Surf Expo got underway Wednesday in Orlando with a wide range of brands and a full slate of events.
We saw several key retailers on the floor during the day, and most said the holiday season turned out well, which is good news for brands as well as store owners.
We had lots of great conversations with brand leaders and will have many stories about those talks in coming days.
In the meantime, here are photos from Day 1 at the show.
Related Stories:
Photos from VIP Retailer Dinner
Photos from Day 2 of Surf Expo
Duvin's Shaun O'Meara and Austin Duvall
Team South Africa: Alex Munro of new brand RYD, Paul Naude of Vissla/Stokehouse, Barend Buys of Ryd and Brad Bricknell of the Business of Surf
The famous Matt Biolos of Lost
Mike Jensen and Mike Matey of Reef
CEO Gregg Ribatt and CFO Michael Smith of the Rockport Group, which now owns Reef. Gregg is a very well known footwear executive.
Team Billabong: Mark Weber, Mike Wallace, Shannan North, Evan Slater, Megan Onstott, Jason Shelton
Peter Grimm President Peter Niedermeyer
A Peter Grimm hat
Daniel Kasidi of Rastaclat
Writing positive messages on lunch bags at Rastaclat
Roark's Ryan Hitzel and Austin Duvall of Duvin
John Nakajima and Tasha Jahrmarkt of Hi Tech
Gary Valentine, John Sherwood, and Renata Pardo of Globe
Globe's new electric skateboard
Clockwise from bottom left: O'Neill's Josh Wellington, Lindsay Henkels, Mark Tinkess, Snowy Lonsway, and Dave Nash and Patrick Whinnery of Sun Diego
A showing at the busy O'Neill booth
Salty Crew: Sean Fleuriau, Jack Morrissey, Tom Ruiz, CJ Hobgood, Marion Beacham
Happy Hour at the Salty Crew booth
Lyndon Cabellon of Outerknown
Cory Higgins of Jetty working hard
Always a good time at Sector 9
Kristin Wallace and Jeff Stillwell of Salt Life
A Salt Life T-shirt
Otis: Charlie Anderson, Chad Crites, Eddie Doyle, Tom Ihnken and Stephen Gerard
Vince De La Pena of Vissla and Clive Ripley of Boardsport Source
Chris Broders and Nick Lhotsky of Dark Seas
Richard Sanders of Vissla, Bruce Cromartie of BC, and Paul Naude of Vissla
Bobby and Ron Abdel of Jack's at the Absolute Board Booth
Todd Stanley and Chico Bukovansky of Dakine and Charlie Anderson of Otis
Mark Zabelski and Rob McCarty of Vissla, Kevin Morris and Andrew Traa of Heritage
Billy Kemper and Shane Dorian with moderator Scott Bass at the Reef booth
The skate ramp
Brian Farias of Farias and Mike Reola of Lost
Damien Hobgood receiving his award for the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame from President Gary Germain
The Avid Booth
Coco Tihanyi of Surf Diva and Tom Brown of 17th Street
Doug Works of BRA
The Learning Lounge offered educational seminars
The Vissla shaping bay
The busy 4ocean booth
The fashion show
