Vitor Oliveira

The concept of cultural appropriation is generally highly controversial and not always viewed positively. Luxury brand Louis Vuitton took the risk with surfing. Big wave surfer Andrew Cotton called it a 26-foot left-hand barreling wave that "looks a lot like Mullaghmore on a good day." And it sure did. Imagine a fashion show staged inside a breaking wave. There was sand stretched across the runway, an eight-meter-high wall of water crashed behind the models, surfboards resting against Louis Vuitton trunks, and hoodies, weathered denim, and wetsuit-inspired tailoring drifting between sharply cut jackets and luxurious knitwear. So, what was going on in Pharrell Williams' mind to have surfing as the philosophy behind Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2027 menswear collection presentation? The collection, unveiled on the evening of June 23 during Paris Men's Fashion Week, transformed the Cité Internationale Universitaire into an imagined coastline where luxury met ...

I've felt it in my skin a few times, and it's deeply frustrating. Have you ever been to the beach with perfect waves rolling and no equipment at all to ride them? It happened again, dear reader. Yesterday, I went for a walk at my  spiritual home break . Before getting in the car to visit the place where I spent my childhood summer holidays, I checked the weather forecast. "Hmm... If it's 73.4 ºF (23 ºC) with possible lightning and light showers, I am not even taking boardshorts and a beach towel," I thought to myself. By the time I had driven 30 minutes and was close to reaching my destination, I noticed the weather clearing and blue skies replacing the light, bright clouds. Well, at least I would be able to enjoy a pleasant walk on the beach walkways that have become so popular in northern Portugal. However, what was supposed to be just another dry enjoyment of the coastline quickly morphed into an "I'll just dip my feet in the water" moment. ...

A few minutes can decide whether a shark attack becomes a tragedy or a survival story. That reality sits at the heart of Community Shark Bite Kits, a grassroots initiative that aims to place lifesaving bleeding control equipment within easy reach of surfers, swimmers, anglers, and anyone else who spends time by the ocean. The project was founded by Australian surfer Danny Schouten after witnessing how close his friend Kai McKenzie came to dying in a shark attack. Today, the movement has grown into a nationwide campaign that has already helped save lives. Here's how it works. A friend's survival sparked the idea The story begins in July 2024 at North Shore Beach in Port Macquarie, New South Wales. Twenty-three-year-old surfer Kai McKenzie was attacked by a shark estimated at around nine feet (three meters) long. The shark severed his right leg. McKenzie managed to get back to shore after fighting off the animal, but his survival depended on what happened next. A retire...

Teahupoo has claimed another life. Patrick Phillips, a respected California surfer, died after a serious accident at Teahupoo, Tahiti. Phillips, 56, was surfing with friends at Teahupoo on the afternoon of June 12 when he fell from his board and struck the reef beneath the wave. According to Milton Parker, mayor of the Teahupoo community, Phillips hit his head on the reef and fractured two vertebrae in his neck. Witnesses said another American surfer in the water reached Phillips first and began resuscitation efforts at the break itself. Conditions that day were relatively small by Teahupoo standards, and there was no water safety patrol stationed at the wave. Other surfers joined the rescue effort and provided first aid before Phillips was transported by boat back to shore. He was taken first to Taravao Hospital and later transferred to the Centre Hospitalier de la Polynésie Française, where doctors fought to save him. Phillips remained in critical condition for several days. H...

If, as a surfer or visitor, you've ever stood above Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, you'd barely miss a bronze surfer gazing out at one of the most famous waves on the West Coast of the USA. The statue, known as "To Honor Surfing," has become part of the landscape. Locals decorate it during the holidays, visitors photograph it, and generations of surfers have passed beneath it on their way to the water. Now, a companion statue honoring the women who helped shape one of America's most influential surf communities is moving closer to reality. But not exactly where it was initially planned. What began as a public art project has evolved into a debate about history, representation, development, public space, and the future of a cherished stretch of coast. So, why is there a debate about where to install it? A monument decades in the making The proposed statue is called "To Honor the Women of the Water." Organizers describe it as a counterpart to the exi...

The odds that I would ever have had the opportunity to try surfing (and fall in love with it forever) were stacked against me. I am the eldest son of a university professor and a high school teacher. As far back as I can remember, I have lived surrounded by books.  Hundreds of them, scattered throughout the house, from the dining room to the study, from the bedrooms to the entrance hall. To make matters even more unlikely, both of my parents are published authors. I certainly cannot say that they embodied the old saying: "A sound body in a sound mind." I rarely saw them play sports. In fact, I do not remember ever seeing them run, swim, play tennis, or take part in any other sport. They were always intellectuals, and all the emphasis was placed on exercising the mind. As a result, sport was something I only discovered at school, since Physical Education was a compulsory subject from the 5th to the 9th grade. I was fortunate enough to have some talent both for subject...

