With the holidays just around the corner, we know that you’re starting to think about finding the perfect gifts for that special someone. To take the stress out of gift-giving, we’ve surveyed our friends, neighbours, and shop team to carefully compile the ultimate gift-giving guide for the surfer, water lover, sun chaser and adventurer in your life. Every item has been thoughtfully selected, rigorously tested and carefully curated. Browse through for inspiration, or better yet, send it to Santa as your own holiday wish list!
All across the Great Lakes, the level of surfing and surf photography has progressed incredibly over the years and this winter it’s going to get even better! Every great surf image has two key ingredients, a dynamic surfer and a skilled photographer. In this contest two surfers (men and women) and their respective photographers will win gear to help take their game to the next level.
Prizes
SURFERS
Men: 4/3 Rip Curl E-Bomb Wetsuit
Women: 4/3 Rip Curl E-Bomb Wetsuit
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Aquatech AxisGo housing with bluetooth Pistol Grip
Judges
A panel of five expert judges will review a selection of 12 images (6 male surfers, 6 females surfers) at the conclusion of the contest. The judges will be scoring the images based on quality of the wave, dynamism of the rider, and overall aesthetic and technical quality of the photograph. The judges will be blinded to surfer and photographer identity and submit their scores independently. The collated scores will determine the two winning images.
Mathea Olin
Mathea is Canada’s most decorated professional surfer, with a Pan American bronze medal to her credit. Her success has continued through the Rip Curl Nationals, Queen of the Peak, and WSL Qualifying Series.
Zak Noyle
Zak, born and raised on O‘ahu, spends countless hours in the water, creating dramatic imagery of the world’s most magnificent ocean environment. He has worked with international athletes, from Micheal Phelps to Kelly Slater.
Dom Domic
Dom is the Executive Director of Surf Canada and co-founded Canada’s first Pro/Am surf competition. He pioneered competitive Canadian Surfing and he is determined to take Canadian surfers to Tokyo 2021.
Andrea Diaz
Andrea Diaz is an ISA Level 2 Surf coach and was a member of the Costa Rican Surf Team from 1999 to 2012. Her greatest pride is the support of young surfers having coached 4 national champions and is the founder of Surf4Youth.
Noah Cohen
Noah, born and bred in Tofino, trains on the Canadian National Team and is a past winner of the Rip Curl Pro Tofino. He spends his time chasing perfect waves around the world and has appeared in surf films Transitions, The Seawolf and Perilous Sea.
How to enter
Post your photo of your best surfed waves from anywhere on the Great Lakes to Instagram. Follow and tag @ripcurl_canada @aquatech_imagingsolutions and @surfthegreats and use the hashtag #greatestwave to submit your photo.
Only surf action photographs taken during the winter months on the Great Lakes (Canada and USA) will be considered. Multiple submissions are accepted and encouraged. We require that private accounts be made public during the competition in order to be eligible.
Only photographs taken during the holding period of December 24th, 2020 and March 31st, 2021 will qualify. All entries must be submitted by March 31, 2021 at 11:59PM EST.
Winners will be announced in April 2021.
You’ve had a lot of fun on your foamie, but now you’re ready to step up your surfing game! There are countless things to consider when choosing your first hardboard. Luckily, we have created this quick guide for you to make it simple when choosing what will be your next board to join your freshwater quiver.
Our team put together the ultimate wetsuit guide for cold water surfing on the Great Lakes, in Canada and anywhere you go around the world. We cover wetsuit thickness for different temperatures, tricks for getting in and out, how to care for it, and special tips that only an experienced surfer would know.
