31/05/2026
The Magazines That Built British Surfing
Today, surfing news travels around the world in seconds. A quick scroll on your phone and you’re instantly connected to beaches, surfers and stories from every corner of the globe.
Back in the early days of British surfing, it was very different. News travelled slowly, photographs were hard to come by and if you wanted to know what was happening beyond your local break, you often had to wait weeks or months.
In many ways, British surfing wasn’t just built by the people riding waves. It was also built by the people telling the stories.
One of the earliest examples was Surfing UK, widely regarded as Britain’s first dedicated surf publication. Produced in Porthcawl by Welsh surfer Lindsay Morgan, it was a grassroots effort that helped connect a growing community of surfers around the coastline. Only three issues were ever produced and surviving copies are incredibly rare, with the Museum of British Surfing still searching for the elusive first issue.
A surviving copy of Surfing U.K. No. 002 from April–May 1969 describes itself as “Britain’s Only Surfing Newspaper”. It featured contest reports, industry news and articles on issues affecting surfers around the country, providing a fascinating snapshot of a British surf scene that was beginning to find its own identity.
The next big step came later in 1969 with the launch of British Surfer, Britain’s first glossy surf magazine. Edited by Rodney Sumpter and Simone Renvoize, it helped bring British surf publishing into a new era and paved the way for future titles, despite lasting only six issues.
Over the following decades magazines such as Surf Insight, Wavelength, Surf, The Surfer’s Path, Pitpilot and Carve documented the people, places and culture that shaped British surfing. Long before websites and social media, these magazines were where surfers got their fix, inspiring road trips, surf adventures and dreams of waves far beyond home shores.
More recently, independent publications such as Longboarder and The Real Surfing Magazine have continued that tradition, focusing on authentic stories, real characters and the culture that sits at the heart of surfing.
The technology may have changed, but the desire to tell great surfing stories remains exactly the same.
At the Museum of British Surfing we’re fortunate to hold a growing archive of publications, photographs and memorabilia that help preserve these stories for future generations. Every magazine, newspaper and faded photograph adds another piece to the puzzle of British surfing history.
So here’s a question for you. What was your favourite surf magazine back in the day? Were you a Wavelength reader, a Surf regular, or perhaps a fan of The Surfer’s Path? And what are you reading today?
