Swell Lines Mag

Bodysurfing yarns woven ‘tween crest and trough

Volume 4 Issue 5

  • Volume 2 Issue 12

    a. Ode to El Niño b. Eschrichtius Robustus c. The Rhythm of Bodysurfing d. Tripping Fins: Louisiana Edition e. Visions of the Month

  • Ode to El Niño

    Warm Equatorial waters Southerly jet stream Conveyor belt of large storms, Marching across the North Pacific Barrier-breaking, big wave paddle sessions are the norm each week. Week after week of weekend swells, Building in through the day on Friday. Pumping by Friday evening. Peaking Saturday morning and still pumping on Sunday. Overhead sets lingering on…

  • Eschrichtius Robustus

    2/25/16- San Diego, California The surf was huge and perfect, with local buoy readings of 8ft. at 18″, directly from the west. Double overhead+ peaks moved at a velocity rarely experienced. Windless, glassy conditions persisted throughout the morning. Two months of extraordinarily solid surf removed most sand from the beach and left behind piles of…

  • The Rhythm of Bodysurfing

    Finding order within chaos is one of human-kind’s most beautiful abilities. Michael Shermer, in How We Believe, calls our brains “evolved pattern-recognition machines that connect the dots and create meaning out of the patterns.” Over hundreds of thousands of years we became better and better at recognizing the panther in the bush. Early Homo sapiens…

  • Tripping Fins: Louisiana Edition

    The following Tripping Fins was written by Tim Barnes. Tim is a bodysurfer based out of La Jolla, California. He has turned his frequent border crossings into a travel company specializing wine tours. Boca Roja 8:00pm, Friday – Eric’s over-excitable iPhone alerts him that he has a new text message. Can we make the meet up…

  • Visions of the Month- February 2016

    An international gallery of bodysurfing photos emailed to us at SwellLinesMag@gmail.com or tagged on Instagram- @SwellLinesMag.  

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Scenes from a very special run of swell. Merry everything. Find your happy little corner. WBC 2025 is on. We hope everyone creates lasting memories with the big bodysurfing family. Thanks to Scott, Casenelli and all of the awesome volunteers who keep this tradition going. Yew! June was solid with consistent combo swells and windows of clean conditions. July began with 6 days of pumping SSW swell. An excellent start to Summer! We met Mark in the water during a massive swell at a local North County San Diego beachbreak. Today our bodysurfing family is saddened to learn of the passing of Fred Simpson. Fred Simpson played a major role in shaping modern bodysurfing performance, culture and equipment. He was a fatherly figure to many young guys scrapping for waves at one of the most famous surf spots in the world. He also designed a fin built to perform for wave surfers. As a vessel of bodysurf and surf knowledge we have lost a titan. He was humble, kind and always willing to share his wealth of experience with us. While he loved Newport, he would often be seen roaming the Oceanside Pier on the Sunday of the WBC championships watching the performers and talking about technical bodysurfing. We wish our wedge family peace in their time of grief and we wish his family the same. Feel free to share memories here and read our two articles about Fred on Swell Lines Mag. 🖤💛 Thanks 2024…here’s to a swell-filled 2025 for all! Pocket rider.

Categories

The History of.

How to.

All-Time Sessions.

Salty Fins.

The Science of.

Sandy Pages.

Glassy Feature.

Ocean Verse.

Tripping Fins.

Visions of the Month.