Kelly also happened to the be the guest on this week’s episode of Stab Mic, hosted by Dane Reynolds and Damien Fahrenfort. The boys lobbed the ISA question across Kelly’s plate, and he teed off.

Here’s Kelly’s take:

It’s stupid to not use the world tour as qualification. It’s so simple. The best surfers in the world are on tour. You will have these outliers — one or two guys or girls that are the best in the world that aren’t on tour — but let’s face it, the best surfers in the world are on tour. That’s where they all are.

And I really like Fernando [Aguerre] and I appreciate what he’s done for surfing. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think surfing would be in the Olympics right now. But I think it’s crazy to revert it to the ISA games where you have a different format, you have four-man heats, you have these teams you have to be on a certain way to get in, et cetera. It creates a bigger potential for an international field in the Olympics, but a 100% chance the field won’t be as good. And to me, that’s crazy.

Obviously whoever qualifies off the tour, it’s going to make them easier to win a medal, which is great for them — but it’s also going to potentially have this thing where maybe people will start to boycott. Because they’re like, this is just silly. We’re spending our whole lives and our whole year to get on this tour to qualify and be with the best in the world, but now we have to go do this completely other qualification to get in the Olympics. Who’s running the show here?

Pretty cut and dry from Kels.

According to multiple sources, the WSL has been in talks this week with the ISA, IOC, and WPS (surfer’s union), discussing the new changes and whether or not they’re the best option for the 2028 Games.

Whether or not changes will come remains to be seen, but surely Slater’s opinion has to count for something. Right?

Russell Winter, part man, part myth, is through to the Round of 64 at the Barbados QS6000 at Soup Bowl after stacking 14.67 points to breeze past some of America’s hottest young journeymen.

Slater may have stretched what’s possible at 50 with his Pipe Masters win. But Winter, also 50, just bent it over a reef in Barbados with Cornish-pastie-powered hacks, deep-squat bottom turns, and blinding wafts of spray that allegedly still linger in the Caribbean firmament.

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A post shared by Russell Winter (@russellwintersurf)

For context: Russell was the first British surfer to qualify for the Championship Tour when it was still the WCT and Europe barely registered on the map. He won Boardmasters in 2002. He beat Slater at Sunset. He carried British surfing out of novelty status and paved the way for the Lukas Skinner’s of the world to colonize the upper echelons of junior pro surfing.

He also once stepped outside a pub with an ornamental sword.

The blade was a ceremonial prize from winning the O’Neill Highland Open. A bottle smashed. Words followed. Russell grabbed the nearest medieval accessory and confronted the situation with enthusiasm. He later pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article and threatening behaviour, received a suspended sentence, and paid his fines.

A career with texture!

After the heat, he wrote:

“I can honestly say that is one of the best moments of my life! After the second wave I honestly started crying as I was paddling back out thinking I can’t believe I might get the chance to talk on the glass at 50… I’m so proud of where I’ve come from, to selling everything I owned to chase my love of surfing and find out who Russell Winter really is and leave no stone unturned as they say… I’m loving this ride and where it is taking me!”

The British comment section responded accordingly.

“I was there at Eurosurf ’93 in Thurso,” wrote one fan. “Seeing the same approach 33 years later made me proud to be British.”

Somewhere, a thousand Anglo-Saxon angels nod approvingly.

Let’s play a game.

First, you need two things: the volume of the board you ride and how much you weigh. So, dig out the scale. Don’t be shy now.

Got the numbers? Good. Now, do the math.

Multiply your body weight (in kg) by 0.38.

The number you arrive at, assuming you followed the instructions and possess at least a passing relationship with surfing, is your surfboard’s volume, accurate to within 0.5%. This has been empirically tested no fewer than ten times in the Stab office and declared 100% correct.

If it isn’t, I regret to inform you that you are riding the single most universally agreed upon, if endlessly litigated, measurement in surfing incorrectly. Your board’s volume should be to equal 38% of your body weight. More usefully, it allows you to reverse-engineer how fat your friends are based on their litre count. Input volume, divide by 0.38, arrive at truth. 

