The North Shore of Oahu is an open window to the powerful swells that often march across the Pacific Ocean. But this time, it was special. On January 16, 2021, the Hawaiian islands greeted some of the biggest waves in years, with giant walls of water popping up on the horizon without previous warning. The buoys never lie, and with records indicating 22 feet at 17 seconds, there is only one thing to expect, and that is extreme surf.

Justine Dupont has ridden one of the biggest and deepest barrels of her life at Jaws, in Maui, Hawaii. On January 16, 2021, the French big wave surfer took off on a humungous blue mountain of water and drew the best possible line. What happened next defied some of the best performances ever seen in women's surfing.

Iconic Hawaiian surf legend Ben Aipa has passed away at the age of 78. Aipa was an accomplished surfer, an innovative surfboard shaper, and a tenacious coach who influenced several generations of wave riders. As one of the standout figures of 1970s surfing, he introduced the swallowtail and the "stinger" in surfboard design.

Chuck Patterson is probably the world's most famous wave skier. But he had never surfed Mavericks. Until this day. On January 10, 2020, Patterson was at Half Moon Bay, ready to take one of the finest swells of the century at the infamous Northern California surf break. He had always dreamed of skiing down Mavericks - it was on his to-do list.

Soul surfing is a philosophical and spiritual concept first developed and introduced in the 1960s to define the sport - or activity - in its purest form. As with many other sports, there is always an innate drive to seek and find the original and unadulterated values, virtues, and essence of something that is simultaneously special and fragile. The roots of surfing are rich and culturally significant.

Peter Mel rode one of the biggest and most perfect waves ever surfed at Mavericks, Half Moon Bay, California. On January 8, 2021, the 51-year-old surfer from Santa Cruz paddled into a 30-foot barreling wall of water, drew a perfect line, and exited the tube untouched into the channel. A closer look reveals he had to negotiate a few steps before pulling in and making history.

The beach is Nature's diplomat. It acts as the bridge between land and water, humans and aquatic animals. It's one of the greatest companions we have. We get to the beach when we're unhappy, lonely, tired, and depressed, but we get back to enjoy its warm and golden sands.

I don't know who I'd be if my brother hadn't left an unreturned copy of Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" laying around the house. There are many lives within a life, each searching for meaning. Ryan Masters lives in a box canyon in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He's a writer, a bodysurfer, and had his first article published 15 years ago in Surfer's Journal.

Australian surfer Tyler Wright has been named "Athlete of the Year 2020" by SurferToday. For the first time in its history, SurferToday decided to highlight a single athlete instead of four recipients, representing surfing, kiteboarding, windsurfing, and bodyboarding. There are two main reasons for this unprecedented format change.