Best destinations for surfing
Lou Boyd rounds up her top places to surf around the world, including some lesser-known gems.
International Editor at The Red Bulletin Magazine.
Writing about music, culture, travel and adventure sports on a freelance basis for places like: Red. Bull, The Atlantic, Mpora, The Independent, Forbes, Ink Media, Escapism Magazine, Woman Magazine, Total Women's Cycling, Outdoors Magic, Prowl Magazine and Buzz Mag
Public speaker on women in sport, previously speaking for The North Face + SheExtreme Film Festival.
Previously Editor-in-chief at Cooler Magazine/ Deputy Head of Copy at Culture Trip/ Associate Editor at Mpora/ Reporter at The Independent/ Editor at Red Bull
Lou Boyd rounds up her top places to surf around the world, including some lesser-known gems.
Electropop musician girli began her career as a label-polished product. With new album Matriarchy, she's crafting music on her own terms: authentic, messy and vulnerable - just like her
Not all pop stars' stories are of overnight success. For Priya Ragu, the journey to musical stardom has been a 30-year-long road of self-discovery
Genre-blending British duo Nova Twins are rewriting the rules of rock. We head backstage at the band’s homecoming gig to talk respect, representation and gnarly bass riffs
Rebecca Lucy Taylor explains how she transformed from earnest indie singer to powerful pop star.
DJ, producer and songwriter Jodie Harsh found a home and happiness on the club scene as a teenager. Now she hopes her music can help others find the same thing, too Jodie Harsh is up for a party.
Singer, songwriter, producer and self-taught violinist Sudan Archives can boast many strings to her bow.
Nai Palm, singer of Australian band Hiatus Kaiyote, has gone head-to-head with adversity all her life. Here, she reveals how her art and the power of nature helped her come back stronger.
The DJ and tastemaker tell us why his new album STR4TAFEAR is so prescient right now, shares his favourite music of 2022, and makes some predictions for who we’ll all be listening to in the coming year…
Singer-songwriter Tegan Quin on the strangeness of heading back to high school to see her life story turned into TV fiction
The Canadian DJ and music producer took inspiration from her late father for her latest album and says the dancefloor is the perfect place to share stories of struggle
The Irish singer songwriter on the lessons that early success as a teenage YouTuber taught her about creative freedom.
It was 20 years before this Alaskan singer-songwriter first picked up an instrument, but when he did, he discovered a way to express his true identity
© Supplied Palestine's 'queen of techno' Sama' Abdulhadi is on a mission to export the beauty of her homeland to the world one beat at a time - get into the groove with her right here.
'Sometimes we've got three generations in the crowd at our gigs'
Award-Winning composer, saxophonist and band leader Cassie Kinoshi blends science fiction and fantasy to construct music that tells stories about modern society.
A new wave of young musicians are reinventing the sound with technical chops and 2019 influences. But why has jazz returned to the capital – and why now?
The film composer and Snarky Puppy co-founder on the songs that have steered his passions
Created as a means of outsmarting the music industry, this 2D anime singer ended up pushing the boundaries of artistry in the metaverse
When shooting an inspiring group of women skaters in Bolivia, there was only one person who Peruvian photographer Celia Luna wanted by her side: the woman who taught her female defiance and creativity
© Lucy Cooke Meet Lucy Cooke, a zoologist who's written a book about animal behaviour in a bid to expose how patriarchal biology has underestimated the female of every species. Lucy Cooke is on a mission to debunk out-of-date narratives on sex and gender in the animal kingdom.
Meet the Parisian digital artist and 3D make-up designer who’s shaping the future of beauty with her fantastical creations
In the '90s, pirate stations ruled the airwaves. Three decades on, that spirit of rebellion is finding a new audience on the internet.
This Australian free surfer has no interest in fitting in. With her new company, Pussy Surfboards, the 25-year-old is creating a counterculture scene in the swell
She was crowned the 'greatest female surfer of all time' in 2022, but 34-year-old world champion Steph Gilmore knows the importance of trusting in yourself while never believing in your own hype
Self-taught fashion designer Lydia Morrow reveals how making her own clothes set her free in more ways than one.
A world in lockdown, a rave guru with a plan, and the story of how our photographer shot a planet-sized dance party without borders.
One radical clothes designer is attempting to change the way the fashion industry works, and this filmmaker is using her own platform to pass on the environmental message
How revisiting a character from the future made one of the world’s most iconic actors reflect on the present
When Vinita Marwaha Madill was a girl, she dreamed of being an astronaut. Now, she wants to fuel the aspirations of generations to come.
We take photos to capture cherished memories; TJ Watt is using the medium to save the planet's ancient woodlands.