This bit of maths is borrowed from Harley Ingleby, though he applies it with considerably less malice. He doesn’t treat volume as a meaningful measure of surfboard design so much as a diagnostic tool. A quick cross-check. A way of confirming that whatever he’s building for you isn’t wildly divorced from what you’ve already been riding without complaint.

“I’m not obsessed with volume,” Harley says. “But when I am adjusting customs for different weights, multiplying body weight by 37%-38% consistently put me within half a litre. It became a super practical way to ease my mind when designing a file for a custom shortboard ” 

If you’re not already impressed by Harley, you soon will be. Harley has gone ahead and built a surfboard with six fin plugs.

Six. Fin plugs. A three + three fin cluster.

And he’s not even European. 

Harley, if you haven’t heard, is a multi-time world longboard champion from Australia. But, should you be so foolish as to reduce him to that label, Joel Tudor will fucking drowned you. 

Which is to say, Harley remains thoroughly unconvinced by finality. Sure, he’s got a couple of titles in the elongated-toe-dance department, but that’s just one chapter in a much longer book. He rides whatever the conditions, his mood, or the whims of metaphysics demand, and all of them incredibly well. A technical polyglot with no doctrine to peddle.

A natural progression, then, that Thunderbolt Surfboards has aligned more closely with Tolhurst Surfboards. The two brands are now working in partnership. Thunderbolt manufactures Tolhurst models under licence, with Ol’ Billy Tolhurst continuing to lead the shaping and design direction.

“Billy’s DNA and his knowledge of fucking everything is insane, and it’s all going into this board,” Harely says. “But he’s a one-man show that’s buried in Coffs Harbour. He couldn’t work for anyone else. Shame for anyone that has entered his factory to end up being told to F off. Like, if anyone comes in and goes ‘Oh, I love this board, can you copy this?’ Fuck off.”

“He was an insanely good surfer in his day, like next level good,” Harley continues. “In the longboard world, he was always well known, but he’s always been small scale. I’d put him in a similar category to Timmy Patterson. Super freaking good, super fucking talented, but never really went as big as he should’ve. Guys like Jeff Hackman used to come out to Australia, get six boards off him, and go back to Hawaii.”

They’ve just released what’s likely the most versatile surfboard model in history: a choose-your-own-adventure setup, with a three + three fin cluster that you can fill however you please. Twin, quad, asym, it don’t matter. How many things in life offer the luxury of plugging as you see fit?

It might sound a little gimmicky at first glance, but here’s why the holes work, according to Harley. Oh, and the model’s called the HIBT (Harley Ingleby x Billy Tolhurst).

“I used to ride asyms religiously,” he says. “And I quickly realised that boards with one long rail and a short rail had this stickiness in transition. It got me thinking, how much of what I like about the asym is more about fin configuration than some bizarre outline? So, I started slapping an extra toe-side twin fin onto a bunch of my favourite quad shortboards, and it sort of validated the idea. I thought, yeah, that works.”

Harley shoved the idea aside for a few years, collected some world titles, and in the meantime, ol’ Billy started teaching Harley how to shape, making sure all that wisdom wouldn’t just fade away when he’s gone. 

“A couple of years ago he was like, ‘Are you going to learn this shit off me? I’m not getting any younger,’” says Harley. 

They worked on a few models for Thunderbolt, then one day, the thought hit: Why not fuck around and tackle the problem that’s haunted every surfer before him? Create the ultimate generalist board, the one-board quiver, three boards in one, that works in nearly any condition… with six fin plugs. 

“We were trying to make a new model between the Mid-six and the Mo (other Thunderbolt models),” says Harley. “Those are our good wave and small wave mids. We wanted to take performance up a notch. So we tried a bunch of different rockers. Ended up going with a twin-fin rocker that’s quicker than the others. Most of the R&D was focused on flyers—traditional low flyers, full drop flyers, and we finally landed on a sting-style, chopped-out flyer that just loosened the board up. At some point, I thought, ‘Okay, this is different from what we’ve been doing. It feels better in all these ways.’ And then, the six-plug system was the next logical step.”

