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Chilean Patagonia is home to some of the wildest and most stunning rivers in the world. The largest, the Rio Baker, is renowned for its clear, turquoise water and Class V rapids and has become a magnet for expedition kayakers from around the world. But perhaps no one knows it…

Several weeks ago I posted a story here about an overnight family raft trip on the Rio Grande we took with our friends and their 10-month-old daughter. The story sparked a heated debate. Readers called me irresponsible, negligent, and stupid for taking our daughters (two and four)…

On Tuesday, I got an email with the subject line “Hideous” and a link. The message came from Chris Dixon, the author of Ghost Wave: The Discovery of Cortes Bank and the Biggest Wave on Earth. He's reported on big-wave surfing for publications including Surfer,…

Artists often find inspiration in their environment. It turns out, sometimes, product managers do too. Here’s the story: One of New Surf Project's (NSP's) product managers rides his bike by a coconut farm on his way to work at NSP’s factory every day. One day…

Russ Ricketts' money shot. Watch more river snorkeling videos here. We all want to capture a money shot, whether that is literally a photograph, or a video, or a perfectly baked apple pie or a novel or a painting. Sometimes everything just comes…

After nearly two years of planning, meetings and refining the Riverview Project, the team at Below the Surface is ready for its most epic road trip yet—the Exploring with a Purpose East Coast tour. Over six weeks, your Readers of the Year will be driving from San…

In 2008, whitewater kayaker Patrick Camblin came up with an idea to allow paddlers to submit nominations online for the sport's best moments, athletes, and expeditions. “So many of the incredible things that happen in our sport never gain an audience,” he says. “I wanted to do something that…

Kelly Slater. Photo: ASP/Kirstin Kelly Slater moved into third place in the overall ASP standings when he won the Hurley Pro at Trestles on Thursday. “I feel like I’ve had so many good years at…

“I don’t think in any other sport do you have the license to get so closely involved with the subject at such a high risk factor as surf photography,” says Ted Grambeau in the film Fiberglass and Megapixels. “It would be…

We're pretty committed to covering the newest, most innovative gear here on The Gear Shed, but every now and then there is a product, out for a while, that has evolved over time to set the standard in its class that we feel is deserving of a mention. Such is…

“San Diego Surf.” Photo: Copyright, 2012, The Andy Warhol Museum In 1968, Andy Warhol and friends moved out to La Jolla, California, from New York to film a surf movie about an unhappy married couple. The footage…

“Frozen.” Photo: Mark Tipple, The Underwater Project There's a lot about Australian Mark Tipple's career as a photographer that appears backwards. Take, for example, his beginnings. The…

A former corporate lawyer whose back-of-the-napkin plan to kayak from Minnesota to Florida was so awesomely deranged, we decided to pay his way

It's hard enough learning to surf. Just try it when you can't see and your instructor is deaf.

EPSON DSC picture Larry Gibson, keeper of Kayford Mountain. Photo: Vivian Stockman The Appalachian Mountains lost a hero on Sunday, September 10. Larry Gibson, the face of the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, died of a heart attack while…

Conundrum Hot Springs party people, mid-August. Photo: Will McGough By Will McGough, Wake and Wander Sitting in the nearly 100-degree water, among several naked bathers in the Conundrum Hot Springs near Aspen, Colorado, I looked around at the pine…

Even after he won the U.S. Open Men's Title at the NSSA National Championships as a senior in high school, Greg Long knew he wanted to dedicate his life to chasing big waves. Grinding out a tour was not his…

Kayaker Erik Boomer's audacious plan to paddle 45 miles of the world's hardest whitewater—in a single day

It's the second week in a row I've posted a surf short by director Chris McLean as the �����ԹϺ��� Video of the Week. Normally, I try to avoid such repetition, but I picked Uncommon Ideals because it won…

With stand-up paddleboarding more popular than ever, surfers—legendary for their sectarianism—have new fuel for their ire

The last profile in the Of Souls + Water series is of Colorado River guide Rob Elliott, who has led more than 200 trips down the Grand Canyon. If nothing else, it will leave you wanting to join one of his expeditions. That's probably enough. For more Of Souls +…

A group of six surfers sponsored by Patagonia set off on August 31 for an exploratory surf and fly-fishing trip to the volcano-dotted coast and salmon-stocked rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The crew includes photographer Chris Burkard, surf ambassador Keith Malloy, and Foster Huntington, who will be posting…

The final episode of Forge Motion Pictures and NRS’s summer series on icons of the water is about 68-year-old Grand Canyon guide Rob Elliott.

