The evolution of the BL BLAST OFF over the last 18 years has seen it transform into a truly global event. What started out as in-person physical event in Sydney and Bali is now an international online stokefest!

The BL BLAST OFF VIDEO CHALLENGE developed by 1988 World Surfing Champion Barton Lynch, is a unique and exciting annual opportunity for young surfers from around the world to show off their skills and stoke in the water to a coaching panel of world class surf coaches and a global community of surfing families.

Across its many award categories, the BL BLAST OFF VIDEO CHALLENGE has become a haven of encouragement and support for the young surf community; as well as being a fun and competitive environment for surfers to elevate their skills and land on the radar of the surfing world as the world’s most promising future prospects.

This year, the BL BLAST OFF VIDEO CHALLENGE is presented by another exciting Lynch-led venture, the first ever surfing sports simulated game of its kind, BARTON LYNCH PRO SURFING. The project, developed by Barton Lynch and Western Australian-based studio BUNGARRA SOFTWARE, the game hits PC (Steam), PlayStation5 and XBOX platforms on November 17th 2023.

WATCH 2022 BL BLAST OFF VIDEO CHALLENGE FINALS SHOW

The BL BLAST OFF VIDEO CHALLENGE is open to young surfers 14 years and under and of any skill level – it is a four week coaching program at its core, with a championship component that will see winners decided in multiple categories and age divisions.

At its heart though, the challenge has been established to build community and inspire young surfers to share their stoke for surfing with others. Video submissions can include footage shot at any time during 2023 and feature any style of surfing and on any type of board or craft.

The videos can capture anything from a single wave, or a single manouevre; they can be fully edited, or submitted as is – the only stipulation is that each clip be a maximum of one minute in length.

Submissions open from October 16th through until November 17th 2023, for surfers aged 14 years and under (as of November 17th) and from anywhere around the world.

2023 BL BLAST OFF VIDEO CHALLENGE KEY DATES
Submissions open: October 16th - November 17th 2023

Categories open to be won as part of the BL BLAST OFF VIDEO CHALLENGE, alongside overall divisional winners for 14s, 12s, 10s, 8s and 6s, this year include:

PEOPLES CHOICE
EXPERTS CHOICE
WORST WIPE OUT
BEST TUBE
BEST AIR
BEST WAVE
OVERALL ‘BEST EDIT’ PRESENTED BY GoPro
BEST GoPro POV

as well as a new category in…
A NEW EARTH CLEAN UP (AND GOOD WILL)
In conjunction with sustainability partner, A NEW EARTH PROJECT, kids will show us the great work they have done in their community by helping others or the environment.

The 2022 VIDEO CHALLENGE saw over 200 videos submitted from surfers in over 26 countries. Over 90 prize packs were awarded to kids around the world – in 2023, the event aims to connect with even more groms and families globally!

Says Barton Lynch of the return of the video challenge in 2023,
“My Blast Off is an initiative to spread stoke among groms that has been running since 2006.
That’s when we first ran our Sydney Blast Off in the physical event form and that quickly turned into the most stoked event on the Australian surf calendar annually, with 330 kids taking part. When we took the concept online in 2020, we automatically reached a much broader and more diverse audience and spread the Blast Off stoke around the world.

The Blast Off community and event has long been the breeding ground for tomorrow's champions, with many former Blast Off alumni going on to be world champs at the highest level, this is something that I am very stoked about. This is the fourth year of the video challenge and I can't wait to see the videos from very best and most stoked under 14s surfers in the world and encourage you to tune in and support the kids by heading to bartonlynch.com

Hunters back with the series 'Daily Exports' which stems from exactly that, he'd send us loosely edited videos with random songs or audio after going through footage after a day of surfing and sometimes they have more character than the tightly edited end product.

After a rollercoaster WSL Championship Tour season wrapped up in California, Jack Robinson and João Chianca shelved all thoughts of rest and relaxation when they saw a booming swell heading for the South Pacific island nation of Fiji. With the famed Cloudbreak a huge and very welcome re-addition to the 2024 CT schedule, Jack and João had no hesitation in launching a last-minute strike to one of the planet’s most revered waves with two goals in mind: R&D for next year, and to celebrate their sterling seasons by getting barrelled out of their brains.

To call the trip a success would be an understatement. Jack and João – and assortment of friends including Yago Dora, Ian Gentil, and Kai Lenny – indulged in a tubefest of the highest order, and headed home buzzing over their first trips to Fiji, and excited to tackle Cloudbreak in competition next year.

When Dan Scott’s incredible footage landed in our hands we had no hesitation in pulling together the edit you see above, and got Jack on the phone to find out if Cloudbreak lived up to its billing as the world’s most perfect wave, how much time he spent parked in the pit, and just how hungry he is to get back to the South Pacific in 2024.

Press play now to soak up all of Dan’s work and Jack's wisdom, fresh from the South Pacific. Enjoy!

In August 2023, journalist and film-maker Tom de Souza began riding a trail-bike solo across the entire eastern Indonesian archipelago.

