About Surfd
Surfd started in 2003 with a simple idea: honestly review the gear surfers actually use. Two decades on, it’s become the home of modern surfing — a place built on real surfing, real gear testing and real people, not AI-generated filler. It should feel like your favourite beach café: warm, familiar, and run by people who actually surf.
Who’s behind it
Bradley Hook grew up surfing in Durban, South Africa, where his first paid job was shooting for Zig Zag surf magazine in the mid-90s. He has spent a lifetime chasing waves in places few people have travelled to, let alone surfed — writing for travel magazines about surfing in India and Bangladesh, and even in the Baltic Sea. He has surfed and lived across Australia, the UK, New Zealand and Europe, with extended travel through Indonesia, the Pacific Islands and Hawaii. He is the author of Surfing Life Waves (2012) and founded Surfd in 2003 with a simple idea: honestly review the gear surfers actually use. He now lives in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, where he writes and speaks.
Beyond surfing, Brad is a respected global voice in the future-of-work and personal-development world. He’s an author whose books — including Start With Values — have been distributed by Penguin Random House, he speaks to audiences around the world, and he is the creator of Flame and the founder of the Values Institute. He also directed the surf-therapy documentary Waves of Freedom.
The team
Many of Surfd's reviews are a team effort. Founder Bradley Hook has surfed and written about the sport since the 1990s and tests most of the boards, wetsuits and hardware. Geniya leads our women's apparel, swimwear and accessories reviews. Alongside them, guest contributors, shapers and travelling surfers add interviews and reports from their own patch of coast. Between us, every Surfd review comes from someone who actually used the gear — in and out of the water. We buy much of what we test, gratefully accept samples from brands, and only recommend what earns its place.
When you see a review credited to The Surfd Team, it means more than one of us had a hand in it — usually Geniya on the women’s apparel and swimwear, and Brad on boards, wetsuits and hardware, sometimes with a guest contributor. Reviews credited to a single name are that person’s own hands-on test.
How we review
Our reviews are hands-on. When we rate a board, a wetsuit or a piece of tech, it’s because we’ve surfed it — often over a whole season, in a range of conditions — not because we’ve read a spec sheet. Every genuine review carries a star rating, clear pros and cons, and an honest verdict, including the things we didn’t like.
- Hands-on, or clearly not. If a piece is researched or curated rather than personally tested, we say so — we never fake first-hand experience.
- No pay-to-play.A good review can be critical. Brands can’t buy a score, and we don’t run banner ads dressed up as editorial.
- Kept current. Where prices, models or facts change, we update — and retire pages that no longer help anyone.
How we make money
Surfd is free to read, and affiliate links are how we keep it that way. When we recommend a product, some links go to the retailer through an affiliate programme — if you buy, we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. That’s it. A commission never buys a better review: we recommend gear on its merits, and we’ll happily tell you when something isn’t worth your money. Same principle as everything else here — honest first.
Get in touch
Want a product reviewed, or think we’ve got something wrong? We’d genuinely like to hear from you — contact us.