Surf Expo got underway Thursday in Orlando and it almost felt like the good old days.
I am guessing Debbie Harvey, the President of Ron Jon, was quite happy because nearly every major surf brand was back at the show. She was not pleased when several major brands skipped the show one year.
Vans, the most successful and largest brand in the industry right now, is one of the few major brands that is not here. Vans is not doing a lot of trade shows this year overall.
Some of the booths may be smaller this time around, but retailers, especially the East Coast crew, were very happy that the big brands showed up and that they brought their top executives.
We have lots of photos from the first day in our slide show, and we will have lots of brand interviews coming in the future.
Shalymar Wilson of Salty Crew, Kevin Morris of Heritage, Tom Ruiz, Jared Lane, Mike Nieman of Salty Crew, and Andrew Traa of Heritage
A key Roxy style for Summer '19
Quiksilver is celebrating Echo Beach
Rick Zappone and daughter, Kayla
Sasha Hartloff and Kiki Prince of Roxy
Roxy's new collaboration with Disney's Little Mermaid
Mike Reilly and Ryan Keenan of Quiksilver
Jason Shelton, Scott Bouchard and Shannan North of Billabong
Jonathan McCabe and Kevin Meehan of RVCA
A revamped O'Neill: Mark Tinkess, Jaimie Foote, Carrie Piccolini, Lindsay Henkels, Matt Sims, Kari Johnson, Josh Wellington and Snowy Lonsway
Carlos Pardo of Surf Diva, Jared Mehr, Paul Goodman, John Gothard and Tony Casella of Pura Vida, and Coco Tihyani of Surf Diva
Pura Vida has expanded its jewelry line
Retailers Unite: Dave Nash and Pete Censoplano of Sun Diego, Tyler Brown of 17th Street, Debbie Harvey of Ron Jon and Tom Brown of 17th Street
Abbie Crane and Megan Brunner at Electric, which showed its booming women's line at the show
Kim Ball and Tasha Jahrmarkt of Hi Tech in Maui and Eric Crane of Electric
Dylan Slater of Rip Curl, Gary Rubin of Ron Jon, and Paul Harvey, Kelly Gibson and Shawn Peterson of Rip Curl
Could be trouble: Tom Ruiz of Salty Crew, Les Shaw of WRV, Jeff Booth of Flojos, Chico Bukovansky of Dakine
A Tavik table
Jacie Schroeder and Eric Thomas of RVCA
Alex Bruckstein of Quiksilver and Pepe Landa of Rip Curl
Tim Morse of Richer Poorer
Mikke Pierson, formerly of ZJ Boarding House, gave a presentation at the show
Tom Brown of 17th Street and Kelly Gibson of Rip Curl
Jeff Booth at his new Flojos home - Matt Almas, Jeff, John Dickinson, Jeff Darby, Mike Manz
Ryan Mangan of Hurley and Ron Abdel of Jack's
Snowy Lonsway of O'Neill and Cheyne Cottrell of Island Water Sports
Jessica Podloski and Susan Wallace of Aqua East
Scott Bouchard selling at the Billabong booth
Erin Bouchard of Billabong
Sammy Duvall of Curl and Eric Crane of Electric
Shannon Zseleczky and Jordan Schweitzer of SIMA
Todd Stanley of Dakine, Leigh Tonai of HIC, Micah Nickens and Todd Janda of Dakine
