Are we back?

Just yesterday, surf industry fans around the world lit candles hoping beyond hope that the ongoing apocalypse might just might be coming to an end. Years upon years of contraction had met its darkest moment ever when management firm Authentic Brands Group and snatched up market leaders Quiksilver, Billabong, RVCA, Volcom and more then driving them even further into the ground.

A true highway to hell.

But yesterday, oh yesterday, a light through yonder window broke. The Beach Boys, a 1960s musical act introducing the joys of surfing to landlocked masses, experienced their highest-ever ranking on Billboard’s global music charts soaring all the way to 69.

And today, the world’s premier surf trade show has announced that its registration is tracking “significantly above” last year’s show and is forecasted to be largest since 2020.

Reef, Oakley, Bajio, Olukai, VISSLA, Melin, Outerknown, Sector 9, Firewire Surfboards, Slater Designs, Chubbies, FLORENCE, Rhythm, Rusty, Katin, goodr, Tommy Bahama, Birkenstock, Sun Bum, Jetty, THRILLS CO., Salt Life, Elan, Simply Southern, Hook & Tackle, Exist, Guy Harvey, ALOHA Collection, Sanuk, Dark Seas, HUK, Fahlo, Salty Crew, Body Glove, Seager Co., BN3TH, Free Fly, Vineyard Vines, Baja Llama, Dippin Daisy’s, INSTINCT, Roark, Costa Del Mar, I-SEA, Skullcandy, Sharp Eye, Haydenshapes, TAHE, Goorin Bros., GCI Outdoors, Smith & Quinn, and more will all have booths inside the expansive Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Thousands of giddy shoppers just waiting to test and try wares.

Surf Expo SVP and Show Director Roy Turner told Shop-Eat-Surf, “We are excited to see everyone in Orlando this week. Our buyer registration is tracking significantly above last year, and retailers will be looking to find new brands and solidify relationships with existing vendors. There are also lots of events, parties and Happy Hours planned for networking and mingling.”

I once mingled and networked at Surf Expo in 2019 and credit that experience for the record-setting 2020 show.

World Surfing Champion, best-selling author, entrepreneur, environmentalist, and leadership expert, Shaun Tomson, will deliver a session titled The Code – How to Empower and Unite Your Team this year.

An Industry Party featuring Rage Against the DJ will place on January 9 at 6 p.m. on the lower level of the convention center near registration and there will also be multiple Happy Hours and fashion shows each day.

We. Are. Back.

P.S. I don’t know why Surf Expo capitalizes “Happy Hours” in press releases but certainly another harbinger of good times ahead.

Lucky number 69!

2025 dawns, for the surf industry, much like 2024 darkened. Scorched earth, doom and gloom, empty coffers, sad faces, poverty, fear, hunger, depression. In a word, apocalypse. Billion dollar Authentic Brands Group purchased the majority of our once-iconic brands Quiksilver, Billabong, RVCA, Volcom, etc. a few years back, though each of their fortunes continued to crash. Hurley, owned by BlueStar Alliance not doing any better what with the lucrative beard oil market failing to fully materialize.

Lower level professional surfers, once paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to professionally surf at a lower level, have been forced to turn to their upper-middle class families for support or worse, surf coaching.

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It’s the east and The Beach Boys are the sun!

Yes, the musical group responsible for bringing the surf lifestyle into homes far, thus planting the seeds for the aforementioned surf industry, is back and hotter than ever.

Tunes like Surfin’ USA, Surfin’ and Wipe Out ruled family rooms across the inlands, thrilling the corn fed in the middle 1960s, but none ever climbed as high as Little Saint Nick which just hit number 69 on the global Billboard Charts.

Christmas music, of course, gets hotter and hotter every year and The Beach Boys ode to a souped up Santa Claus ticks all the boxes. But who doesn’t swing when hearing the falsetto croon of a tale about Christmas that we’ve all been told? That real famous cat all dressed up in red who spends the whole year workin’ out on his sled. It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick). It’s the little Saint Nick (little Saint Nick).

While the main subject of the jingle is a candy apple red sled with a ski for a wheel, not a surfboard, hope is in extremely short supply and, thus, the news is being celebrated by the three interns left in charge of Quiksilver, Billabong, RVCA, Volcom, etc.

Though do you feel the thrill in your bones?

A return to cultural supremacy?

Here’s to the new year!

Mass drownings in Victoria.

Big sackings likely in Victoria, Australia, today, after the state’s tourism agency contributed to a mass drowning event on its southern shore. Visit Melbourne had taken to social media, recently, to tout an un-patrolled beach on the gorgeous Mornington Peninsula, just across from olde Geelong towne, as a “pristine swimming spot.”

One day ago, over 150 duped folk needed saving from the fatal shore.

Number 16 beach, on the Bass Strait, is described elsewhere as “recommended for experienced surfers,” was inundated with inexperienced swimmers as summer temperatures soared in the southern hemisphere.

The Visit Melbourne Instagram post featured water cascading over rocks, making it all look very appealing.

Drew Cooper, a member of the Mornington Peninsula Back Beaches Collective told The Guardian, “When the sun goes down, photographers flock down to the reef and wait for the perfect shot,” he said. “It’s become a big thing on social media – people encouraging everyone to go down there.”

After major backlash, Visit Melbourne changed the post to simply read “pristine beach” before removing it altogether.

But do you live in Victoria and consider yourself an “experienced surfer?” Have you experienced surfing Number 16 beach?

Care to describe?

Also, have you read The Fatal Shore?

A fabulous epic of Australia’s founding. Highly recommended.