These days, top kitesurfers blow away the fastest sailboats, maxing out at more than 60 miles per hour. Dangerous? Yep. Especially when the world's best converge on storm-raked Martha's Vineyard to duke it out.

In early March of 2012, 50-foot slabs of water rose up at Mullaghmore Head, a break off the northwestern coast of Ireland in County Sligo. Some of the biggest waves at that location in 15 years had been pushed east by the…

Kayaking Norway. Photo: Ale Socci “There are some places with mysterious associations and almost mythical character; Norway is one of those places to me. Endless sunlight, cliff-lined fjords, lightning blue rivers flowing from glaciers into the sea, it’s…

Mick Fanning. Photo: ASP/Kirstin Surfer Mick Fanning, 31, came from behind in the final round of the Billabong Pro Tahiti to snatch the title from countryman Joel Parkinson. “I held the lead in a…

David du Plessis Photo: WorldWonderer.com If anyone still thinks an argument needs to be made for the value of Facebook, consider the story of adventurer David du Plessis and his mother,…

Marr's line through Site Zed (above) and Marr navigating the rapids. Photo: Double White Diamond/Facebook Kayaker Ben Marr became the first person to run the full Grand Canyon of the Stikine…

Tsunami debris. Photo: Stiv Wilson By Stiv Wilson, 5 Gyres Institute Out across a plastic stratified strand, two surfers, silhouetted in the failing light, are finishing a session. A year and half ago, this wasn’t a surf spot. A tsunami destroyed everything…

ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=360&deepLinkEmbedCode=ZtZjlwNTqB18q0sh6T-IOPkUSkmWuXs4&embedCode=ZtZjlwNTqB18q0sh6T-IOPkUSkmWuXs4&width=640&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" Kayaker and filmmaker Steve Fisher knew he wanted to make a movie about kayaking the world’s biggest rapids on the Congo River more than five years ago. By the end of 2007, after making…

What made Katie Heaney feel like a combination of Pocahontas and Jesus Christ? Standing on a board and holding a paddle.

Chinook salmon. Photo: NWFishers/Flickr The Elwha Dam is gone. The Glines Canyon Dam is nearly gone. With the dams no longer blocking fish from their migratory route up the river, Chinook (king) and other species of salmon and trout are returning. Salmon fry…

Mississippi River south of Memphis, August 2011. Photo: NASA Mississippi River south of Memphis, August 2012. Photo: NASA A drought that has led to low water levels in…

The Sound of Dust is a roughly three-minute tribute to surfboard shaper Tim Stamps. There's no glory or praise uttered by other shapers or surfers. The testament to Stamps' greatness comes from witnessing his constant attention to detail.

Quadruple amputee Philippe Croizon has completed the last portion of his great adventure, swimming from America to Asia.

Sea turtle hatchling, Baguan Island, Philippines. Photo: Keith Ellenbogen Examples of poor ocean health are too easy—unfortunately—to find in many parts of the world, especially along densely populated coastlines or in the midst of ocean gyres filled with plastic pollution. But what is…

At work. Photo: Quiksilver This past July, 24-year-old Australian Stephanie Gilmore clinched her fifth world title when she won the Roxy Pro Biarritz, the penultimate ASP event of the year. The victory signaled a…

Big wave surfer Shane Dorian took home the Waterman of the Year Award during the Surf Industry Manufacturer's Association's (SIMA) annual Waterman's Weekend on August 10…

Earlier today, the ASP decided on the final two wildcard spots in the Billabong Pro Tahiti. Brazilian Ricardos Dos Santos and local Alain Riou earned the right to surf the famous barrels of Teahupoo in one of the…

One of the most decorated swimmers talks about life in the two decades since she won four medals at the 1992 Barcelona Games

I picked up the following video of off Krulwich Wonders, a science blog by NPR's Robert Krulwich. He doesn't ruin the surprise on his post, so I won't either. Mark Peters and his friends headed 20 miles west of…

