Coco Ho Explains The Swatch Nines Event Coming To Waco Surf This October

Presented by Swatch.

Since trading in her comp jersey for freedom a few years back, Coco Ho has been blissfully pirouetting through continents, forging business partnerships, and spearheading a line of surfboards designed specifically for women — all while continuing to stack high calibre surf clips. 

By all technical measurements, the Hawaiian is having a scorcher. 

Her latest venture is hosting the inaugural Swatch Nines Surf Event at Waco Surf, which will bring together elite surf and skate imps for a three-day riot in the Texas hot-tub. While it’s technically a contest, the focus will be on creativity — with a strict no-jersey and no-numerical-scoring policy in place. The aim? Stomp something big, and get a little weird with it.

When we spoke, Coco was in Indo. She’d already hit Deserts, Krui, and even suited up for the Rip Curl Cup Padang Padang, competing alongside her brother Mase.

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It’d been big, too. The night prior to our conversation, as 10-foot swell lines relentlessly battered the Bukit, Harry Bryant swam around the point at Ulus, sans floaties, searching for his lost surfboard. The sun set and he vanished into the darkness for an hour, almost triggering an island-wide search party.

Coco takes up the story:

“Uncle Derek’s son, Makoa, borrowed Harry’s board, and it was so big yesterday that he ended up losing it. He came in and told Harry, and right at dusk, Harry decided to swim around the Ulu’s point to search for his board. It was 10 foot and the sun was about to set.

“It was the most consistent Indo I’ve ever seen. For the last hour, it just kept breaking, and I started freaking out. I ran up to Balaram, Mason, and everyone else, telling them to come on a search and rescue mission with me.

“Everyone grabbed boards and ran down to help look for him. Eventually, we spotted Harry with half of his board, kicking towards us like it was a boogie board.

“He was like, ‘I thought I was going to find the whole board.’

“He really gave it his all. The whole hill was just losing it. It was so chaotic, but everything turned out okay, and he got half of his board back.”

After a night spent praising Ganesha that Haz wasn’t lost at sea, we caught up with Coco for a chat.

Stab: Seems like there’s a bit happening in Indo at the moment. 
Coco Ho: There are so many people here. It’s reminding me of winter on the North Shore, when everyone shows up in Hawaii — it’s fun, like, “Oh, everyone’s at my house,” and whatever. But now that I’m on this side of it, just visiting and seeing hundreds of my friends, I’m like, “Oh, these poor locals!” I’m tripping out for them because, really, this feels like the North Shore. You just bike down the road and see friends that you didn’t even know were here. 

What are your plans after Indo?
I’ll be in Indo till the end of the Padang Padang comp, and then I’ll head to France in September for the Quiksilver Festival. And then in October we’ll go straight into our event at Waco, the Swatch Nines.

Can you give me a little overview of what the Swatch Nines event is all about?
The Nines comps have been happening in mountain biking, skiing, and snowboarding for years, but this will be the first surfing edition. It’s just about getting a talented crew together and not having to put on a comp rashy.

All these specialty events are really cool, but you’re still in a rashy for the most part. So instead of trying to win, everyone will be going into it to accomplish something really cool. I guess the goal is for people to do a trick they’ve never done before and get to use it in their movie.

No scoring?
I think there will be a Best Trick, or Most Creative Maneuver. But no numbers, no jerseys, and just a shit ton of filmers, photographers and friends. 

So it’s kind of like a big surf jam? 
Yeah, it’ll be pretty loose. It’s whatever you want it to be, really. Even in the design meetings, it was like, ‘what do you want? Do you want a thousand rubber duckies in the pool while you’re doing an air? Or do you want a pink backdrop? Or do you want the pool to light up a certain colour?’ 

Pros can come, there’s going to be really cool skate features that are built around the pool, and there’s a lot of younger girls invited. I’m sure they’ll come with a list of airs they want to accomplish or things they want to do. I think everyone’s just going to have their own little agenda of what they want to do.

I showed Mason and Harry some of the skate features that are being built already. They’re insane. It’s being designed and built by Zenga brothers, who are some really talented guys from Vancouver.

The features will be all around the pool. And I think one of them will be floating in the pool. The boys are already thinking of transfers they can do into the water. Hopefully nobody gets hurt. It should just be a really fun three days of doing cool things.

Have you leaked the invite list yet? 
I don’t think we have. I know Mason has no option but to come (laughs). And Eithan Osborne is locked in, and so is Laura Enever and Juliette Lacome. Hopefully Patti Zhou comes and teaches us a thing or two. It’s kind of a mixed bag.

It’ll be sick to see people some of the skaters hitting the pool.
Yeah, but if we pick too many of those surfer skaters, like Grayson Fletcher and Curren Caples, then no one’s going to skate. If they’re in Waco, they’ll want to surf.

So we’ve gotta be careful, or everyone’s just going to be surfing the whole time, and nobody will even use the skate features. A lot of skaters are here in Indo right now, going to Deserts and stuff.

Are you going to surf as well?
For sure. I have some things in mind that I want to do. It’s such a good platform for my boards, to be able to bring really fun boards and kind of encourage everyone to try different things.

I’ve already converted Laura and Juliette, so it’s just about letting everyone have a go on the XO boards and feel something different. I’ve already tried my tiny little 4’7 Tryst Fish in the pool, and that thing went psycho. So I’ll definitely have to bring a few for everyone.

It’s going to be a fun three days.
I know. It’s definitely a party as well. We’re inviting friends and family and whoever wants to come hang and watch.

What was it like to design your own signature watch with Swatch?
Super fun. I’ve been with Swatch for 12 years, and that was my third partnership with them. It was almost like a blend of my first two watches that I did with them. This one is more mature, like a perfect mix of the first two. It’s by far my favorite one I’ve done with them.

The last one I did actually ended up being one of their bestsellers for five years straight. So I kind of kept it in the same wheelhouse as that one, but just a 2024 version of it. I was really happy because those were truly my designs and something I came up with — I didn’t just follow the guidelines of what sells the best, and it ended up being a huge staple and a part of Swatch’s forever watches. It really felt like a big accomplishment for me.

It sounds like you’ve got a lot going on right now.
I’m just trying to enjoy the process of still trying to get clips and make edits and then ride and love my boards. I just want to spread the love, I guess. I want to do different things. I’m definitely in that chapter where hosting events feels right, and I’m trying to break the mold and do something new and fresh.

From the outside, it feels like you’ve hit a real purple patch in your career. How do you rank this period alongside your time on the CT? 
I actually feel better now than I did when I was competing. I talk about this with Steph a lot. The difference between her and me is that when I put the jersey on, it always felt so heavy, and I didn’t feel strong. Meanwhile, when she puts the jersey on, she’s like a tiger.

But then we’ll play card games, and I’m a psycho — so competitive, I want to win everything. But with the jersey on, I just felt so heavy.

I’m proud of myself for doing 11 years on tour and building a foundation for this next chapter. This one feels a lot more free, and I think I’m a lot more inspired. But I couldn’t have done it without my time on tour and the knowledge I gained from traveling the world and competing.

It’s all meant to be; those were the right steps for sure. But this chapter feels a lot more free, happy, and fun. I’m still working really hard, and I’m all in right now.