Traditionally, Trident ends (or starts) the year with a retrospective and introspective overview of the year’s articles. However, as we find the working year ending on Trident Reviews, it seems only fitting we use this newest of categories to take a look back at 2025.
Let’s start with this poignant article on war and its impact on surfing (and vice versa). Let it not be said that Trident is afraid to look at the big and scary stuff happening around. We review this at 5 outta 5 ‘coz of its sheer ballsiness.
At the other end of the scale, for its sheer ludicrousness we have this here Review on getting in and out of wetsuits. A hefty four outta five for this one.
Another hard hitting piece of surf journalism begs to be read here: What it will take to crown another South African World surfing champ, Part One and Part Two. Three outta five, based on the sheer frustration of it all.
Special mention must always be made of our esteemed readers, so the entire Tips, Tricks and Tweaks category gets a five outta five, due to our readers’ tenacity, ingenuity, compassion, intelligence, generosity, ability to mumble incoherently, strange broccoli-like odour, their capacity for violence and their ability to change colour to blend in with their surroundings.
We also featured these polarising Top Five articles on wavepools. Read each point of view here as well as here, where we designate each four outta five for the balancing act that it was.
Another superb piece of downright in-the-trenches nasty surf writing was our pull-no-punches insight into pro surfing and its pluses and pitfalls. Again, Trident gives ourselves a solid five outta five for the courage to tackle this emotive subject. Part One is here, followed by Part Two as covered by Trident’s infamous quiz series.
With the introduction of Trident Reviews, we’ve had fewer Surf Science articles. Nevertheless, this doesn’t change the fact that this piece on the ocean behemoth we call Orca was pretty gnarly, as was this brief look at surfing in sketchy water. We say, four and three outta five, respectively.
Trident’s reviews of surfing nations’ accents gets four outta five for sheer originality. Check Part One and Part Two out here.
As 2025 has been a year of tumultuous political intrigue, we’ll just about wrap this review up with this interesting look at politics: should Trident form a political party – here’s Part One and another killer quiz in Part Two. We say five outta five, and we’ll be like Napoleon, sort of a benevolent dictator if you vote for us.
So we’ll do one final review. That of the actual quality of surf this year. We’ll say a very Generation Z-esque mid two and a half outta five. You can decide to round that up or down based on your personal experience of waves in 2025. Bring on 2026 and some decent surf please. Huzzah!