Quadruple amputee Philippe Croizon takes on some of the boldest open-water crossings of all time

The South Fork of the Skykomish, just above Sunset Falls. Photo: Mary Catherine O'Connor When I lived for a short time in Index, Washington, a climbing and boating hotspot on the Skykomish River in the north central Cascades, it felt like equal parts…

This film is about escaping from the daily grind to have some fun—that's it. Don't stress if you don't quite get the meaning of the quotes from 1984, A Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, or if you don't understand the exact reason for the shots of power lines, ants, and…

Photo: Steven Zwerink/Wikimedia Commons The five things you should know if you were only going to know five things about this past weekend at the Olympics. 1. In the sense that human evolution is a gradual, linear change, Usain Bolt isn’t human. You’re not supposed to…

Photo: Ben Sutherland/Flickr Everything you need to know about tonight's Olympic primetime coverage—without knowing what actually happened. WOMEN’S 200M BACKSTROKEAmericans Elizabeth Beisel and Missy Franklin—MISSY. FRANKLIN.—qualified for the event in first and second, respectively. Along with Russian Anastasia Zueva, they’re the favorites for gold. It’s…

(Mostly Dans/Flickr) Mostly Dans/Flickr The five things you should know if you were only going to know five things about yesterday at the Olympics.  1. Bradley Wiggins became the first man to win the Tour de France and follow that up with…

Photo: the*roving*sheep/Flickr Everything you need to know about tonight's Olympic primetime coverage—without knowing what actually happened. WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL ALL-AROUND GYMNASTICS The world’s best gymnast doesn’t win gold—because Jordyn Wieber didn’t qualify for the all-around competition. It makes no sense that the U.S. can’t have three competitors in…

Photo: dearbarbie/Flickr Everything you need to know about tonight's Olympic primetime coverage—without knowing what actually happened. MEN'S INDIVIDUAL ALL-AROUND GYMNASTICS Japan’s Kohei Uchimura comes into the competition as the favorite, considered by many to be the greatest male gymnast of all time. The 23-year-old (remember,…

Sadly, not known as "Water derby"

What was that hand signal Vavra Hradilek threw in the kayak slalom? It was a pretend bag of excrement.

The Arctic is getting warmer and sea ice is covering less and less area every year. This is good news for at least one group of men, adventurers looking to put their names in the record books. Two weeks ago we profiled the start of the…

Plying the Icicle River, Washington. Photo: Leah Ricketts By Russ Ricketts It all started innocently enough. My friend Matt told me about snorkeling with the salmon in our local rivers in the Cascade Mountains. His epic tales of huge fish, deep pools and fast currents held…

Surfing the Canary Islands. Photo: Guillermo Cervera Guillermo Cervera first fell in love with photography when he discovered a box of Playboys his father brought home from the United States. “They were beautiful color pictures, and…

https://youtube.com/watch?v=G42B4uq12cM Recently, Red Bull profiled Hawaii-based surf photographer Zak Noyle in a two-part, 24-minute show called Momentum. Noyle is one of those photographers you see ducking under big waves just after getting shots of surfers flying through barrels. In the…

SLYC sailing. Photo: Katie Arnold For the past three weeks, I’ve been writing these columns from my parents’ cottage in Ontario. My mother grew up on the lake, and I’ve been coming every summer since I was born. In the 60 years since my grandparents bought…

The latest film in the Of Souls+Water series profiles surfer Christopher Peterson. For more, check out this interview with series director Skip Armstrong, of Forge Motion Pictures .

ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=360&deepLinkEmbedCode=V0b3lnNTqvwnTA48yjrTaHCXPXlsLfrO&embedCode=V0b3lnNTqvwnTA48yjrTaHCXPXlsLfrO&width=640&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" In the latest video from the series Of Souls+Water, director Skip Armstrong and producer Anson Fogel profile river surfer Christopher Peterson. Peterson grew up on the North Shore of Hawaii and found himself fighting for everything in his life, from…

Originally published 9/9/2009 �����ԹϺ���'s photo editor Amy Silverman has kept a book by her computer for a month or so now called The California Surf Project. More than once when I've been down in her office I've thumbed through it. Each time I find a…

