Today's guest grew up surfing the exact same beaches that I did, a decade or two before I got there.

He backdoored his way into the surf industry and found himself positioned at the first publicly traded surf brand

harnessed at the helm of an offshoot brand that would skyrocket in growth and become perhaps surfing's best example of an industry disruptor.

That success gave him entree to pioneers of the

sport where he fostered relationships and made meaningful investments in restoring and revitalizing

certain aspects of surf culture. A serendipitous find at a swap meet led to his most recent obsession and to him

becoming an inadvertent surf history archivist. And it's also exactly what led us to this

conversation here today. But first, surf splendor would not be possible without support from

our industry partners and you can support us by

supporting them. They are the Surf Rider Foundation, Real Water Sports, and Veyer watches.

Surf Rider volunteers removed a record 365,000 pounds of trash in 2025, and they are currently campaigning to stop the expansion of new offshore oil leases.

They need your support, and the ocean needs more friends, so please consider becoming a member at surfrider.org.

Real water sports is our retail partner, and in addition to their 1500 surfboard inventory,

they have anything and everything that you might need for any water sport, along with worldwide shipping.

So visit realwatersports.com for all of your water sport needs.

And then Veer is our timekeeping partner.

They make classically designed watches from high

quality materials, which means they are durable and great looking. Waterproof guaranteed,

assembled in America, and we'll save you 15% by going through Veerwatches.com slash surf splendor.

Enjoy that.

Okay, and without further ado,

my name is David Scales for Surf Splendor,

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