Surfing heals, surfboards go to printers, surfing stagnates, river surf is over

We need more good surf news in 2026. This week is not a bad start.

surf therapy charity hails record year of support

A bit of genuinely good news to start with. UK-based surf therapy charity The Wave Project supported a record 2,674 children and young people in 2025, using surfing as an early-intervention tool for mental health. Get in!

Founded in Cornwall in 2011, the charity now operates across 17 UK locations with the help of nearly 1,400 volunteers. With youth mental health challenges on the rise, the organisation says demand for surf therapy has never been higher.

In the South West, the charity also ran the Croyde Surfathon—a 12-hour fundraising event where instructors and volunteers supported people of all abilities in learning to surf.

The Wave Project will mark its 15th anniversary in 2026, which feels both hopeful and sobering—surf therapy shouldn’t be this necessary, but we’re glad it exists.

this company thinks 3D-printed surfboards are the future of surfing

We heard about this company a couple of months ago, and now The Inertia has published a big feature on Swellcycle. This Santa Cruz–based startup is betting that the future of surfboards is 3D-printed. The company uses “post-industrial recycled plastics and plant-based materials”—there’s even a picture of corn on the cob on their website—and prints only what’s needed, meaning no molds or offcuts. If there’s any waste at all, they shred it and reuse it.

The big idea is that shapers could eventually share digital files, print identical boards anywhere in the world, and drastically reduce waste. The outstanding question, of course: do they surf well? According to riders and the company’s founder, they feel surprisingly traditional—just with a lot more control over how they perform. Whether surfers fully embrace the tech remains to be seen.

is surfing the world’s least-progressive action sport?

In a long essay in The Inertia, Sam George, former Surfer Magazine editor, asks: is surfing actually progressing at all? The read is a bit of a rollercoaster. George posits that while competition commentators obsess over “progressive” maneuvers, much of modern surfing looks eerily similar to what’s been done for decades—sometimes half a century.

He contrasts that stagnation with major innovations like tow-in surfing and, more recently, foil surfing, which he calls the first truly new way to ride waves in centuries. And after all that critique, George flips the argument on its head, suggesting that surfing’s resistance to constant progression might be its greatest strength.

munich’s surfers foiled again as authorities remove access to famous river wave

Poor, poor German surfers. The long-running saga of Munich’s Eisbach wave took another turn over the holidays. After the iconic river wave disappeared in October during routine riverbed maintenance, local surfers attempted to recreate it by installing a beam on Christmas Day—complete with a “Merry Christmas” banner. City authorities promptly removed it.

Activists have made multiple attempts to restore the wave, only to see each one undone, and Munich’s surfers’ association has now abandoned its campaign, accusing officials of dragging their feet. The Eisbach wasn’t just a surf novelty—it was one of the most consistent urban river waves in the world, and a cultural landmark. For now, it remains gone. Will it return? Unknown.

Author: The Wipeout Weekly team