defector-orange-no-empty-space

lede_post_card_default

lede_post_card_stacked

lede_post_card_featured_post

lede_post_card_featured_posts_hero

lede_post_card_featured_posts_sidebar

lede_post_card_highlighted_post

lede_post_card_horizontal_a

lede_post_card_horizontal_c

lede_post_card_related_post

lede_post_card_square

lede_article_featured_16x9

lede_article_featured_3x2

lede_article_featured_1x1

lede_article_featured_flexible

lede_article_content

lede_article_content_wide_width

lede_article_content_full_width

lede_byline_avatar_post_card

lede_byline_avatar_highlight

lede_profile_coral_avatar

lede_logo

lede_logo_banner

lede_logo_footer_banner

lede_logo_simple_header

lede_sponsorship_logo

lede_sponsorship_logo_river_card

lede_sponsorship_homepage_card_logo

lede_sponsorship_homepage_card

Footer Legal

Header - Categories

Header Menu

The last good website.

Topics

This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

defector-no-empty-space

Defector

Take Defector's 2025 Reader Survey

survey_roth (2)

tip jar sweepstakes

photo

Rafaela Bassili

Nicolas Cage on a beach holding a surfboard.

thesurfer

Arts And Culture

‘The Surfer’ Mostly Sputters And Flails

<a href="http://www.ddavisla.com">David Davis </a>is the author of Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans From World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation and Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku. He lives in Los Angeles.
<div></div>

91QDg1THB8L._US230_

David Davis

Photo of Gidget running through the Malibu Pier. Fifty years after Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, aka Gidget, learned to surf in Malibu, the surfing world has accepted her as surfing's early pioneers, mascots and avid promoters. April 27, 2006, (Photo by Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Photo of Gidget running through the Malibu Pier. Fifty years after Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, aka Gidg

Gidget The Survivor

Dayna Evans is a baker and writer who got really into surfing recently. She runs Downtime Bakery in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia.

IMG_8056

Dayna Evans

The Great Outdoors

East Coast Surfing’s Rich, Overlooked Legacy Gets Its Due

Heather Chen is a former Defector intern and the managing editor at the Columbia Daily Spectator. She loves hockey, photography, and the good ol’ state of Michigan.

heatherchen_baby

Heather Wei-Xi Chen

A surfer in a blue wetsuit carries a light blue surfboard with him as he walks into the ocean. He is holding a Palestinian flag in his right hand and wearing a keffiyeh around his head.

rockawaysurf-heather-01

Surfers Show Solidarity At A Paddle-Out For Palestine

John Loeppky is a freelance writer and theatre artist currently based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His work has appeared for outlets such as FiveThirtyEight, CBC, and Maclean’s.

John Loeppky Headshot

John Loeppky

PARIS, FRANCE - APRIL 04: "La Beaute et le Geste" exhibition by French Artist Laurent Perbos is displayed in front of the French National assembly ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on April 04, 2024 in Paris, France. On the occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the National Assembly celebrates sport by welcoming the visual artist Laurent Perbos and his 6 metamorphosed Venus de Milo. A universally known work, the Venus here finds her arms and is endowed attributes of six sporting disciplines: tennis, surfing, para archery, basketball, boxing and javelin throwing. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

Landmarks Around Paris Ahead Of The Summer Olympics

Parasports

Why Is It So Hard To Add New Paralympic Sports?

headshot1

Patrick Redford

Hawaiian surfer Mark Healy rides a wave during The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational surfing contest on January 22, 2023, at Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by Brian Bielmann / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by BRIAN BIELMANN/AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-SURFING-EDDIE AIKAU-HAWAII-BIG WAVE

Local Lifeguard Wins Big-Wave Surfing’s Most Prestigious Competition

Kalyn Kahler

GettyImages-1329953143-1

Olympics

I Will Explain This New Olympic Sport To You: Surfing

Screen Shot 2021-07-01 at 1.38.43 PM

Greg Noll, The Surfer Who Became A Myth, Is Dead At 84

Screen Shot 2020-09-24 at 3.44.29 PM

Defector Up All Night

Maya Gabeira Conquered More Than Just The Biggest Wave Of All Time

surfing