In September of 2009, I interviewed photographer Chris Burkard about his photo book, The California Surf Project. Burkard set off on a 50-day road trip to capture the California surf scene with…

ext_script = "//player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=360&deepLinkEmbedCode=JidWpmNTrUu0AkuaVgzC_Z8qLPAvLybL&embedCode=JidWpmNTrUu0AkuaVgzC_Z8qLPAvLybL&width=640&video_pcode=1jZG06vQqWlGOe2jr1WK6VaYFHtK" Blind surfer Derek Rabelo learned to ride waves roughly three years ago and has already surfed at Pipeline. The 20-year-old Brazilian from Guarapari was born 100 percent blind as a child. In addition to Pipeline, he's surfed 15-footers in Rio and Lower Trestles with Kelly Slater. His…

A new documentary from Walking on Water films looks at the life of blind surfer Derek Rabelo.

In August, Australians will be able to check out a new 3D big-wave surfing documentary in select theaters. Storm Surfers follows Aussie tow-surfing legend Ross Clarke-Jones and two-time world champion Tom Carroll as they enlist the help…

On a late night in October 2009, while walking down the street in Coolangatta, Australia, then 18-year-old Sam Ford was violently attacked by another teen. After surgery and more than a month in a coma, he woke up. My Brother Sam is the story…

Stephanie Gilmore wins fifth ASP World Surfing Title. Photo: ASP/Damien Poullenot Surfer Stephanie Gilmore secured her fifth ASP women's world title after beating out 19-year-old Tyler Wright in the finals of the…

In the northwest corner of Spain, in the coastal region of Galicia, fishermen boat into fjord-like inlets called rias and rappel from slick rocks to collect gooseneck barnacles in crashing surf. They hang down in pairs and watch each other's backs…

Big-wave surfer Maya Gabeira is one of the many athletes featured in ESPN's 2012 Body Issue. Earlier today, the magazine released the below video that shows the Brazilian riding her board in the buff. In…

The loud and awestruck reaction of the people on the dock makes this video. It would be easy to make fun of their excited cries of shark in a dismissive way—Who let the double rainbow guy on the dock? We know, it's a shark. etc.— but there's something that's…

If there is a lifelist for snorkeling, Palau's Jellyfish Lake has to be on it. Tourists can swim through the upper levels of the water as millions of golden jellyfish migrate across the marine lake following the sun. They swim east in the…

In the video Fiji Part One, Australian Matt Wilkinson gives the impression that the life of a surfer is all coconuts and sun bathing and waves. Around the same time Wilkinson was promoting this easy image, countryman…

There's no talking, only the sound of a piano as quick clips of swimming in the ocean, riding a bike, and spending time with others roll by in this video. It's a director's cut of a commercial that was filmed for Guardian Funerals. It's not…

If you plan to get out in an inflatable this season, you’re probably going to have a great time regardless of what body of water you’re cruising. But if you’re looking for the biggest thrills and the most excitement, consider this your go-to list.

Many people's backs will hurt just watching the above bodyboarding video. It's a five-minute montage of flips, turns, and wipeouts on thick slabs of crashing surf. For others, the video will be inspiration to get in the lineup. For others, the video will just lead…

Brought to you by Mark Thatcher, the guy who invented Teva's, Sazzis are sandals with individual toes cut into the sole. It's kind of like Vibram's Five Finger concept: Let your toes work independently and you get more traction, stability and agility on awkward…

Not far from Sydney, in the suburb of Bondi Beach, there is a cold-water swimming club on the bay called the Bondi Icebergs. Every Sunday from May to September, more than 700 swimmers race in order to make, or…

A St. Petersburg man recently kitesurfed into a jump over a pier during tropical storm Debby. The YouTube clip is making the rounds online, from the Huffington Post to Grind TV. Anyone watching the video with any…

Stiv Wilson finds a lost skiff 1,500 miles off the coast of Japan

Washington's Little White Salmon is the most difficult regularly run river on the West Coast, yet it has only claimed two kayakers. The second, Jenna Watson, died on June 16. Here's the story.

Ar Vag. Photo: Be Open Thibault Penven, a student at the University of Art and Design Lausanne, created a fold-out dinghy that works as a shuttle between the shore and a ship. In just…