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Surfing

November

Australian surfer Mick Fanning is investing in something close to home.

Mick Fanning’s next investment is a new wave resort

Fanning is an investor in a $300 million surf and golf resort with a wave pool. The three-time world champion hopes will be a place to learn and compete.

  • Zoe Samios

September

AFR. NEWS. GOLD COAST. Lawyers  Sienna Marshall and Charles Lethbridge on Coolangatta Beach on the Gold Coast. Picture by Paul Harris. Wednesday 11 September 2024 .

Happy lawyers are better ones: Firm provides unique ways to decompress

Attwood Marshall’s location next to Snapper Rocks means lawyers can catch waves to decompress from the stresses of legal work.

  • Maxim Shanahan

August

Kathmandu, Rip Curl and Oboz sales have sunk amid reluctance among consumers to open their wallets.

Kathmandu, Rip Curl owner ends grim year with June quarter recovery

New Zealand’s KMD Brands said sales across its three retail chains fell 11 per cent over the 2024 financial year, but improved in the final three months.

  • Carrie LaFrenz

Matildas and coach Gustavsson part ways

Tony Gustavsson’s contract will not be extended as Matildas head coach; what’s on tonight in Paris; Anthony Albanese explains major Rex issue. Here’s how the day unfolded.

  • Updated
  • Lucy Slade

July

Jack Robinson is action in the Olympic surfing in Tahiti.

He nearly drowned but Jack Robinson just beat the world’s best surfer

The Olympics might be in Paris, but the surfing competition is half a world away in Tahiti where conditions are “so dangerous, so crazy”.

  • Tom Cary
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Aussie Ethan Ewing surfs during the first round of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Teahupo’o, Tahiti on Sunday.

Aussies Ewing, Wright through in Olympic surfing

Ethan Ewing won his Olympics heat at the feared Teahupo’o break where he broke his back last year. Tyler Wright also survived mighty surf to go through.

  • Ben McKay

June

Peter Strain is Tracks Magazine’s chief executive. He is also a barrister who surfs every morning at Bondi Beach.

The execs behind an equity sale to save Australia’s ‘surfing bible’

Tracks Magazine has been published since 1970, and was sold to three corporate surfing enthusiasts in 2021. Now they’re selling equity to raise $2 million.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones

April

Urbnsurf became the first company in the world to operate two surf parks last weekend when it opened its new facility in Sydney’s Homebush.

Bankers try on a new alternative asset class – surfing

The risk is high, but Urbnsurf – now backed by Nomura and a special situations lender – is trying to prove wave parks can be serious business.

  • Aaron Weinman
Greatest of all time. Kelly Slater unofficially bowed out of the professional circuit at Margaret River on Tuesday.

Surfing’s GOAT, Kelly Slater, hangs up his wetsuit

While the 11-time world champion did not officially announce his retirement, Slater said he was heading into a new chapter of his life.

  • Lincoln Feast

February

Matahi Drollet, pictured surfing a Teahupo’o monster at the age of 16, led protests against the planned construction of a new judging tower.

Will Olympic surfing damage a remote Tahitian village?

In five months the world’s biggest sporting contest will come to a one-cafe village in the South Pacific. Will it survive undamaged?

  • David Cole
KMD Brands CEO Michael Daly says group sales will fall by 14.5 per cent in the first half.

KMD shares crumble to all-time low as weather wreaks havoc on sales

Unseasonably warm weather hurt sales of puffer jackets at Kathmandu, compounding an already weak consumer environment.

  • Carrie LaFrenz

December 2023

Rip Curl chief executive Brooke Farris has been surfing since she was eight.

Wave of productivity: How surfing adds billions to the economy

Board-riding CEOs Brooke Farris and Nick Nicolaides say hitting the water is good for their work, backing a study that estimates surfing contributes about $1.9 trillion to the global economy.

  • Euan Black
KMD Brands CEO Michael Daly says improving sales at its kathmandu brand is top priority.

KMD dives to lowest since 2020 after sales drop 12.5pc

The owner of Rip Curl and Kathmandu says orders from its wholesale customers have dried up, while sales of rainwear and puffer jackets were weak due to warmer weather in Australia.

  • Carrie LaFrenz

August 2023

Justin Seskin enjoys surfing at Lombok, in Indonesia: “The waves and the conditions are perfect for me.”

The day this CEO encountered his greatest fear in the ocean

Co-founder of The DOM, Justin Seskin, loves surfing off Bondi, the Central Coast and Lombok. But he’d rather not see a shark again.

  • Life & Leisure

July 2023

Andrew Cotton surfs Nazare’s north beach.

What it’s really like to surf the world’s biggest, deadly waves

Big-wave surfers have a propensity to shake off the near disasters at Nazare – they have to, if they want to get back in the water.

  • Matt Majendie
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It’s marvellous what a difference this Milo makes

If you’re into the great outdoors, the Milo communicator from Loose Cannon Systems is beyond great. It’s a must-have.

  • John Davidson
James Abbott at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Chilling at sea is a lifestyle decision for this law firm exec

“I surf solely for fun – not because it might make me fitter or better in some way,” says James Abbott, partner in charge (Sydney) at Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

  • Life & Leisure

May 2023

Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach on the 4th stage of the WSL. Sales gained 7.9 per cent in the third quarter for the surf brand.

Great outdoors: KMD Brands sales climb double-digits in third quarter

All three of its brands gained in the three months to April 30, but the key winter period lies ahead for Kathmandu and the northern hemisphere summer for Oboz and Rip Curl.

  • Carrie LaFrenz
Surfboard shaper and designer Hayden Cox, photographed at his Hayden Shapes studio in Mona Vale, Sydney. Illustration by Sam Bennett

What to expect at this surfboard designer’s final paddle-out

Hayden Cox would like to be cremated in Tom Ford, along with a wetsuit just in case there’s one final break to something bigger that lies beyond.

  • Hayden Cox
Karl Page doing what he loves best: “Some days, I just need to run to the ocean and let it consume me.”

This exec loves surfing but decries what he sees in the ocean every day

Karl Page, co-founder and COO of social impact enterprise WOSUP, has suffered all kinds of injuries on the waves. But it’s “the scourge of plastic” that hurts the most.

  • Life & Leisure