Matt Biolos Is Having A 2008-Slater-Esque Season

Before losing $35 Billion in one day (the greatest private, single-event financial loss in world history), 24-year old Leopold Aschenbrenner wrote a 165-page manifesto on why he understood the A.I. industry better than anyone else. 

In 2018, we asked Matt Biolos to write a thesis of comparable gravitas on the subject of the foam-and-fiberglass business. 

He didn’t disappoint. 

One of things Matt revealed was that during the period when …Lost’s high-margin products like clothing and energy drinks were bringing in “4-5x” the cash as surfboards, he stopped pouring enough focus into managing the bread-and-butter board business:

At the peak of all …Lost’s various ventures, I drifted away from the day-to-day running of my surfboard brand. I went for the money. But I was sorta one foot in, one foot out: I was running a staff of clothing designers and a marketing team, traveling the world to set up and support other companies with …Lost apparel. I saw the golden payoff, that I couldn’t expect to ever have with surfboards. 

Before Kolohe came of age, our classic …Lost Surf team—Wardo, Cory and Shea Lopez, Beschen, etc.—was aging, and I was not doing much work to rebuild it. I was not really on top of it for a few years, just sorta going through the motions. We had a few gifts brought to us, like the “Rocket” model, that kept things going, but our presence on the WCT was really dwindling.

As the clothing and energy drink were crumbling (with my income, as well), my partner, Mike Reola and I re-focused and started to really water the flowers on the board program again. I started surfing a ton, and working with more surfers again. Kolohe was the spark and the catalyst, and I am forever grateful. He and Dino brought Taj Burrow around to try some boards, and then some media magnate helped convince him to jump on board with …Lost.

I met up with Carissa Moore, while watching Kolohe surf heats. Young Julian Wilson came around and we had a good four year run. Then little Mason Ho became Mason Ho.

All the while, I traveled to Brazil and AU and EU, paying attention to the upcoming surfers, and started building an international team, and re-establishing an international brand. Tyler Wright, Yago Dora, Michael Rodrigues…Support them early and help them grow.

Constant travel, and time surfing in our own backyard of Trestles got me back in the game.

At the same time, this underground grom movement in San Clemente started to happen. Fueled by Kolohe and Lowers, Griffin is the first to explode out of this machine…His brother Crosby, Kade Mattson, Jett Schilling etc are coming up. Eli Hanneman, Winter Vincent and other global groms are on the program, and now it’s game on.

We put our focus on the kids, and we’re setting up the future. 

And set up the future he did, five years after this manifesto, in 2023, Matt Biolos won the inaugural Surfboard Empire CT Shapers Rankings title, presented by Veia. He’s won it every year since for a total of three Shapers Rankings Titles. 

And now, in 2026, Biolos is a dastardly 24,000 points ahead of Sharp Eye for his fourth Shaper Rankings title bid thanks to Erin Brooks’s win and Griffin Colapinto’s runner-up finish.

Now, with seven CT events done and six to go (including one at his home turf of Lowers) and with a herculean lead over the rest of the field, the smart money goes to a 4x Biolos victory.

He’s still chasing that second Stab In The Dark, though.