To fit make room for the three + three cluster, one might think you’d have to compromise their placement. But according to Harley, there’s no such thing.

“All the plugs are exactly where we want them. The fins have always given me what I like about asyms, and with this board, it’s like, fuck, no compromise. You’ve got a reliable quad, a solid twin, and you can mess with an asym if you feel like it. It’s all up to you. For me, an asym offers the best of a twin fin with more control. It gets rid of the little wobbles a twin has. You get that frictionless speed down the line, but when it’s time, you can lay rail like you’re on a normal board. The release off the lip, if you’re into performance surfing, feels similar to a thruster, but without the drag. Every surf on this board, I just don’t feel like I’m thinking about anything. Just surfing.”

Interested? Repulsed? They might not be the most aesthetic looking board, but they’re built to last. The painted finish means no sun damage, and length options are 5’10”, 6’0″, 6’2″ 6’6″, 6’10”, and 7’2”. 

No custom orders, either. Each blank takes 30 to 40 days to build, thanks to their unique sandwich construction.

For further evidence of this board’s uncanny utility, allow me to introduce a friend, Nick. Nearly 7 feet tall, yet built like a flagpole. He’s got digestive issues that could make a doctor weep, courtesy of drinking some downstream water a decade ago, after a kangaroo had met its end just upstream. Suffice to say, it fucked him up. Faecal transplants, organic diets, week-long fasts, consultations with naturopaths, psychics, and every medical professional imaginable, he still needs to crush up gastro stops every night just to sleep. 

His body can’t hold on to anything long enough to process it. So, he’s about 70kg, a gaunt spectre, and naturally, finding a board that he can turn while accommodating his enormous hooves is rather difficult. I handed him the Thunderbolt HIBT, and after a few surfs, he swears it’s the best board he’s ever ridden. Rides it as a twin, loves it more than his gastro stops.

Oh, and for the record, his model’s a 5’10”, 26 and a half litres. Anyone care to run the numbers?

Shop ’em here.

Is it really an apocalypse out there? 

All available evidence in the outside world suggests yes. Surfing, though, maybe not. Despite the recurring panic about the pod’s impending extinction, Mikey and Buck continue to loiter in the ecosystem, refusing replacement. Though Stab Mic now occupies a nearby tax bracket of the same idea, they persist. 

Pull back a little and note the further evidence that the apocalypse has stalled. Or at least flattened out. For professional surfers, the end times now resemble a brisk quarter of sponsorships, ownerships, and OnlyFans nip slips. 

Mikey and Buck also weigh in on the ISA/WSL cold war, deliver a SITDX Ep 3 autopsy plus finale update, unpack Italo’s little sponsorship parlour trick, examine the sale of Gnaraloo, and then keep going. Much, much, much, much more.

Jed Fasso and his partner Bodhi Genis live in the caravan park behind Broken Head.

Cunnavajoint for parking on weekends, largely thanks to the yerba-mate-sipping squadrons who clog the main artery all the way to bom dia, bunda and BBQ in packs.

Helluvajoint to call home, though. Private beach access via a eucalyptus-veiled dirt path. Bang in the middle of Northern NSW’s coastline, girt by spinning points.

Even the sun seems to shine brighter than the hinterland west of it. A microclimate custom built for perineum sunning and crystal sparkles, which conveniently caters to the resident boho-gypsy-wellness-influencer industrial complex.

“You need to get out, periodically,” says Jed, who’s called Byron home since he was seven. “It’s such a bubble. And even though the points are great, you can get stuck here.”

Put it this way. Most young people with ambition and big dreams eventually move away from this paradise. Not because they don’t love it. Rather, because it’s so good it anesthetizes ambition. Outside of tradework, retail, or hospo, opportunities for decent work gigs thin fast. It’s seasonal. Cyclical. Comfortable. And if you don’t intend to “cheer up, slow down, chill out” in perpetuity, as the town slogan gently commands, you risk petrifying.

