Michael Stewart is a talker. Get him started on a subject he loves, and he may be at it for hours, holding forth with infectious enthusiasm. One of the subjects he seems to love the best these days is surfing — specifically, how to help surfing live up to its image as an ocean-friendly activity by promoting the manufacture and use of the greenest surfboards available.

Last month’s fatal shark attack has reignited a long-standing feud between South African surfers, cage-diving operators and local authorities. Central to the issue is the controversial method of chumming, used to coax White sharks closer to shore.

"Baiting sharks is the dumbest thing I can think of. Train sharks to associate people/boat ..."

John Florence is cursed. Cursed by all the terrible possibilities that face a prodigy of his mould. Possibilities like world domination. His style is totally raw and uncoached! Can you believe it?

“Surfing is my religion.” You’ve seen that slogan in surf magazine ads and on bumper stickers and t-shirts and you may or may not agree with that or think surfing as a religion is silly or dead serious.

But first you have to ask yourself a question: What is religion?

Big wave surfing is experiencing a paradigm shift. Waves that were once considered rideable only with the aid of jet skis -- waves that were deemed too big, too fast and too heavy to paddle -- are now being reconsidered.

Taylor Knox, Northern California. Photo: Ellis

Ry Craike, Dino Adrian, Liam Carter and Michael "the Beef" Keenan are on an epic journey in search of desert slabs and a few goliath fish.