Surftime Magazine

“Christa is probably the person who shoots the most, especially on big days,” says Hawaiian big wave master Mark Healy in the new documentary, First In, Last Out. The documentary details Christa’s story from her beginnings as a competitive swimmer to joining the Coast Guard and her determined rise through the ranks of A-list surf photographers on surfing’s grandest stage, Oahu’s North Shore. With her hair flipped over her helmet, and her head bobbing in the channel as she swims for hours, she makes for a unique site in male-dominated lineup. Nathan Florence says, “We’ll go out for a morning session and surf for a few hours and then go in. “When we come back out, hours later, Christa’s still out there; she’s out from dark till dark.” Here she is discussing the journey of her life and the making of the film. On Beginnings: Christa Funk: Well, I didn’t just hop into the water at Pipe right off the bat. I started with small days at Sandys, then small days in town, small days a...

This spring I got my first taste of surfing in British Colombia, and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind since. The people, the place, the waves, the water, the Canadian surfing experience is something special. It cuts down to the core of why we all started chasing waves in the first place. Adventures into the unknown, abundant wildlife, wild weather and the opportunity to create some deep, core surfing memories. Even if it does take full wetsuit booties and gloves. A few weeks ago Canadian photo ace Marcus Paladino reached out to me and shared that he was holding some nice shots from the last couple months. Indulging my newfound love for Canadian waves, I asked him to send some photos along. His trove of A-plus images didn’t disappoint. In fact, it did quite the opposite. It inspired me to go back. I’m based in San Clemente, California, and summertime in Southern California can be a bit of a drag. Traffic, clogged lineups. And to be honest, the surf this summer has b...

It’s odd that, historically speaking, the tube remained uninhabited territory for so long. The conventional line is that it was the board’s fault, that those big, heavy balsas and longboards were too crude, too ungainly to fit into that hollow space between the lip and the face. I’m of the opinion that it wasn’t a failure of the board, but of the imagination. Case in point: two examples of what would someday become the modern tube ride, filmed in the early 1960s and featured in Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer, the most successful surfing documentary of all time. In the film’s Waikiki sequence, surfer Wayne Miyata is shown doing what Brown describes as “the ultimate thing,” wheeling his big board in from behind the peak at a hollow little wave called “Garbage Hole,” pulling in under the lip, completely disappearing from view, then exiting the curl cleanly; Miyata even gives us the first modern claim. Why Town surfers didn’t start riding Kaisers Bowl in the same manner for another fiv...

It’s six in the morning. Kuta wakes you up slowly. Not with alarms, but with heat. The kind that pushes through thin hotel curtains and stale fan air. The smell of frangipani drifts in from somewhere outside, sweet and unmistakably Balinese, and before long the streets begin calling. A quick Bali coffee. A rushed breakfast. Then the familiar march toward the beach. Jalan Legian is already alive. The coffee leaves that earthy bitterness on your teeth as scooters buzz past and last night’s memories flicker in fragments. Bintangs, neon lights and bad decisions dissolving into the humid dawn. In Kuta, nights blur at the edges. Every few meters someone calls out an offer. “Massage, boss?” “Transport?” “Bintang towel?” The soundtrack never changes. Then, finally, past the imposing stone beach gates, warming in the dawn, and then feet hit sand. Boards get waxed under a rising tropical sun while the first empty waves roll across the inside section at Kuta Beach. The surf isn’t perfect. You...

The grommets, both girls and boys, came from every corner of Indonesia and, even better said, every corner of the planet, with participants from Ukraine, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, China, Russia, Taiwan, and Italy, among others. Transforming the event into a true celebration of youth surfing. From the opening heats of the first day the last heats on day two. The beach buzzed with excitement as spectators gathered to witness the next generation of surfers showcase their skills on Bali’s world-class waves. But it was the local surfers who came out triumphant, claiming six of the top podium positions by the end of the competition. Phillipe Duke took top honors in the Under 18 Boys division, while Kya Heuer secured victory in the Under 18 Girls division. In the Under 16 division, Taiwan’s Lee Tsechen earned first place, while Paris Nalendra claimed her maiden win in Indonesia in the Under 16 Girls category. The Under 14 Boys division was dominate...

There was something special in the air during the Bali Surfers Gathering at Drifter Surf Shop, Uluwatu. The place was filled with stories, laughter and generations of surfers who helped shape what Bali’s surf culture has become today. We felt so much gratitude for being able to host an evening dedicated to the people who paved the way long before surfing in Bali became what it is now. Legends and pioneers like Ketut Menda, Wayan Gantiyasa, Mangku Weta, Wayan Sudirka, Nyoman Radiasa and Wayan Sujana joined us for a night of connection, storytelling, and reflection on the history of surfing in Bali. These are the people whose passion, courage, and love for the ocean helped create the foundations for the generations that followed. One of the most meaningful parts of the evening was seeing younger surfers sitting alongside elders, listening closely to stories from the early days. Tales of simple beginnings and the journeys that these legends have gone through over the decades. Respect ...