Meet the American adventurer and CEO who's on a mission to make the world a fairer place, one snowboard at a time
Meet the writer, photographer, influencer and entrepreneur who wants to change the face of the travel industry.
The Austrian musician and songwriter tells us how his new album is a profound declaration of identity and self.
How Black Lives Matter inspired a surf collective to reclaim the ocean for people of colour.
Experience the sights and sounds of a place - without even leaving your home. Here's your virtual tour of Morocco.
How this young British playwright found inspiration for her debut screenplay from real friendship and her own sibling
When Madison Stewart was young, her favourite animals began disappearing from the ocean – now she’s working with shark fishermen to help bring them back
How a band of peaceful protesters are helping to protect rhinoceroses from extinction.
Oman’s first mountain ultramarathon is a gruelling 137km race across hazardous ridges and untouched landscape. Lou Boyd bore witness to this tough new adventure
Imani Wilmot is on a mission to empower the women of Jamaica and inspire an entire generation of Afro-Caribbean surfers
When a lake in the Italian Dolomites suddenly drained, explorers found a prehistoric world, literally frozen in time
The jazz saxophonist who’s channelling UK soundsystem culture for festival crowds and sweaty dancefloors
Take one world-famous explorer and his soft-living actor cousin, and throw them into a deadly adventure together... Meet the Fiennes boys
Few could turn a near-death experience into a historic triumph for women’s sport. But, thanks to skill, self-belief and a few thousand signatures, the Brazilian big wave surfer has done just that
Meet the women putting sparkle into New Orleans’ motorcycle culture
The DJ/ Producer takes us through the records that influenced his genre-medling tunes
Jayda G is exciting the club music world right now with her vintage drum-machine funk and her infectious enthusiasm on the decks. But a career as an international DJ isn’t the only thing on her mind: this queen of good vibes wants to use her rising profile to promote a greater good
In her sixties, Lena Salmi has created a global skateboarding movement, to prove that the sport is not just for teens
Following a huge UK show, the founding members of So Solid Crew take a look at the moments that sparked their career
After five days in the mountains, our return to Taipei is a shock to the system. With car and motorcycle clogged roads everywhere you turn, I can suddenly see why the people of Taiwan find it such a challenging prospect to pick up a bike and ride through the city.
Three of the world's best street dancers, one mind-bending performance
Denise Mueller-Korenek rode a custom bike at a 183.932 mph average, the take-off speed of a large jet
Crete, Greece When did we as humans stop acting like wild animals? This is the question to ask yourself when you head to this unique camp in Milia, an idyllic mountain hamlet on the island of Crete, for a week of wellbeing that focuses on ' rewilding' yourself - or getting back to your 'wild' state.
Mars Base One sits in a dusty arid landscape of endless red rock, with no sign of life in the parched fog that engulfs it. But not everything is as it seems. This is not the surface of the Red Planet, but the Gobi Desert - just 40km from the city of Jinchang in China's northwest Gansu province.
What does the typical Vans wearer look like? Ask that question to ten different people and you're sure to get ten pretty different answers. Once solely the property of LA skate culture, they have now spread across the globe into all parts of mainstream fashion and style.
For women in a male dominated sport, feeling accepted and finding your tribe can be difficult. All female skaters know the feeling of being the only girl stepping on to a busy park, then having all eyes on them to see if they can drop in and kickflip along with the boys.
We've teamed up with Jeep, who are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year, to shine a spotlight on some of the ultimate renegades from the world of action sports - past, present and future.
Oman's first mountain ultramarathon is a gruelling 137km race across hazardous ridges and untouched landscape. Lou Boyd bore witness to this tough new adventure.
We now know the importance of sport for all areas of life. Being involved with sport not only helps you physically, it also provides you with teamwork skills, self-belief and confidence. It's not a coincidence that 48 per cent of the leading women in business take part in sports, as opposed to only 40 per cent of the average population.
Known for hosting wild warehouse parties, this band set up a record label to put out their music. Lou Boyd enters their hurricane.
It's an hour and half since I left Geneva airport and I've just woken up in the back of a taxi to find a wintery wonderland on the other side of my window. This might not seem at all remarkable to anyone accustomed to snow holidays, but it's my first visit to the mountains and the most snow I've ever seen.
At this very moment, Laura Kennington is cycling alone across Denmark, heading towards the city of Bergen in Norway. By the time she reaches her destination, she will have cycled over 80 miles a day on her own, for two and half months.
What she decided to do was form London Girl's Surf Club, a network to connect the female surfers of London and get city based women into the ocean. It's a group that is as much about escaping the pressures of London life in a healthy way as it is about sharing the joint love of surfing.
