Gallery: Dave Rastovich’s Reluctant, Triumphant Return To The Spotlight

As a reminder, Episode 1 of the Electric Acid Surfboard Test with Dave Rastovich drops this Thursday, October 3rd at 5 PM PDT exclusively on Stab Premium.

It’s hard to get Dave Rastovich on a plane.

Dave and his partner Lauren Hill — whose brilliance appeared in How Surfers Get Paid, The Sexualization of Women’s Surfing — are very intentional about the size of their carbon footprint. This, of course, extends to air travel, the biggest gas guzzler of them all.

But, after some careful thought, Dave and Lauren decided it was worth the ethical demerit for a few reasons: (1) Promote The Electric Acid Surfboard Test and, especially, its focus on sustainable surfboard construction, (2) Visit Dave’s one and only sponsor, Patagonia, and (3) show their young son, Minoa, around the U.S. and visit family.

Lucky us.

For Saturday’s night premiere, we tried something a little different due to the titanic buzz around Dave and the project — we held two separate showings of the first episode of the Electric Acid Surfboard Test with Dave Rastovich with two separate Q+A sessions, surfboard giveaways, and a special quiz game concocted by Stab’s own Danny Johnson.

Dave was energetic, insightful, and funny — the decade of peaceful living in the forest has worked no evil on his social skills, it appears.

Feast (vegan-ly) your eyes.

All photos by Brooke Raines.

As a reminder, Episode 1 of the Electric Acid Surfboard Test with Dave Rastovich drops this Thursday, October 3rd at 5 PM PDT exclusively on Stab Premium.