Surf Expo wrapped a busy show on Friday with lots of brand and retailer meetings, busy aisles on the surf side of the show, an Industry Party at Topgolf sponsored by Shopify, and other brand activations, such as the Katin dinner for top specialty retailers on Wednesday night and the New Wave after party on Thursday night.
While the large heritage surf apparel brands did not attend this show, it didn’t seem to slow down the action, and brands such as Salty Crew, Florence, Roark, Katin, Dark Seas, Seager, Jetty, Rhythm, I-SEA, Free Fly, Make Scents, Reef, Olukai, Melin, Outerknown, Oakley, Thread Wallets and more were hopping, and lots of key retailers were in attendance.
Below are photos from the show floor and from industry parties.
ALL PHOTOS BY SESO UNLESS NOTED.
The busy Thread Wallets booth.
Trevor Reese and Colby Bauer of Thread Wallets
Carrie Piccolini at her new home, Sisstr, showing the line to important account HIC.
Hi-Tech of Maui, right, meeting with the Florence team, left. Hi-Tech has told us Florence is performing well at its stores.
Photos with John John Florence and family were popular.
Surf star Mick Fanning at The Surfboard Agency booth.
Rich Sanders of Vissla, Sammy Duvall of Curl, Snowy Lonsway of Duvin
Retail power table at the Katin party: Bill Dreibelbis of Quiet Storm, Kim Ball of Hi-Tech, Adam Borrello of T&C, Dave Nash of Sun Diego, Ryan Sugihara of T&C.
It was a party at the Seager booth with the teams from Glik's and Rooster Bus.
Seager's Mattson Smith, Kyle Cannon, Tom Ruiz and Mike Loughlin.
Core stores unite at Katin dinner: Kevin Morris of Heritage, Will Hutchinson of Proof Lab, Brian Farias of Farias Surf & Sport.
Lindsay Hubley of Emerald, Drew Dolkas and Ryan Hitzel of Roark, Rod Tomlinson of Surf Expo and Ryan Sirianni of Roark.
The Ron Jon team at Dark Seas.
Team Reef meeting with George Karamitos of Maui Nix.
Karly Cottrell of Island Water Sports and Mary Miller of Salty Crew.
Jason Shelton of Salty Crew and George Karamitos of Maui Nix. Salty Crew launched its line at the show and has 100 appointments booked.
David Ridgeway and Katie Pruitt of Sanuk.
Brixton's Sean Fleuriau, Brian White, Nadine Wisely, Austin Vorwith, Kevin Casillo and Carrie Prentice.
Cory Higgins of Jetty with new and notable sales leader Paul Harvey.
The Duvin team with Tyler Brown of 17th Street.
Snowy Lonsway is now the fulltime sales leader at Duvin.
I-SEA CEO Joey Santley selling up a storm in the I-SEA booth.
Team I-SEA: Dutch Schultz, Joey Santley, Don Dyer, Allison Singer and Erin and Scott Bouchard.
New I-SEA readers.
Busy times at the Make Scents booth.
Tyler Mesanko of Shaded Vision, Mac Beu of Katin, Mark Moffett of Rooster Bus and Greg "Grog" Mesanko of Grog's Surf Palace at the Katin party for key retailers. Photo by SESO.
Rhythm doubled its space at the show by bringing separate booths for men and women. In the men's booth: Jacob Byrne, Marc Yamaoka, Josh Barrett, Nicolette Moghadam, Kadie Sparks.
The Rhythm women's booth: Jessica Bishop, Natalie Fonseca, Nicolette Moghadam, Kadie Sparks, Logan Waters.
Dale Rhodes of Katin with the Midwest retail powerhouse Glik's - Gabby Coors and Elliot Glik.
Evan Slater of Sun Bum with Bobby Gascon of Tilly's.
Jim Vaughn of Whalebone with Bob Hurley of Florence.
The Outerknown/Firewire team with 17th Street: Marty Mathiesen, Tyler Brown, Brett Savage, Dylan Slater.
Shaper Dan Mann with Will Hutchinson of Proof Lab.
LG Shaw of WRV, Dave Nash of Sun Diego, Domonique Checkwood of Melin, Florida sales legend Scott Bouchard, Thomas Lysengen of IWS.
Christina Arroyo, Mike Matey and Mike Losness of Reef.
Mac Beu of Katin whipping up coffees for the Cinnamon Rainbows team.
Lotus & Luna debuted a new booth.
Karin Parise and Lisa Bensusen of Nature Industries
Nature Industries is going for a '90s vibe.
Shaun Tomson, left, and Peter "PT" Townend, right, talk 50 years of professional surfing.
Jeff Stillwell and Rusty Meador of Beach & Barn.
Eric Miura of Deja Vu on Kaui, Sean Fleuriau of Brixton and Millie Okada-Miura of Deja Vu.
Tess Booth, Jeff Booth and Melissa Martinez Booth of Distant Local.
Distant Local, which has a thriving destination T-shirt business partnering with specialty retailers, is expanding to mountain towns.
Lance Varon of Xcel.
Yugi Kanbayashi and Eddie Doyle of FCS.
Cinnamon Rainbows Dave Cropper with daughter, Veda, and Free Fly's Mike Reilly, newly signed surfer Cam Richards, and Tanner Sutton.
BRA Chairman George Leichtweis, and Surf Expo's Roy Turner and Steven "Fish" Fisher at BRA's "No Agenda" dinner. Photo courtesy of BRA.
Shaun Tomson of Instinct.
Brandon Williams, Oakley's vice president, Regional Sport NA.
Matt Keenan and Albie Rosario of BN3TH.
The Brumate booth attracted attention during the day.
The always busy Pukka custom hats booth.
Dustin Meister, Kara Yap, Ryan Whitcomb, David Ridgeway and Michel Murciano of Spy Optics.
Quiksilver and Roxy pool products by licensee Jaks Pacific.
Roark with retailers at the "No Agenda" dinner. Photo courtesy of BRA.
A wide range of Hurley beach and water accessories on the show floor.
OkuKai brought a big new booth.
Connor and Bruce Cromartie of B.C. Surf & Sport..
