I was at B&N this week browsing through the surf mag section, looking at pics and advertisements. Everyone keeps telling me, you got to run some ads in the mags, get more exposure, get Wave Tribe’s name out there. Three + years since I started Wave Tribe and I am still resisting it. The fact is I am not really into the surf industry. Yea, I own a surf company but I never wanted to be part of the industry. Contests, egos, corporate marketing strategies, thousands of dollars spent on one-page advertisements of some beautiful woman’s ass. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at the female figure, but I never did buy a pair of reef sandals. Yet sex sells, so they say. Sometimes I wonder, can Wave Tribe survive without playing by the industry rules?

Most surf magazines don’t even recognize our existence. How could you publish a green edition without us? Not even a phone call or email. We are the one surf company that was created because of ecology. That is why we exist. It is easy to make one green deckpad (after copying us)  or a pair of recycled shorts and then slap the word GREEN on all your adverts and marketing and waive the green flag. The hard part is to make every product in your catalog based on sustainability. We NEVER consider making a non-green product no matter how much profit margin is in the equation.

The one mag that has been really good to us is Surfers Path, they recognized what we were doing from the very beginning and supported us. Not many surfers in the states read SP, but I don’t mind being aligned with the underdog. The dogs got to hang together. Thank you SP, you’ve got heart and soul.

Today I won’t be waiving any flags. Today I will be concentrating on building excellent surf products made out of sustainable materials and then I’ll work hard on bringing them to market so that other like-minded surfers can use them.

Peace is the greatest form of patriotism.