If you're familiar with tube riding and barrels - small or big hollow ones - the next step is backdooring them. The move involves taking off deep behind the peak, often beneath a section that already appears to be pitching over, and slipping straight into the barrel. Done correctly, it allows a surfer to enter the tube almost instantly and emerge on the shoulder while everyone on the beach wonders how it was possible. The term comes from entering the barrel through its "back door" rather than approaching it from the open face. The name is also linked to the famous North Shore of Oahu wave known as Backdoor, a shallow right-hand reef break that shares a peak with Pipeline. There, surfers often take off from a critical position and disappear into a tube almost immediately after standing up. But here, we're mastering the art of backdooring a wave anywhere in the world, be it in Hossegor, Supertubos, Lower Trestles, or Margaret River. What makes a backdoor ride dif...

Despite education, knowledge, technology, and the supposed evolution of Humankind, the figures around death by drowning are not going down, by any means, at the pace they should. The truth is, drowning remains one of the world's most persistent and overlooked public safety problems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly a quarter of a million people die from drowning every year worldwide. About 82,000 of those deaths involve children between the ages of 1 and 14. The tragedy is that most of these deaths are preventable. To put things into perspective, in a small country like Portugal, 57 people lost their lives to drowning in the first five months of 2026. Compared to previous years, the tragic numbers are not going down. On the contrary. Sadly, drowning is not a rare accident. It happens in oceans, rivers, lakes, swimming pools, harbors, canals, and even in very small amounts of water. It often occurs quickly and without the dramatic cries for help see...

When I landed in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, I felt as if part of my existence had returned to its original sacred home. I had never been on this stunning, dormant volcanic island ruled by the Kingdom of Spain before. So the feeling was as brutally intense as the lava fields and the trillions of dark rocks of all sizes that cover most of an island whose last eruption occurred approximately 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. There is something truly fascinating and emotional about the marriage between the arid desert land and the turquoise-blue water that gently touches long strips of white sand here and there around the island. On my way from the airport to the south of Fuerteventura, I was left stunned and mesmerized by the raw, violent force that Mother Nature imposed on this Atlantic paradise. The bus that made the connection to the hotel had me jumping from the seats on the left to the ones on the right, as I stared, blessed by the opportunity, at the Universe's creations:...

One of the first images that comes to mind when we hear the word Waikiki is clear waters, white-sand strips, hotels, and tall buildings. However, the Waikiki of today is rather different from Oahu's South Shore location of the 18th and 19th centuries. Development and tourism conquered Waikiki, but Honolulu's iconic neighborhood still holds some of the charisma of the early 1900s. It's one of the few places on Earth where surfing is part of a continuous cultural tradition stretching back centuries. Some of the most interesting stories are hidden beneath the tourist image of beach umbrellas and surf schools. Let's dig into some of the most relevant historic chapters in Waikiki's surf culture history. Waikiki was surfing's original global capital Long before California, Australia, or the North Shore of Oahu became surf icons, Waikiki was the place that introduced much of the world to surfing. Early visitors in the 1800s described Hawaiians riding waves st...

Surfing has always had an uneven relationship with athleticism. Some world champions look like light, agile cheetahs. Others resemble bulls ready to unleash all their energy on an off-the-wall turn at J-Bay. A few have built careers on explosive power, while others seemed to glide through heats with effortless timing and technique. For decades, the sport has produced champions of different physique shapes and sizes, leaving a simple question hanging in the air. Is there such a thing as the ideal surfer body type ? Is there an ideal weight and height for surfing? Or could there be a perfectly balanced ratio between the two variables? We at SurferToday.com are obsessed with what numbers tell us, when they can. Stats can help us understand more about performance, success, and world titles. A review of height and weight data from all 43 athletes on the 2026 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour, along with measurements from 27 world champions dating back to the 1960s, offers one ...

In the 21st century, the surfing world witnessed several ways of generating a rideable wave outside the ocean. However, for decades, artificial wave technology has followed a familiar formula. Someone builds a giant pool, installs complex machinery, moves enormous volumes of water, and creates a wave where no ocean exists. A Russian company called Surfinity is taking a different path. Instead of constructing a purpose-built surf lagoon, the company has developed a system designed to turn existing lakes, reservoirs, and artificial water bodies into surf destinations. The technology relies on a moving device that generates waves as it travels across the water, creating a setup that looks less like a traditional wave pool and more like a cross between a cable park and a surfing reef. Surfinity shares a similar background with Finland's very own Artwave , one of the smartest, least expensive, most compact, and most mobile wave-generation systems on the planet. SurferToday.com te...