There’s been a ton happening in and around surfing, and I’ve done a terrible job of keeping you up to date. My apologies. I’ve been busy. It’s quite a job that guy Santa has. My older son is at the age where he’s enamoured with Christmas. Advent calendars, Elf on the Shelf, cookies & milk, the whole shebang. So it was a restless month.
I also took my first trip up to Santa Cruz, during one of the swell events of the decade (?), and didn’t surf. Isn’t that great? When I got home, however, I fucking SCORED. I had one of the best sessions of my life on Christmas Eve. I’m still thinking about that surf..
Let’s go over some of the minor events that have occurred since our last discussion.
- Landon McNamara won the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational
- Nathan Florence & Erin Brooks won the Pipe Masters
- Authentic Brands Group is pulling its licenses from Liberated Brands
- Eden Walla & Taro Watanabe win Morro Bay QS1000
- Hayden Rodgers wins Puerto Escondido QS1000
- Zoe McDougall & Josh Moniz win HIC Haleiwa Pro
- Kolohe changed his brand name from ‘2%’ to ‘STEKO22’
- Dane Reynolds opens new Chapter 11 Storefront
- Hawaii and California have been absolutely pumping
So yeah, just a bit. I’m not even going to go back and recap any of this, because well, it’s already done and dusted. We are looking forward now.
I’ve had some really fun surfs recently, and it looks like there’s waves throughout the end of the year. I believe I told you, but I’ve been working on reading models and forecasts a bit better, and I do feel more confident in the calls I’ve been making because of it. I might be just as reliable as Surfline is nowadays.
2025 is right around the corner. Literally 4 days away now. I’ve got some serious work to get done before then, because it’s going to be a big year over here. Mark my words.
I’ll be back soon on a more surf focused tip. Until then.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield