Issue 43: Legacy

Like any creative bunch with an inflated sense of self-worth, we stroked our chins on some of life’s big questions this time round. Our modus operandi: what it means to leave something behind. Who has left the greatest impact on our sport? What are the all-time iconic moments in bodyboarding? Who are the riders paving wild legacies this very moment? Will cyborgs charging scarlet-tinged slabs on Mars 500 years from now remember the present-day legacy left by us non-binary bags of flesh? Will they remember that crotchety old rag named Movement?

We’re tripping existential balls. Meanwhile, all you really want to know is what’s in the latest issue? Well, rejoice you inquisitive sonovabitch, ‘cause we’ve packed this issue tighter than a Corby-family bodyboard bag.

First, we took a trip to the Rio de Janeiro favelas where drug lords rule the streets, kids are lured into gangs and – against all odds – some of the world’s best bodyboarders are born.

Then, we drove 1,000 clicks into the desert with Pierre-Louis Costes where nobody but the flies (and our iPhone recorder) could hear his screams. There, sitting in a heavily-localised pub, loose-lipped from several glasses of South Australian red and days of pumping waves, the dazzling Frenchman unloaded a story for the ages. 

Meanwhile, in sunny California, Anthony Savoji was being released from prison. We caught up with the Newport Wedge gatekeeper who wears his heart on his sleeve to hear his eye-opening tale of love, vices and life behind bars. 

We also checked in with Portuguese powerhouse, GQ cover star and freshly-minted female APB World Champ, Joana Schenker, scored some valuable life lessons from Ryan Hardy, dropped truth bombs with bodyboarding’s long-lost prodigal son Thomas Robinson, dove into the vault of veteran lensman Brian Bielmann for a vintage photo retrospective (with commentary from Sasaki, Severson, Reeves and more), got high in Hawaii with Nick Gornall and friends, and then some. 

And the cover? We fought long and hard but in the end, the torch was passed to Nick Gornall and his ludicrous invert high above a well-documented South Oz grinder – the trifecta of style, power and progression. Long may his legacy reign.