“The Soul of the Waves”, a series to be found on our website

Powerful, astonishing, stimulating, and sometimes frightening, the ocean's ripples are fascinating. So much so that we try to reproduce them in swimming pools, to tame them, standing on a board, or to harness their energy. We track them down to estuaries and rely on them to feel free and good.

Our series “The Soul of the Waves” explores, in seven episodes, different facets of our attraction to its expanses of water that rise and fall eternally.

Episode 1 – Is the world ready to see ever bigger waves?

Fascinated by the duality of waves—both energy and matter, ephemeral and eternal—Australian author James Bradley tells the Guardian how these ripples, part of a complex ocean system, threaten coastlines. But their power could be harnessed to help combat the climate crisis.

Episode 2 – Waves of Their Own: Surfing Also Conquers Women

The ocean's ripples attract fans of a sport long perceived as masculine. But surfing is attracting more and more women, reports El País. The Spanish newspaper takes us to the Basque Country, to Zarautz beach, to meet those who aren't afraid to take the plunge.

Episode 3 – Surfing the perfect wave in an old quarry in Scotland

Who said tubes only form on the ocean's surface? Swimming pools offer the chance to experience it. In Scotland, a transformed abandoned quarry even hosted a surfing competition in June. A guided tour with The Scotsman newspaper.

Episode 4 – Real Sea Monsters

Scientists have proven that rogue waves—those giants that appear out of nowhere and swallow up boats—aren't just sailors' fables. A look at a 2017 article from Canada's Hakai Magazine , which sank in December 2024.

Episode 5 – Surfing as Therapy

The Daily Maverick spoke to South African surfing champion Roxy Davis, who believes riding the waves has therapeutic benefits. Now a PhD in health and rehabilitation science, she uses her passion for the ocean to help children with disabilities.

Episode 6 – In Brazil, surfers “hunt” the long waves of the Amazon

In the Brazilian Amazon, a rare phenomenon attracts surfers from around the world every year: the Pororoca, a wave that travels upriver against the current for dozens of kilometers. A sporting challenge and a fragile spectacle, threatened by human activity and climate change.

Episode 7 – Hokusai’s The Great Wave , an icon “embedded in the global imagination”

It's impossible to talk about waves without mentioning the most famous of them all. The one we've probably all seen, reproduced endlessly, printed on clothing, drawn in tiny letters on nails, or assembled from Lego pieces in front of Mount Fuji. But why is this Great Wave off Kanagawa so popular, nearly two hundred years after its creation by the Japanese artist Hokusai?