Conner Coffin Just Split With Channel Islands (After 16 Years!) To Ride JS Surfboards

Last week, we posted a photo of an anonymous surfer with shoulder-length hair and a quiver of boards at his (her?) flank. Both he (she?) and the boards were blurred with a digital editing tool. 

Our challenge to you was simple—name this surfer, based on their physical outline and the following criteria, and maybe win a board from the surfer’s newly acquired sponsor, JS Surfboards:

– This surfer had ridden for their previous board sponsor for over a decade. 

– This surfer is switching from one of the top-5 board brands in the world for another of the top-5 board brands in the world (based on global sales figures).

– This surfer shares a hometown (or county, at least) with their original board sponsor, and is changing for a brand from a different continent.

According to Survey Monkey, over 2,700 of you submitted a guess. Judging by the first 100 responses, we can presume that roughly 50% of you guessed correctly. Of that 50%, half of you spelled “Connor’s” name like this.

We’re not narcs, though. We’ll still count it. 

This Monday (US time), we’ll announce which one of you lucky sonsofbitches won a new JS Surfboard. If you guessed correctly in our little quizlet, you have roughly a 1-in-1400 chance of winning, which is better than the lottery but worse than most horse races. 

Have you ever won a horse race?

For the official record, here’s what Conner had to say about his decade-and-a-half partnership with CI [sic]:

Want to say an enormous thank you to @cisurfboardsfor supporting me over the last 16 years. I was fortunate to get my first CI around age 10 through @baresco and then worked my way up to a childhood dream of Al shaping my boards for around 2 years. His ability to transform feedback into board design to help me grow as a surfer was amazing. I clearly remember a few boards that took my surfing to new levels within a few sessions. Then I got to work with @mike_andrews3 who was all time and we gave birth to the Fred rubble and Fred stubble, A board that was borderline life changing for me. Then I had the privelage of working with a long time friend and brother in @mike_walter . As a relatively new shaper mike was fired up and had a nack for the “al rail” that I was looking for since he left. We had a blast working together which led to qualifying for the tour and a year at 7th on the CT. I can’t thank everyone at CI enough from Britt and his family, @scott_aka_ando all the way to @bcword who has worked for the company packing boards and ordering my boards for years. @seanlesh@nathaniel_curran The list goes on and you guys know who you are. It’s been a real pleasure and although it was a hard decision due to so many friendships, I’m very excited for the next chapter in craft.

And about his new board-daddy, Jason Stevenson:

For me, joining JS is really exciting. I’ve always admired the surfing of so many legends who JS has made boards for, from AI to Joel, Jules, Ace, Ryan… the list goes on! I just always felt like their boards looked so precise and glued to their feet. To have the opportunity to work with a shaper who has built boards for world champs and surfers on the tour for years is huge for me. I’m pumped to have the chance to work with JS to further dial my boards in for the tour and grow as a surfer!

As previously noted, there was no direct financial influence in Conner’s move to JS. If anything, Conner left money on the table by splitting from CI, with whom he had multiple board models that gave him a kickback on sales. So for Conner, this move was purely about performance. 

We’ll leave that for you to ponder.