Was Mikey Wright’s Parallelograming In ‘Repeater’ The Best Accidental Surfboard Ad Of 2023?  

I’m making a guess and I could be way off here: sales for Ryan Burch Surfboards spiked after Mikey Wright’s surfing in Quiksilver’s surf film, Repeater. I’m guessing that in spite of surfboard sales coming off the boil since COVID.

Here’s my thinking. 

There’s few surfer-shaper pairings more jarring, or perfectly-suited for an Electric Acid Surfboard Test (EAST) than Ryan Burch and Mikey Wright.

The former, a goofyfoot shaping visionary from Encinitas renowned for pushing the boundaries of experimental board design (Think: asymms, foam blocks, forked noses). The latter, a freakishly-talented regular-foot ex-CT surfer from Culburra who pigs recreationally and likely knows more about the best fishing lures for Mahi Mahi than he does about the design details of his signature JS model ‘The Schooner‘. 

Not a tonne of shared cloth and yet they produced one of the most powerful accidental ‘alternative’ surfboard marketing campaigns off the back of the Mexico section of Repeater (Remember: Machete fights and Napalm Death soundtrack). 

I personally know of two Stab staff and a housemate who placed orders immediately afterward – did Mikey tip you over too?

Incidentally, Quiksilver’s Repeater is the best performing team surf film of 2023 so far (1.3 million views in a month on YouTube), and saw Mikey and Wade Carroll’s Q3 stocks skyrocket after their work in Ireland, PR, Mex, WA and Reunion Island.

“I don’t think his surfing changed per se, I think they just allowed him to surf the way he wants,” said Wade on Mikey’s boards in Mex. “The Burch’s all seemed to be gliding through sections and responding so fast. Even I jumped on one and could feel a spark. I was like ‘no wonder these cunts are ripping’,” before explaining how the Pyzels, JS’ and CI’s got outshone. 

“The funny thing was Mikey had asked Burch for some boards, but he never got back to him. Then Steph [Gilmore] called and said she’d seen ’em. Mikey was tripping,” laughed Wade. “He’d already made them, he’d just never thought to reply.”

This Jack Coleman clip features Ryan Burch on a parallelogram asym thruster, Derrick Disney on a self shaped twin keel fish, and Kobe Hughes on a twin fin Picklefork. 

A couple things worth noting here: 

• Kobe Hughes is Burch’s nephew and shapes very nice boards himself. Kobe or ‘Kobo’ as he is more commonly known, absolutely tears, charges Pipe (plus other scary waves), is very handsome (see Willie Nelson locks), and has a board in the upcoming EAST. 
• All three of them are from Encinitas and can mow foam into cool shapes.
• My prediction could be totally off (apologies if so).

Browse Burchcraft here.