Dave Rastovich Transitions Into Ambassador Role With Patagonia

Stab has just learned that after two decades in the game, Dave Rastovich is leaving surfing in the professional sense, parting ways with 20-year sponsor, Billabong, and transitioning into an ambassador role at Patagonia.

Rasta is one of surfing’s great enigmas. He’s agelessly orbited our bizarre little world, touching down on occasion to gift himself to a filmmaker’s lens or a meaningful protest. He’s never chased the spotlight, but rather attracted it, as a man of principles but also a man of supreme surfing talent.

Raised on a diet of George Greenough and Mother Earth, Rasta has hummed rhythmically as a fitting part of Billabong’s diverse team for 20 years, somehow vastly different yet perfectly fitted to the stablemates of his gen, Parko and Taj, making his own mark alongside them in the golden age of surf cinema.

His history with Billabong is a very fond one, the brand having obviously allowed him to live a life that most of us can’t even fathom, but the Byron-based surfer has evolved to a point where, as Stab hears it, surfing professionally is no longer a priority.

Patagonia aren’t a brand with team riders; They’re a brand with ambassadors, which Rasta will now become. While their focuses on sustainability no doubt align, this will remove Rasta even more from the spotlight of professional surfing – a platform that his lifestyle with Billabong ensured – which no fans will be happy to hear.

Read Stab‘s recent interview with Rasta, here.