by The Editors on September 21, 2026
Dawn Patrol, our favorite surf tracking app for Apple Watch, has just dropped version 7 insuring total integration with Apple’s new OS 27 roll out (including the Duo fold), plus adding full support for Garmin watches if that’s more your thing.
Dawn Patrol now looks right at home on iPhone Duo, iPad and Mac using iPhone mirroring. On a wide screen, your surf map takes centre stage, with sessions, spots and boards right alongside it. Drill down from your worldwide surf map all the way to your single best-ever wave.
They’ve also reportedly created a “more visual, intuitive experience on iPhone, iPad and Watch, smarter heart-rate tracking, a new Apple Watch session recap, and a full Dawn Patrol surf-tracking experience on Garmin.”
We’re looking forward to the new session recap feature that will explain, in detail, all our soft-top wave dominating. For all the details on the updated app please click the link.
[Link: Dawn Patrol App]
by The Editors on September 14, 2026
In recent court filings Lady Gaga a.k.a. Stefani Germanotta is claiming that she should not have to pay the nearly $250,000 her legal defense cost on what she termed a “publicity stunt” lawsuit, when Lost Surfboards sued her over her use of the Mayhem name, according to a story on Billboard.
In a scathing motion Friday, Gaga’s attorneys say the star should not be forced to pay the huge legal bills ($232,484 in) she racked up beating that case. They say it was “never a legitimate lawsuit” but instead an improper effort to “capitalize on the fame and popularity of Lady Gaga” by suing her over the use of “a common dictionary word. . . A litigant should not be permitted to use the federal courts to launch a publicity stunt masquerading as a lawsuit against a high-profile artist,” Gaga’s attorney Orin Snyder writes in the filing, obtained and first reported by Billboard. “Nor should it be permitted to wield the machinery of litigation as a device for extracting a settlement that the merits cannot justify. This lawsuit was both.”
Once again Gaga and her team continue to underestimate both the pop cultural reach and ferocity of Lost Surfboards. We’re guessing this will not end easily nor early. For all the details, please click the link.
[Link: Billboard]
by The Editors on August 25, 2026
Steve Hawk, the former Surfer Magazine editor
who once clowned us for reading Richard Russo on the beach at Old Man’s, has a novel out. His first. Nearshore. It’s a surf-noir thriller about nukes and surfing and Silicon Valley and we can’t wait to read it.
If you’d like to hear him discuss the new book, in person, with the godfather of surf-noir Kem Nunn, then tonight is the night (August 25. 2026). Camino Books in Del Mar, California is the place. Click here for all the details.
If you miss this one, and want to catch Steve at a different book store, click here for info on the rest of his book tour.
[Link: Camino Books]
by The Editors on August 25, 2026
Turns out Lost International and Matt “Mayhem” Biolos didn’t have the legal legs to stand on during their multilevel lawsuit against Lady Gaga, Inc. according to a story on The Fashion Law.
A federal judge has dismissed the trademark lawsuit accusing Lady Gaga of infringing surf brand Lost International’s MAYHEM trademark in connection with her Mayhem album, tour, and related merchandise. In a newly-issued order, Judge Fernando M. Olguin of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted Lady Gaga and merchandising company Bravado International Group’s motion to dismiss Lost’s second amended complaint with prejudice, finding that Lost failed to sufficiently allege that the defendants’ use of MAYHEM was explicitly misleading under the Rogers v. Grimaldi test.
It was worth a try, right?
[Link: The Fashion Law]
by The Editors on June 27, 2026
You have to love Surfline. We don’t mess with it much because, why, but when we do we’re continually amazed that surfers actually pay $120 a year for this kind of data.
The June 27, 2026 report for our spot is as follows: the Surfline app says 1-3 feet, the Surfline website says 3-4, and the Dawn Patrol app for Apple Watch (which is reportedly “powered by Surfline”) claims 4-6 feet all for the same secret SoCal beach break. If you look closely at the info (in the graphic above) you’ll see that the tides are correct. The swell direction is dead-on, yet the wave heights are all over the place. What gives?
Maybe our friends at Surfline and/or Dawn Patrol can explain this to us. If they do, we’ll let you know.
by The Editors on May 29, 2026
After a serious NO to Paul Naude’s efforts to buy Rip Curl it looks like surf co.’s owner KMD Brands might be rethinking their whole “stick it out together” strategy, according to story on Australian Financial Review.
KMD Brands, owner of Rip Curl and Kathmandu, will consider all options, including a potential break-up of the business, in a sweeping review of the struggling retailer. . . The review, announced on Wednesday by recently appointed chairman Philip Bowman, marks a shift in tone for the company, after it spurned merger interest just four weeks ago and said it planned to retain its core brands.
As we’ve mentioned before, saying no to Mr. Naude rarely goes well. It will be interesting to see how this all sorts out.
[Link: Financial Review]
by The Editors on May 21, 2026
We’ve all heard the stories of Jack O’Neill wanting to stay out surfing longer during the icy cold winters of Santa Cruz, but it appears a Berkeley physicist named Hugh Bradner may have been Jack’s inspiration, according to a story on KQED.com.
O’Neill has long been considered one of the fathers of the wetsuit, along with the Southern California company Body Glove, a distinction both were happy to cultivate. But this line on the O’Neill company blog raises questions about those claims: “Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.”
Either way, we’re all thankful for all their work.
[Link: KQED.com]
by The Editors on April 30, 2026
A Kelly Slater affiliated Austin, Texas wave pool development appears to have hit a snag recently as seven contractors have filed $4.6 million in liens against the project, according to a story in The Austin American Statesman.
Publicly available filings indicate seven companies claim they were not paid for work completed in late 2025 and early 2026. . . That work includes water treatment, plumbing and control systems, HVAC systems, aquatic filtration materials and equipment, engineering, concrete, sand and rock, among other items. . . The claims come as the project’s ownership group, Austin Surf Club Venture LP, confirmed to the American-Statesman that construction work is pausing for now.
The project is a redevelopment of a previous wave pool failure, NLand Surf Park which closed in 2016 due to reported regulatory issues. The new development was said to feature muli-million dollar homes around the wave and has reportedly attracted purchases from Tony Hawk, Drew Brees, and Matthew McConaughey.
The development’s promotional website at the Discovery Land Company, however, appears to have been removed. Not the best sign.
Is living by the actual ocean so hard? We never will understand much of the whole wave pool business model, but stay tuned as we continue to stumble along.
[Link: The Statesman & Austin Business Journal]
by The Editors on April 28, 2026
If you were planning on a peaceful morning session at Cardiff Reef, California this week, you just might be sharing the lineup with a 15-foot Great White, according to a story on NBC San Diego.
Monday morning delivered a lovely surprise to the Encinitas coast: a 40-foot fin whale carcass floating just 400 yards off San Elijo State Beach. Naturally, because nothing says “beach day” like a bloated, decomposing mammal, local lifeguards were tasked with the glamorous job of towing the “bus-sized” snack further out to sea.
The real star of the show wasn’t the whale—it was the massive Great White shark that decided to turn the towing operation into a slow-speed chase. Witnesses caught the shark casually following its floating charcuterie board as it was dragged away from the surf zone.
Encinitas officials have issued a shark advisory from Swami’s to Cardiff, essentially telling everyone that while the beach isn’t closed, you might want to consider that the water currently tastes like whale soup to every predator in the Pacific. So, by all means, paddle out. Just know that if you look like a side dish, that’s on you.
[Editors’ Note: This post was written by Google’s Gemini. We are doomed. Top photo by Craig Callender, Ph.D.]
[Link: NBC San Diego]
