Welcome back to the show. Today's chat is with Dane Hans, perhaps better known as Vulcan surfboards.

If you live in San Diego or are on Instagram,

you've definitely seen Dane's boards.

The board designs and materials look really futuristic

and the resin work, the color palettes,

the actual laminations are truly world class.

Dane was featured in episode 177 of Surf Splendor, published on July 27th, 2017.

And I was actually just looking back at that episode. And in the show notes, I referred to

Dane as a, quote, dichotomy, creative and regimented, thick-skinned and sensitive.

His board designs are whimsical in concept and yet precisely engineered.

His old school work ethic and stringent business practices have developed a core following of loyalists,

while his embrace of technology, social media, and photography has exposed Vulcan to a worldwide audience, end quote.

And after editing today's episode, that synopsis of Dane feels more true now, even than it was two and a half years ago when that episode was first published.

And in today's chat, Dane is joined by his co-combatant, Christine Koonicki,

who helps provide some background insights and context for us to better appreciate Dane's

personal and professional life. This conversation is kind of a continuation of a few ongoing

chats that we've been having here on the podcast.

And it might have really been kickstarted with Maurice Cole opening up about his lifelong struggle

with depression, identity, and acceptance. And then that was continued with Sal Masacela recently,

who was discussing the loss of his father and how that's affected his own mental health and what he's done to cope with it. And then I've had this kind of peripheral

conversation with Dane about mental health over the years and the importance of an open

discussion and kind of destigmatizing challenges that we all face to varying degrees. And then

...