For one long weekend every year, the beautiful town of Chamonix becomes home to the Arc'teryx Academy, a haven for mountaineers, climbers, trail numbers and all other kinds of of alpine adventurers. People come from all over the planet to meet in the French Alps and celebrate a joint passion for the outdoors.
At aged 24, pro surfer Coco Ho is currently on her seventh World Championship Tour. Right now the Hawaiian is travelling around the world with the Swatch 2015 Pro Team. She hits the beaches, rides the waves and then moves on to the next spot. Yep, she has the life we all dream about.
How we view our own bodies is affected by everything around us. We blame the news, gossip magazines, celebrity culture and the media as a whole, but less often we acknowledge the ideas we pick up earlier in life.
Anna McNuff is a born adventurer. The daughter of two Olympians and with roots in competitive rowing, she chose to leave competitive sport behind to pursue a life in the outdoors. Exploring the world through her long human powered journeys, she spreads her passion to every person she meets through her infectious happiness and and excitable personality.
In a sport filled with trendsetters, non conformists and rule breakers, it can be surprisingly hard for athletes to stand out among the crowd. US skater Lacey Baker however, has always followed her own path. She's an artist, a musician, a poster child for androgyny, a fighter against corporate misogyny, oh, and one of the best skateboarders on the planet.
If you want an example of a head of a company looking to support women in business, look towards Burton Snowboards. In the last few years, Burton CEO Donna Carpenter has overseen the implementation of the company's mentorship program, its Women's Leadership Initiative and its bi-annual Women's Leadership Day in Vermont, as well as the launch of BurtonGirls.com, an online community "for girls by girls."
It doesn't matter how old you are, everyone can learn the sport of surfing in the UK, just like skiing and snowboarding , surfing is a sport that many people learn after in life.
Adventuring is all about pushing limits and facing obstacles. It really doesn't matter how big the adventure is or how far you've travelled to get there, the defining aspect of a true adventure, is how much it pushes and changes us physically, mentally and emotionally as an individual.
It's official. One in five people in the UK now have a tattoo and more and more of them are women. These statistics, found in a survey by Experia, show that getting inked is now officially a mainstream beauty choice, but does that mean it's no longer a taboo?
If you want an example of a head of a company looking to support women in business, look towards Burton Snowboards. In the last few years, Burton CEO Donna Carpenter has overseen the implementation of the company's mentorship program, its Women's Leadership Initiative and its bi-annual Women's Leadership Day in Vermont, as well as the launch of BurtonGirls.com, an online community "for girls by girls."
In her book First, We Make The Beast Beautiful, about her own struggles with anxiety, Sarah Wilson proposes finding the positives of anxiety whenever possible. "Planning a picnic? Get an anxious mate on board - they'll be able to provide you with a full itinerary of weather contingency plans," she humorously suggests.
Over the next two hours, I get a workout like none I've ever experienced before, but it never feels like a workout, we're just playing. We run with our eyes closed, putting trust in total strangers, we play in the forest, jumping from tree roots, balancing on branches, crawling in the dirt and getting our hands working on both the ground and on the trees around us.
Here's what I learned about food waste after sorting through scraps in London. It's 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night, and I'm face-first in a supermarket dumpster after trespassing down an alleyway in central London. I'm not penniless or living on the street, and I'm not sifting through trash out of hunger or desperation.
How to deal with sexism? Take a leaf out Women's Outdoor Alliance's book... When GQ commissioned a style feature to be shot in the autumn of last year, they probably didn't expect it to have too much of a reaction.
I'm standing in a dark car park in west London with a man I met 40 minutes ago, holding a large plastic bag and a torch. "Here," he says, handing me a black wool beanie, "it might seem like overkill, but loads of shops have much better security now and we don't really want to get caught."
We travelled to Italy last month to check out Langma, Liv's new women's-specific road bike. A lightweight, the top-of-the-line spec model which features a full carbon frame and fork and SRAM Red eTap drivetrain. Liv Explain: Why female specific bikes suit the average woman A few years ago, the road bike offering at a top female level was a very different place to today.
Lockwood51's skate gear is rude, crass and challenging - and that's why we need it. Skateboarding is not an industry that's known to have the healthiest relationship with sexuality and queerness, or the cleanest history. Until recently, it was the only major sport in which not a single professional was out of the closet.
"By politely obeying the rules, our secret running group hoped to just give this thing a positive twist" What do you do when you've spent months training for a marathon, only to find out you're excluded from taking part because of your gender?
These women are amazing, yet most people don't know their names. There's nothing better than being inspired by your fellow woman to do something good in the world. This is why we were so happy this International Women's Day, when Greenpeace gave the spotlight to the amazing women, working every day to protect our planet.
Working in sports media for 25 years, Whitehead had noticed over the years that no major photo book on female skaters had ever been created. Instead of being disheartened she decide to use her years of expertise and scene knowledge and create one herself.
No one hopes to feel scared in everyday life. Fear is a sign of danger, distress and things going wrong, but yet it's a sensation we search out constantly. There's good fear and bad fear.
"Last year in Spring it was my first time on Shishapangma south face and we had this idea to climb a new route" says Gottler, as we meet him on a snowy mountain in Chaminox in France, for a morning of training.
Thomas Cook Travel Magazine :: May 2016
Oh the great outdoors. There is no greater joy in life than sleeping in the wild, with the stars above you and no traffic around for miles. While we spend thousands each year on jetting off to boutique destinations, the best of times can be had here in the UK, with a group of your mates and a quiet spot of countryside.
"In China, I met a guy in a petrol station who was kind of in awe of my journey. He said how he'd love to do a bike journey but it looks really difficult. I said 'Dude! It's just riding a bike!
With kit like this, there's no excuse not to get your bike out. Cycling is one of the best ways to get fit and enjoy the great outdoors - as well as one of the least expensive. It doesn't matter if you're an avid cyclist or if you only get on the saddle once a year, everyone can benefit from pedal power.
There are many surfing queries specific to being a woman that rips, from surfing during the time of the month to finding swimsuits built for action and not sunbathing. Here's one we bet you've not considered before however, can you surf with fake boobs?
Bethany Hamilton, one of our favourite female surfers, has been all over the internet this week after being snapped surfing while six months pregnant. We love that Bethany is out there letting it rip and proving that you don't need to spend a pregnancy putting your feet up and wrapping yourself in cotton wool, but not everyone as sure about seeing a pregnant women on a surfboard.
Big Wave Surfer, Feminist, Record Breaker And General Badass- Meet The Woman Taking On The World Of Surfing "It literally takes just one wave where you decide you're going to do it.
Hundreds of graduates in London are landing their rst jobs in the a uent creative industry. So why is it they still can’t a ord to pay their bills?
Flat broke and desperate for a board to call her own, Lou Boyd embarked on a mission to bring an old 7'4 mini mal back from the dead....
It's my final day! While it's been fun for the last few days, I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and just stay in bed. But before that I have my last sport - Judo. If I'm totally honest, I don't really know what Judo is.
With 3,500 artists and designers on waiting lists for studio space, London's creative practitioners currently face a particularly threatening crisis. One of: rising rents, property development, and constant upheaval. East London, which has long been a centre for creative industries in the capital, is the main battleground for this struggle.
So how do you test something like this? With a big scientific laboratory and a scientist, of course. Professor Vincent Walsh of UCL and his team devised a test using images and memory stresses, in which a group of extreme athletes could go up against a group of 'normal' journalists.
"What view on women and sex are we giving the generation that's coming after us?" asked Lucy Holmes, founder of the No More Page Three Campaign, during a speech in Hackney earlier this week. Holmes started her campaign in September 2012, as a fight against the convention of female nudity on the page three of "family newspaper," The Sun.
"We all have a little seal inside us, somewhere our body remembers that we have spent time under water. Our body is perfectly designed to dive, we just have to trust it." Hanli Prinsloo, the award-winning freediver, ocean conservationist and executive director of the trust , is talking at the Finisterre shop in Covent Garden on a spring Thursday night.
Concern has been raised that what would be the biggest ever corporate takeover in the UK could result in the loss of thousands of skilled jobs and damage British research. The Government can block such deals in exceptional circumstances if the public interest is at risk, although lawyers have said intervention in this case is unlikely to comply with European trade laws.
Home " News " Arts " New Hoxton independent publisher goes to press In light of his debut book 'I've Lived in East London for 86 ½ years,' ELL talks to London photographer Martin Usborne about his work with Hackney local Joseph Markovitch, and how it led to the Hoxton Mini Press.
Home " Features " The Button Up Rebellion: where style and class clash A few years ago young men all over east London ditched the trainers, threw away the hoodies and reached for the suit. A neatly pressed shirt and shiny boots became a postcode signifier and was a look summed up through its most important aspect: the done up top button with no tie.
TROYFEST | EVENT PREVIEW Baskerville Hall, Hay-On-Wye Fri 3-Mon 6 Apr Tickets: £72. Seven years ago at Glastonbury after a few too many ciders, a group of friends decided to give the whole festival thing a go for themselves and came up with the idea of "a field somewhere, a marquee and a couple of DJs".