“I think the whole idea of finding a new wave is a dream to so many surfers,” says Jed. “And in 2026, that means taking risks and getting off the beaten track. There’s so much more opportunity outside the easy comfort zones. But it’s not just waves. There’s culture and places you’d never think existed, waiting to be explored.”

It’s hard not to see the Torren Martyn effect at play. His former neighbour has turned remote coastlines and culturally curious surf expeditions into a viable career path. Proof of concept: Lost Track. Escapism, packaged correctly, sells. The difference with Jed is that he’s playing the dual role of artist and muse.

We won’t spoil the narrative arc of Beyond Borders: Patagonia. Just sketch the basic blueprint.

The premise is simple enough. Fly to Chile. Rinse the known point breaks. Then head south into Patagonia via the Carretera Austral (Route 7), widely regarded as one of the most beautiful roads on earth. Hanging glaciers, deep fjords, Marble Caves etc. 

Then the real mission: surfing unseen waves with NCO (No Cunt Out).

They tried hiking first. Came unstuck. Ran low on supplies. Backtracked to the drawing board. Found some local GORP-core lords: Guillermo Satt (Arica, Chile), Guga Dvorquez (Arica, Chile), Santiao Guerrero Inigo Correa (Santiago, Chile), Tatan Clementeller (Puerto Montt, Chile) who understand the many moods of Patagonia, and waited for an overlap in swell and weather.

Sailing was the only realistic option because land access is, in Jed’s words, “just impossible.”

A few sketchy moments on a shallow-hull fishing boat later:

“We finally made it to the stretch of remote Patagonia coast I wanted to explore. In the final days of our expedition, we found this wild cobblestone A-frame. It was 3 to 4 ft for a few days. Access to shoot was tricky, but it was everything I’d dreamed of before having to return home. It really puts things into perspective, how much opportunity is still out there, especially in that region, to discover new waves. Along the way we also pushed deep into the Andes with some pro snowboarders when the weather went bad on the coast, searching for a new backcountry mountain.”

The take-home?

“Even if you just go to the main areas, it’s so untouched. If you have the balls to go have a crack, anyone could go. If they could find a sailboat, go find waves along that coast. There’s so much more to be found, I reckon.”

Australian Film Tour tickets now live:

Byron Bay Premiere
Byron Theatre, Byron Bay NSW
Saturday, March 20, 2026

Sydney Premiere
The Ritz, Randwick NSW
Saturday, March 28, 2026

Noosa Premiere
Thomas Surfboards, Noosa Heads QLD
Saturday, April 4, 2026

Melbourne Premiere
Brunswick Picture House, Melbourne VIC
Saturday, April 18, 2026

More to come.

Posture isn’t welcome in birthing suites. Nor is it invited to the morgue. 

Life starts and ends much the same way: lying horizontally, on a flat surface.

It’s only in between that we try, in vain, to defy gravity. And surfers, bless them, have built an entire personality around it. Standing up. Chest out. Chin high. Going flat stick as if the ocean hands out medals for bipedalism.

But here comes Rip 4. A full-blown mass-casualty relapse. The world’s best freesurfers voluntarily surrendering their posture and going back to the floor where they belong. 

Just two-tone Malaysian rubber and a wrist leash humming like a faulty defibrillator.

Gravity wins. It always does. Might as well lay down.

Drink the BoogAid.

“Rage’s team film was awesome I thought,” said Dane Reynolds in the pilot of StabMic. “It just really just represents the brand and the people behind it.” 

That it does. Most of Toby Cregan’s stuff does. One of his real gifts is drawing the good, honest shit out of people and reflecting the energy in a room, be it feverish, degenerate or serious.

Speaking of which, have you watched the latest Ferrari Boyz? A masterpiece. 

Here’s a little BTS from the first part of the Rage 5 tour, from Noosa–Bangalow. 

Support the arts with your traction choice here.