Dane Reynolds will hate me for this. But I'm a fan and I love this shit…

I’ve read so much speculation regarding top tier contracts over the years. How much are they making? Hard to say. Always kept secret. In the case of Dane, his contract made that mandatory:

The athlete will keep secret and confidential all details of this agreement and all knowledge of information relating to Quiksilver, its Affiliates and Licensees, other than information which at the time of receipt or subsequently has passed into the public domain other than by fault of the athlete.

But Quik’s bankrupt, seeking to divest themselves of Reynolds’s claim against them, and so submitted Dane’s contract as evidence. Which makes it a matter of public record and that means we all get to feast our eyes on the details.

The contract prior to 2006 is absent, but the rest is all there. 2006 to 2011, as well as the amendments made when he re-upped until 2017.

I can only assume Dane is going to hate me for this. Kinda sucks, put myself on his radar, make him not like me. ‘Cuz just like every surfer, I adore Mr Reynolds. Super uncomfortable since he’s the surfer we all want to be. Dora without the thievery.

But I’m first and foremost a fan and I love this shit.  So here we go…

Additionally, Dane’s contract entitled him to a $100,000 signing bonus, as well as 10,000 Quiksilver stock options, vested over a three-year period.

Nice chunk of change going on here. Pretty lucrative incentives (with the exception of that stock, obviously.) Unfortunately for Dane’s wallet, things didn’t really pan out. He decided to quit the tour in 2011, posted a letter on Marine Layer explaining why. It’s no longer there, but our dear friends at The Inertia saved it from extinction. 

and so here i am. 26. officially off tour. wasted talent. blown potential. refusing responsibility. ‘all he wants to do is sit at home and play with crayons and ride fucked up boards.’ but wait! but wait! that’s not true! don’t listen to chris mauro. he’s a dinosaur. doesn’t get it. this may be the end as a wct contender, but its also a new beginning. i feel like a baseball. the skins been carefully pried off and there’s a thread and i’m gonna pull it and i’m gonna end up a pile of string on the floor. but then maybe i’ll be knit into something more useful, like a sweater. or perhaps something beautiful, like a hand embroidered masterpiece of a deer and two fawn drinking cold clear water out of a creek. but you never know. i hope to achieve some sort of balance. yeah, i do like riding fucked up boards, but i also like doing airs and taking some aggression out on a cutback. and competings rad if you can stay inspired, but rankings and trophy’s mean very little to me. i wanna learn, i wanna make things, things of purpose, be productive. travel. new experiences. new sensations. and most importantly explore the outer limits of performance surfing. i’ll still compete. but its not going to consume me. 

Of course, even off tour, perhaps especially so, Dane was still a huge draw. His 2011 renegotiation earned him a substantial pay increase. Amendments to the contract included:

– A monthy salary of $291,666.67.

– A 3% royalty on net sales of products that “bear the name or likeness of Athlete, or utilize the designs or artwork created and owned solely by Athlete (the ‘Signature Products’).”

– “The term ‘Team Managers’ shall be deleted from the agreement and be replaced in all instances with ‘Quiksilver Liasons.’” (I’m sure there’s a story behind that one.)

– “Athlete may also wear and use ‘Summer Teeth’ brand clothing and accessories as reasonably approved by sponsor, but only for so long as Sponsor or one of its Affiliates is the exclusive licensee and manufacturer of the ‘Summer Teeth” brand.”

– Marine Layer Productions became the sole producer of all of Reynolds’s video shoots, so long as “all fees and expenses are pre-approved in writing by Sponsor in its reasonable discretion and are comparable to the fees and expenses that would be charged by similarly situated production companies.”

-Reimbursement for expenses during travel to any promotional activity or competition. The 2006-2011 contract left Dane to pay.

– “For so long as the Sponsor has the ‘Young Guns House’ in Pupukea, HI, Athlete may stay in the house during the months of November and December of each year during the Term, provided Athlete gives Sponsor reasonable notice of his intent to stay at the house.”

– Reimbursement of up to $72,000 per year to pay for the lease and insurance costs of a “house, apartment, warehouse space or other property.”

-Custom fitted black wetsuits made from Japanese rubber

There’s more to it, including Dane’s responsibilities regarding promotional activity, behavior, etc. But it’s all kind of boring legalese.

For those of you who are interested, here is Quik’s response to the claim in full.

Quiksilver response to claim