He set out to search for uncrowded waves on epic adventure through a country steeped in mysticism and rich with human stories.

In this episode, he spends a month in wild and mountainous West Sumbawa, hoping to score one of Indo's premier waves, and learning more of the ex-pats who live colourful lives out there on the fringes of society.

You can watch part one below.

Filmed: @storiesfromthescenicroute

Scottish Junior Team going to the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Rio, Brazil has been announced and a Crowdfunder launched to support travel costs.

It’s been a great year so for the Scottish Juniors and this weekend Sandend will play host to the fourth and final stop on a very successful SSF Junior Series supported by C-Skins. The Junior series has travelled all round Scotland with events being held in Pease Bay, Dunnet and Fraserburgh so far, with Sandend on the Moray Coast being the last chance for all the groms to secure the points and lift the Junior Series titles across all divisions.

Scottish Junior Team going to the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships in Rio, Brazil.

Boys U18 -
Craig McLachlan
Finn Clark
Charlie Pugh

Boys U16 -
Ansel Parkin
Fraser Brown
Sebastian Ballantyne

Girls U18 -
Olivia Mackay
Callie Cruickshank
Lola Mitchell

Girls U16 -
Olivia Mackay
Callie Cruickshank
Lola Mitchell

In the last few weeks I’ve been to Ocean Film Festival and the Blue Earth Summit. At both of these inspiring events Patagonia’s films were part of the conversation, focused on ocean protection and restoration. 

Patagonia are calling for European governments to end bottom trawling, starting with an immediate ban in marine protected areas and inshore zones.

It felt like it was a good time to revist these films, incase you missed them when the campaign was launched this summer. They’re worth watching so take a few minutes out of your day and get involved, it could make a world of difference. Small changes can be one step towards big changes which will leave the planet in a better place.

Louise Searle

Patagonia have launched an global environmental campaign, focused on ocean protection and restoration. Through a series of films, website, petition, and events across Europe, Patagonia will mobilise individuals and call on governments to end bottom trawling.

Connecting us through food, culture and sport, our shared ocean is the home of amazing, abundant life, and is also a powerful climate solution. Yet the practice of bottom trawling threatens to destroy this precious resource—bulldozing our ocean floor, undermining small-scale fisheries, and deepening the climate crisis.

Bottom trawling is one of the most damaging practices that humans inflict on our oceans, destroying seabed ecosystems, overfishing, and indiscriminately killing everything from turtles and rays to sharks.
It has an enormous climate impact too. Dragging nets along the seabed uses more fuel and produces four times more emissions than other types of fishing. It disturbs carbon-absorbing sediment and eradicates the marine plants and animals that take in carbon from the atmosphere. Oceans absorb a quarter of all the carbon dioxide that we produce, yet the practice of bottom trawling threatens to destroy this precious resource. We must protect our ocean so it can protect us.

In place of this destructive, industrial practice, Patagonia is using the campaign and films to promote regenerative alternatives such as 3D ocean seaweed farming and restoring seagrass. With small-scale, low impact fishers making up around half of Europe’s fishing workforce, often impacted by bottom trawling, it is also offering them a platform and calling for them to be supported in the necessary transition.

The campaign launches at a critical moment for Europe’s marine protection with an escalating biodiversity crisis and heated debate ensuing on Europe-wide initiatives such as the Nature Restoration Law and Ocean Action Plan.

The series of eight short documentary films will tell the stories of people around the world, from South Korea and Chilean Patagonia to Portugal and Wales, as they take matters into their own hands and show us how we can work with, not against, our ocean.

Films telling European restoration stories include:

• The Custodians follows the work of four locals from the West Coast of Scotland, who are reclaiming their natural coastlines, restoring wildlife and creating sustainable industries.

• For the Love of the Sea – the story of Nikki Spill of The Seaweed Farmers who is partnering with Câr y Môr, the first community-owned regenerative ocean farm in Wales.

• For the Love of the Sea – the story of Nikki Spill of The Seaweed Farmers who is partnering with Câr y Môr, the first community-owned regenerative ocean farm in Wales.

Beth Thoren, environmental action & initiatives director, EMEA, Patagonia, says: “Throughout my life, I have always felt connected to the ocean, from my early career as a ship engineer to, later, being a crew mate on a Sea Shepherd boat, fighting whale hunting in Antarctica. But I am not alone. Wherever we are, every second breath we take comes from the ocean. It is imperative that we protect this precious and fragile resource, so it can protect us.

“Our European leaders have the power in their hands to make lasting positive change by stopping bottom trawling and supporting a just transition to practices that restore the ocean. We’re asking ocean defenders everywhere, from surfers, swimmers and those who simply love to walk or paddle at the beach, to coastal communities and fishers, to link arms and send the message that we care.”

Campaign partners for Europe include NGOs Bloom, Blue Ventures, Client Earth, Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana, and Seas At Risk.

Learn more, get involved and sign the petition below.